January 12, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 3A
A RETURN FROM CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
Camaraderie made
deployment special
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
When Tanner Rich joined the
Gearhart Volunteer Fire Department
as a part of his Pacifica Project senior
year of high school, he never expected
he would help fight the largest fire in
California history.
Rich, 19, a Seaside native, was de-
ployed to the Thomas Fire in Ventu-
ra County, which burned 440 square
miles and destroyed more than 1,000
structures.
His previous experience consisted
of structure fires, medical calls and
helping with the occasional car wreck.
So naturally, he was filled with equal
parts uncertainty and excitement.
“It was pure shock. Wow — I’ve
never seen something like that be-
fore. I grew up in Seaside,” Rich said.
“Taking in all the burnt houses, seeing
people coming back to find their hous-
es was a very somber moment.”
Rich was one of the dozen firefight-
ers sent from Clatsop County to fight
a variety of fires blazing in Southern
California earlier this month. The
majority of the task force’s time was
spent at the Thomas Fire, which has
burned more than 280,000 acres and
killed one California firefighter.
Fire Chief Ron Tyson of the Ol-
ney Walluski Fire & Rescue District,
Amy Lenz, Dallas Ritchie and Justin
Perdew of the Knappa Fire District,
Brandin Smith and Flint Helligso of
the Lewis & Clark Fire Department,
Tanner Rich and Angels Perez of the
Gearhart Volunteer Fire Department,
Chris Dugan, Lt. Genesee Dennis and
firefighter Katie Bulletset of the Sea-
side Fire Department, and Cannon
Beach Fire Chief Matt Benedict all
returned home safely Dec. 20 in time
for Christmas.
This is the third time Clatsop
County firefighters have been sent this
year to combat blazes outside of their
jurisdiction — an anomaly for the re-
gion. The next most active summer
GEARHART VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
Above, A dozen firefighters from Clatsop County were
sent to Ventura County, California to fight growing
wildfires. Left, Firefighters work to put out a blaze
burning homes early Dec. 5 in Ventura, California.
Authorities said the fire grew wildly after breaking out,
consuming vegetation that hasn’t burned in decades.
RYAN CULLOM/VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT VIA AP
was in 2015. Personnel were sent out
only sparingly before then.
“If we’re getting called out all the
way out here, I thought, how bad is it
down there?” Rich said. “But I was
excited to have an opportunity to
help.”
‘We were all one’
While on the scene, Clatsop Coun-
ty firefighters were tasked with pro-
tecting homes, putting out hot spots
and building fire lines to prevent the
inferno from swallowing some of the
ritziest neighborhoods near Los Ange-
les. Crew members trimmed back fo-
liage and set sprinklers around houses
to beat back growing flames.
Olney Fire Chief Tyson has been
in the business of battling blazes in
Oregon since 1986, and has seen
a number of wildland fire deploy-
ments. But firefighting in Southern
California, where rain hasn’t fallen
since last February, brought unique
challenges.
“When we went to Sisters, you
could tell they built homes with fire
safety in mind. They had backup en-
ergy in case the power went out to
run the sprinklers, they didn’t have
stuff growing up by the house,” Ty-
son said. “But (in California), the
yards are full of dry brush litter for
mulch, and plants were growing right
up by the house. It made our jobs
harder, for sure.”
What also made this deployment
special was the camaraderie of the
group, Tyson said. The crew worked
24-hour shifts, judiciously monitor-
ing perimeters and putting out hot
spots before they evolved into flames.
The days were long and tiring, with
members taking turns napping in the
fire engines. The news of a California
firefighter losing his life in the same
fire they were fighting dampened ev-
eryone’s spirit.
But the bond they formed was in-
valuable to get through.
“If you are going to get deployed
with anyone, this is the group to get.
We had so much fun, but we took it
real serious, too,” he said.
Gearhart volunteer Garcia said the
bond crews build is one of her favorite
aspects of being deployed on larger
fires.
“People were encouraging each
other, taking care of each other. What
I love is that we were all one — not
just firefighters from Gearhart, Sea-
side, Lewis and Clark, et cetera. Those
hardworking days and nights, because
of the attitude, didn’t seem as hard.”
Feeling the gratitude
Garcia started firefighting five
years ago at Columbia River Fire De-
partment, and just this year served on
three task forces to different Oregon
and California fires.
“I just wanted to be apart of some-
thing and make a difference. That’s
how I started,” Garcia said.
But what has kept her going five
years later — even with the long,
cold nights of patrol and the feeling
of missing her four children back at
home — is the feeling the gratitude
of the people she protects, she said.
“It’s hard to put it into words. It’s
different than on TV,” Garcia said.
“You feel the heat of the flames, you
feel the worry of these people, but
you also feel the gratitude.”
Signs championing firefighters
and encouraging messages from
locals and family were some ways
they felt that gratitude, said Dugan,
Seaside’s fire division chief.
But one homeowner, still dili-
gently moving his sprinkler around
his property day in and day out after
everyone had evacuated, stood out.
“He said he was a blue-collar
guy, not like the rest of the multimil-
lion-dollar homes that were around
him. He was an electrician with a
small avocado grove behind their
house, and we were assigned to pro-
tecting his home,” Dugan said. “He
told us this is all he had — he spent
his whole life getting it. He was so
grateful when we told him we were
going to give him a break from pro-
tecting it.”
Piece of the puzzle
In the abstract, knowing he was
fighting a fire that easily could be
the equivalent of the distance to
Astoria from Seaside was daunting,
Dugan said. But in the day-to-day
tedium of tasks, sometimes that awe
is lost in translation.
“I was talking to someone on
the crew who felt like in the mid-
dle of it we weren’t doing a whole
lot. We weren’t on the front lines,”
Dugan said. “But the Thomas fire
is a 10,000-piece puzzle. Maybe
we were just one piece, a blue sky
piece, but without it the whole puz-
zle doesn’t work. That’s what we
did.”
There’s a lot to learn from this
year’s deployments, both Dugan
and Tyson said. While local depart-
ments hold semi-regular wildland
fire trainings, experiences like this
can only prepare local forces better
for events in their own backyard.
“Most of these areas hadn’t seen
fires for 80, 100 years,” Tyson said.
“The lesson is don’t get complacent
just because we haven’t had a fire
like this. Because they hadn’t ei-
ther.”
Adding more firefighters ‘is smart’ Boone to retire
Boone from Page 1A
Levy from Page 1A
Last year, the fire district
applied for two Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
grants to fill the two firefighter
paramedic positions, but did
not receive the award due to
reporting errors made by pre-
vious administrations. While
the district plans to apply for
the two grants again, funding
the positions through a levy
would be more reliable, Ben-
edict said.
“With the grant process we
cannot rely on the funding in
the future,” he said. “The levy
would be more permanent as
it would be for five years and
hopefully supported by the
voters to continue in the fu-
ture.”
If the board approves, one
firefighter position would also
be in charge of recruitment
and retention, while the other
would take on fire inspections.
“We can survive right now,
but with more and more tour-
ists coming in, we need more
extra personnel,” Benedict
said.
A different kind of call
Part of what is driving the
need, Benedict said, is the
growing number of medical
calls. The fire chief estimates
80 percent of the 380 calls
Cannon Beach Fire and Res-
cue responds to each year are
medical.
The majority of emergency
service calls come from north
Clatsop County, so in Cannon
Beach it is not uncommon for
an ambulance to take 15 to 40
minutes to arrive, Benedict
said. In one case, he recalls
waiting 45 minutes before an
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Cannon Beach Fire Chief Matt Benedict makes the rounds
of the garage doing routine maintenance and checking gear.
ambulance could treat some-
one with dangerously low
blood pressure.
Medix Operational Manag-
er Duane Mullins said there is
always at least one ambulance
stationed in Seaside and As-
toria. While he considers re-
sponse times over 10 minutes
to be the minority, the reality
is the farther calls are from
those nodes the longer the re-
sponse time.
“Someone living in Elsie is
not going to get the same re-
sponse than someone in Sea-
side living across the street
from McDonald’s,” Mullins
said. “I think trying to add a
couple more people is smart.
Fire departments don’t re-
spond to fires anymore; they
respond to medical calls.”
But with Benedict as the
only paramedic on staff and
volunteer firefighters having
varying degrees of emergen-
cy medical technician certi-
fications, this can leave first
responders without advanced
life support for minutes in a
field where seconds count.
“Bringing on two firefight-
er paramedics on alternating
12-hour shifts would mean we
could have someone with the
right skills respond no matter
what,” Benedict said. “You
just can’t predict when you
are going to be responding to
these kinds of calls.”
Recruitment and
retention
Like many fire departments
across the country, recruit-
ing and retaining volunteers
is a challenge. The number
of volunteers has been slow-
ly declining over a number
of years, from about 30 to
18 who respond on a regular
basis. It’s a problem reflect-
ed in Cannon Beach’s citizen
survey, where positive ratings
for fire services dropped by 5
percent from last year.
Benedict attributes vol-
unteer retention issues to the
heightened training required
by the state that can demand
more time. The lack of afford-
able housing in Cannon Beach
also makes it hard to find vol-
unteers who can afford to live
in the district they serve.
To address the challenges,
the recruitment and retention
specialist would figure out
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to solve the problem. The spe-
cialist would explore different
community partnerships in the
hopes of expanding the pro-
gram.
With residents juggling the
bond passed in 2016 to pay for
the new Seaside school cam-
pus, as well as a levy to pay
for a firetruck, Benedict said
he is exploring other funding
options to limit the cost to tax-
payers.
The fire district is also dis-
cussing whether to ask the city
to raise the lodging tax as sup-
plemental funding.
“A majority of our respons-
es are for individuals that do
not pay property tax and are
from out of town,” Benedict
said.
If the board doesn’t support
the higher levy, the original
fire chief levy, which would
just pay for the chief’s salary
and expenses, would be back
on the ballot. It’s enough to
operate with for now, Bene-
dict said. But eventually, he
believes these needs will have
to be addressed.
“What price do you put on
a life?” Benedict said. “On
a $100,000 house, you are
paying $35 a year. That’s not
much for an insurance plan.”
State Sen. Betsy Johnson,
D-Scappoose, praised Boone
for her focus on coastal con-
stituents and issues.
“She has been the quint-
essential citizen legislator,”
Johnson said.
New hopefuls
Tim Josi, a Democrat who
served in the state House
from 1991 to 1998, an-
nounced Tuesday he would
not seek re-election to the Til-
lamook County Commission
and would instead run for
Boone’s seat. He has been on
the county commission since
1999.
“If elected, I would hit the
ground running,” Josi said in
a news release. “Fortunately,
I know the legislative process
very well through almost 30
years of experience. I also
have a solid understanding of
the issues and problems that
we face at the local, regional,
state and national levels. Most
importantly, I have learned
how to work collaboratively
with both Democrats and Re-
publicans to forge solutions
that fit our needs and move us
in a positive direction.”
Boone, a longtime staffer
in Salem, previously worked
under Josi. He was also en-
couraged to run for the Legis-
lature again by Johnson, who
called him “an excellent pub-
lic servant.”
Brian Halvorsen, a com-
munity organizer who found-
ed North Coast Progressives
last year, filed as an inde-
pendent in September. On
his campaign site, Halvors-
en took aim at the two-party
system and Boone’s history.
He struck a populist tone,
listing among his campaign
priorities lowering income in-
equality, increasing taxes on
corporations and the wealthy,
ending the use of fossil fuels
in Oregon, reforming cam-
paign financing and making
education affordable.
Doug Thompson, chair-
man of the Clatsop County
Democratic Central Com-
mittee, said he hopes for con-
tested primary and general
elections and sees no favorite
to replace Boone. Jim Hoff-
man, chairman of the Clat-
sop County Republican Party
Central Committee, said the
party is still figuring out who
will run, and might know
next month.
The filing deadline is
March 6.
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