PAGE5A4,5KEIZERTIMES,5JANUARY55,52018
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Keizer Fire back from California
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
If 10 years ago someone had
told Mike Jensen that he would
one day drive a fi re truck near-
ly 1,000 miles to California to
help with a wildfi re, he would
have said they were crazy.
But that’s exactly where
Jensen and three other Keizer
fi refi ghters, Bill Herring, Matt
Dryden and Aaron Pitts, found
themselves on Dec. 8, assisting
with what would become the
largest wildfi re in the state’s
history.
The Thomas Fire began on
December 4 at 6:28 p.m. to
the north of Santa Paula, Calif.,
near Steckel Park and Thom-
as Aquinas College, 70 miles
northwest of Los Angeles.
That evening, the small
brush fi re exploded in size,
thanks to 60 mile per hour
Santa Ana winds, and raced
through the rugged mountain
terrain.
KFD, as part of a Marion
County task force that also in-
cluded fi refi ghters from Silver-
ton, Salem and Woodburn, left
for California on Dec. 5.
By the time they arrived
to the Ventura County Fair-
grounds on the morning of
Dec. 7, the fi re had grown to
more than 115,000 acres.
“Where we stayed at in the
Ventura County Fairgrounds,
because it’s right there in the
heart of town, you can literally
see on the hillside where the
fi re had burned down and into
the edge of the town,” Jensen
said. “It was pretty incredible.
It’s not something we typically
see in Oregon where it gets so
close to a big city like that.”
Their fi rst day of work,
which mostly included pro-
tecting homes and schools in
the Ojai Valley by patrolling
the area, putting out hot spots
and clearing any dry brush that
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could catch fi re, was Dec. 8.
“There was a lot of be-
ing there in case the fi re came
close to people’s homes to try
to prevent it,” Herring said.
The crew worked 24 hours
on and then 24 hours off. But
their off time was mostly spent
cleaning equipment, eating
and sleeping.
“Cal fi re is really good at
wild land fi refi ghting where
we’re primarily structure fi re-
fi ghters so we’re really good at
that,” Jensen said. “They basi-
cally utilize where your strong
points are.”
Herring said any photos
taken of the fi re, which by Dec.
19, when the Oregon State
Fire Mobilization Strike Teams
began departing, had grown
to more than 270,000 acres,
didn’t do it justice.
“Until you’re up close and
actually see it, the magnitude
of it, the fi re is impressive in a
photo but until you see the size
of the area and how far it had
to travel and the total destruc-
tion in front of you, the photos
don’t sum it up,” Herring said.
Jensen won’t forget the
sound.
“One morning the fi re had
crested the ridge and then had
burned through an area, we
were a quarter mile or half a
mile away and it was just in-
credibly loud,” Jensen said. “It
was like a freight train moving
through.”
Jensen and Herring were
impressed by the multi-million
Submitted
Keizer5Firefi5ghters5Aaron5Pitts,5Bill5Herring,5Matt5Dryden5and5Mike5Jensen5spent5two5weeks5in5December5protecting5homes5in5
Southern5California5from5the5Thomas5Fire.5
dollar homes they were pro-
tecting.
“It’s like all of the homes
that you see on HGTV but
you never in your lifetime get
to visit them,” Jensen said.
“One of the last days, we
sat at a house for instructional
protection and they had an in-
fi nity pull overlooking a cliff
and you could see right into
the ocean,” Herring said.
The people were also
thankful.
“The residents of California
were super grateful and super
friendly,” Herring said. “It was
cool to see that. Random peo-
ple would come by camp and
offer treats or clean socks, little
things you take for granted.”
As of Jan. 3, the Thomas Fire
had burned 281,893 acres but
was 92 percent contained. It
had destroyed 1,063 structures
and damaged 280.
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