A4
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
‘Everything just gone’
T
he Camp Fire started Nov. 8, in
Butte County near the northern
California city of Paradise. Before
its containment on Nov. 25, the confl a-
gration had burned more than 153,000
acres, destroyed almost 14,000 resi-
dences and 528 commercial buildings,
and damaged thousands more.
County strike teams from around
Oregon headed south as part of the
emergency management assistance com-
pact, a national state-to-state mutual aid
system.
The Clatsop County strike team, led
by Chief Jeff Golightly of Lewis and
Clark, included 19 vol-
unteers from Gearhart,
Seaside, Olney Wal-
luski, Knappa and Lewis
and Clark. Two Clatsop
County engines joined
the Columbia County
Strike Team.
R.J.
Seaside Division
MARX
Chief David Rankin’s
fi rst impression was
of “the wide scale of destruction,” he
said. “The amount of buildings, trees,
vehicles — everything just gone. You
thought: ‘Wow, this could have been
anybody you know trying to get out of
this inferno.’”
THE CAMP FIRE
Butte County’s Camp Fire was the most
destructive and deadly in California’s
history.
By the fi re’s containment on Nov. 25,
Cal Fire reported 85 civilian fatalities
and three fi refi ghter injuries. The cause
remains under investigation. A total of
1,065 fi re personnel responded.
On Nov. 29, just under 200 people
were still declared missing, and search
crews are combing the area looking for
remains, slowing the ability of cleaning
crews to enter. Heavy rains fl ooded
roadways, stranded vehicles and creat-
ed the need for further evacuations.
Clatsop County’s strike team included:
Gearhart: Jordan Chandler, James
Hutchinson, Tanner Rich, Sean Kirby,
Kayla Miller, Angels Vargas and Lindsey
Wolfe.
Knappa: Amy Lenz, Scott Whelden
Lewis and Clark: Jeff Golightly, Flint
Helisgo, Brett Saulsbury
Olney Walluski: Troy Foster, Aaron
Smith, Ron Tyson
Seaside: Katie Bulletset, Matt Keefer,
David Rankin and Jenson Segui.
‘All you saw was black’
Rankin’s assignment was outside of
Paradise, along the road to Concow, a
small community of 700 in the Sierra
Foothills. Patrols looked for areas that
might reignite and checked up on homes
that hadn’t burned or suffered damage.
“Later in the week we transitioned to
structure assessment, going into areas
that had been burned and looked for
what was necessary to clean up or put
out hot spots,” Rankin said. “We sup-
ported big burn-out operations to help
strengthen up the fi re line.”
Air quality was terrible, Rankin said,
smoky throughout the whole valley.
“The only way to get around it was to go
onto the mountaintops.”
Firefi ghters Aaron Smith, 26, and
Troy Foster, 21, both of the Olney Wal-
luski Fire and Rescue District, were
among the department’s younger mem-
bers to head out. Smith traveled with the
Clatsop County team, while Foster and
his engine were detailed to the Columbia
County team.
Smith, an eight-year volunteer, has
fought wildfi res within the state, but
wanted to get experience on a bigger
fi re, including technical experience on
bulldozers and hand crews.
He built hand lines, laid hose and
extinguished hot spots within 100 feet of
the road or any area that was unburnt.
“The second to last day there, we
were patrolling a community on Con-
cow Road,” Smith said. “We reached the
end of the road as far we could go, and
it was basically bare land. All you saw
was black. There were no trees standing,
no grass. Most of the houses we came on
were completely gone.”
Foster has two years experience in
Warrenton and about eight months with
the Olney Walluski department, but this
was his fi rst major confl agration.
“I like fi refi ghting and I just wanted
to help people,” he said.
He worked with crews in the town
of Paradise, a community of 27,000,
where the fi re destroyed thousands of
homes and killed dozens of people. They
worked 24-hour shifts, constructing
direct lines and holding control lines to
mitigate the threat of fi re escaping.
“Our job was to protect structures, but
by the time we got there, there weren’t
many structures left in Paradise,” Fos-
ter said.
Air quality was “poor when we got
there, and it was poor when we left,” he
added.
Gearhart fi refi ghters
The Gearhart Volunteer Fire
Department sent seven fi refi ghters to
California.
James Hutchinson, an intern and stu-
dent, along with Jordan Chandler, who
works with the Oregon Department of
Forestry, were joined by Tanner Rich,
Sean Kirby, Angels Vargas, Kayla Miller
and Lindsey Wolfe.
When the state fi re marshal came
through, it “started the motion of
things,” Hutchinson said.
Firefi ghters were performing a fi re
prevention demonstration at Gearhart
Elementary School when Chief Bill
Eddy said two Gearhart engines were
requested.
Volunteers responded within the hour,
meeting at the staging area in Seaside.
Gratitude
Seaside Fire
Jenson Segui of Seaside patrols the perimeter of a large back burn used to
strengthen the fi re line.
Firefi ghters stayed at the Butte
County Fairgrounds in Chico, alongside
newly displaced residents who had set
up “mini-refugee camps,” Rankin said.
Tents and cars and tarps looked “like
Third World countries popping up in
the middle of town.”
Nights were extremely cold, Miller
said, with temperatures dipping to 22
degrees.
Firefi ghters slept in tents or yurts at
the fairgrounds, or when on the fi re sites
— about 35 or 40 miles away — tak-
ing breaks in the engine, back seat or
the stairwell of the engine to get “power
naps to keep you going,” Rich said.
Foster said he and his team received
a visit from California’s governor-elect
Gavin Newsom.
Kindergartners presented Oregon
fi refi ghters with a thank-you card.
“The people in Chico were amaz-
ing,” Foster said. “There were signs
everywhere. They were amazingly
thankful.”
Lessons learned
Seaside Fire and Rescue
Members of the Clatsop County strike team.
Seaside Fire
Seaside Fire
Brent Saulsbury (Lewis and Clark) and
Scott Wheldon take the time to rehab
their chainsaws during a break.
Lindsey Wolfe and James Hutchinson
(Gearhart) on a dozer line keeping an
eye on any fl are-ups.
Like fi refi ghters from neighboring
communities, they were divided into the
Columbia County and Clatsop County
strike teams.
Chandler described the fi re scene
in Paradise as “massive devastation —
that’s all it was. That town will never be
the same.”
In an observation post, they could
watch as fl ames threatened the city of
Oroville, a nearby city of 16,000.
Hutchinson and Wolfe worked along-
side bulldozers before heading into
neighborhoods in Paradise, where 90
percent of the structures were burned
down.
Chandler said his objective was to
make sure that any residents left were
evacuated, and to “do anything we could
to save structures.”
With live wires in the roadways, it
was “like Russian roulette,” Rich said.
“It was a ghost town when we rolled in.”
“I think that was the worst fi re I’ve
ever been on,” he added. “This fi re wiped
out an entire town. It was like the open-
ing scene from ‘Terminator,’ where they
pan through and there was nothing left.”
Vargas said “Lines of cars burnt in the
middle of the road. Roofs were collapsed
on houses. Everything was burnt.”
Firefi ghters participated in structure
preparedness, yard work removing pine
needles and other debris, and preserving
remaining structures.
“I don’t think any training prepares
you for this,” Vargas said. “It’s not what
you’re trained to see.”
Firefi ghters recounted fi refi ghting
lessons learned.
“Keep your head on a swivel,” Smith
said. “Anything can happen, and what
can happen, will happen.”
Rich said he is a fi rm believer in
Murphy’s Law. “Anything can go
wrong — even walking around struc-
tures, you can slip and fall. I never get
the sense this is safe.
Vargas said “one of the things I got
taught was never going thinking every-
thing is OK. Weather can change within
seconds, and you don’t know when
that’s going to happen. You have to be
on your guard constantly.”
The Camp Fire reminded Rankin
to always anticipate what can happen
when incidents get compounded.
“The lessons don’t just necessarily
pertain to wildfi res,” Rankin said. “If
you had a gas line explosion at a house,
what if that was a gas line explosion at a
hotel? If you have a little wildfi re, what
if you have a fast moving wildfi re mov-
ing through town? Those are the kind
of lessons I took. Don’t get complacent
with your regular emergencies, but con-
template what happens if they get big-
ger, past what you’re normally used to.”
Meanwhile, the 10 days away and
long shifts gave way to a Thanksgiving
weekend with families, and on Nov. 25,
news that the Camp Fire had been fully
contained.
“A lot of us have seen fatalities and
we’ve seen the devastation before,”
Chandler said. “But none of us have
seen what we saw down in Paradise. It’s
on a much larger scale than anything
we’ve dealt with here.”
Rich’s family is getting accustomed
to seeing him leave town every fi re sea-
son — he volunteered at California’s
Santa Rosa and Thomas fi res last year,
he said.
“Going to wildfi res has become the
new norm,” he said. “My brother’s like:
‘Man, you’re gone again.’”
R.J. Marx covers South County for
The Daily Astorian and is editor of
the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
Gazette.