4A • December 7, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
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Firefighters return with lessons learned
Camp Fire statistics
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Butte County’s Camp Fire was the
most destructive and deadly in Cali-
fornia’s history.
By the fire’s containment on Nov. 25,
Cal Fire reported 85 civilian fatalities
and three firefighter injuries. The
cause of the fire remains under inves-
tigation. A total of 1,065 fire person-
nel responded to the blaze.
On Nov. 29, just under 200 people
were still declared missing, and
search crews are combing the area
looking for remains, slowing the abil-
ity of cleaning crews to enter. Heavy
rains flooded roadways, stranded
vehicles and created the need for
further evacuations.
he fire started Nov. 8, in Butte County
near the northern California city of
Paradise. Before its containment
on Nov. 25, the fire had burned more than
153,000 acres, destroying almost 14,000
residences, 528 commercial buildings and
thousands more damaged.
After a request from California officials
and Oregon Emergency Management, county
strike teams headed south as part of the
emergency management assistance compact, a
national state-to-state mutual aid system.
The Clatsop County strike team, with
members from Gearhart, Seaside, Olney
Walluski, Knappa and Lewis and Clark,
joined teams from throughout the state.
Randolph “Tad” Pedersen, Deputy State
Fire Marshal for the Office of the State Fire
Marshal the county’s team, led by Chief Jeff
Golightly of Lewis and Clark, was one of
15 that received an emergency management
assistance compact request. Between the two
strike teams, 19 county people joined the
team. Two Clatsop County engines joined the
Columbia County Strike Team.
Div. Chief David Rankin, Jenson Segui,
Matt Keefer and Katie Bulletset were
Seaside’s strike team volunteers.
Rankin’s first 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.’”
T
Clatsop County’s
strike team included:
GEARHART: Jordan Chandler, James
Hutchinson, Tanner Rich, Sean Kirby,
Kayla Miller, Angels Vargas and Lind-
sey 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, Jenson Segui
TOTAL FIRE PERSONNEL: 1,065
TOTAL FIRE ENGINES: 73
TOTAL FIRE CREWS: 11
TOTAL HELICOPTERS: 2
TOTAL DOZERS: 3
‘All you saw was black’
Teams were stationed at the fairgrounds in
the nearby city of Chico.
Mornings began with briefings and
division breakouts, Rankin said.
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 be
reigniting” and checked up on homes that
hadn’t burned or had gotten 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 supported big burn-out
operations to help strengthen up the fire 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,” he said.
Firefighters Aaron Smith, 26, and Troy
Foster, 21, both of the Olney Walluski
Fire and Rescue District, were among the
department’s younger members to head out.
Smith, an eight-year volunteer, has fought
wildfires within the state, but wanted to
get experience on a bigger fire, including
technical experience on bulldozers and
hand crews. Smith traveled with the Clatsop
County Strike Team, while Foster was
detailed to one of two Clatsop County engines
assigned to the Columbia County Strike
Team.
He built hand lines, laid hose and
extinguished hot spots within 100 feet of the
road or any area that was unburnt. “We’d flag
it and our strike team would go up the chain
of command.”
“The second to last day there, we were
patrolling a community on Concow Road,”
Smith said, describing a road leading to a
community of 700 in the Sierra Nevada
Foothills. “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.”
With two years experience in Warrenton
SEASIDE FIRE
visit from California’s governor-elect Gavin
Newsom.
Kindergartners presented Oregon
firefighters with a thank-you card.
“The people in Chico were amazing,”
Foster said. “There were signs everywhere.
They were amazingly thankful.”
Jenson Segui (Seaside) patrols the perimeter of a large back burn used to strengthen the fire line.
and about eight months with the Olney
Walluski department, this was Foster’s “first
conflag.”
“I like firefighting and I just wanted to help
people,” he said.
Foster worked with crews in the town of
Paradise, a community of 27,000, where the
fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed
dozens of people. “Our job was to protect
structures, but by the time we got there, there
weren’t many structures left in Paradise.”
Firefighters were “24 on, 24 off,”
constructing direct lines and holding control
lines to mitigate the threat of fire escaping.
Air quality was “poor when we got there,
and it was poor when we left,” he added.
Gearhart firefighters
Gearhart Volunteer Fire Department sent
seven firefighters to California.
James Hutchinson, an intern and student,
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 fire marshal came through,
it “started the motion of things,” Hutchinson
said.
Firefighters were performing a fire
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.
Like firefighters from neighboring
communities, they were divided into the
Columbia County and Clatsop County strike
teams.
Chandler described the fire scene in
Paradise as “massive devastation — that’s all
it was. That town will never be the same.”
Houses were “combusting on their own,”
he was told by Cal Fire responders.
In an observation post, they could watch
as flames threatened the city of Oroville, a
nearby city of 16,000.
Hutchinson and Wolfe worked alongside
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 fire I’ve ever
been on,” he added. “This fire wiped out an
entire town. It was like the opening scene
from ‘Terminator,’ where they pan through
and there was nothing left.”
“Lines of cars burnt in the middle of the
road,” Vargas said. “Roofs were collapsed on
houses. Everything was burnt.”
Firefighters 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.”
Gratitude
Firefighters stayed at the Butte County
Fairgrounds in Chico, alongside newly
displaced residents who had set up “mini-
refugee camps,” Rankin said.
Rankin described tents and cars and tarps,
“like Third World countries popping up in the
middle of town.”
Nights were extremely cold, Miller said,
with temperatures dipping to 22 degrees.
Firefighters slept in tents or yurts at the
fairgrounds, or when on the fire sites — about
35 or 40 miles away — taking 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
Lessons learned
Firefighters recounted learned firefighting
lessons learned.
“Keep your head on a swivel,” Smith said.
“Anything can happen, and what can happen,
will happen.”
Rich said he is a firm believer in Murphy’s
Law. “Anything can go wrong — even
walking around structures, you can slip and
fall. I never get the sense this is safe.”
“One of the things I got taught was never
going thinking everything is OK,” Vargas
said. “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 wildfires,” 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 wildfire, what if you have a fast moving
wildfire moving through town? Those are the
kind of lessons I took. Don’t get complacent
with your regular emergencies, but
contemplate what happens if they get bigger,
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 said his family was getting
accustomed to seeing him leave town every
fire season.
“My family’s used to it,” Rich, who
volunteered at California’s Santa Rosa
and Thomas fires last year, said. “Going to
wildfires has become the new norm. My
brother’s like: ‘Man, you’re gone again.’”
The North Coast is ‘Candyland’ at the holiday season
his morning as I wound my way around
town, I noticed live Christmas trees for
sale in Seaside on the corner of Holladay
and 12th. What’s better than the smell of a live
tree? The trees reminded me Santa Claus is
coming and it’s time to think of gifts, both to
give and to receive.
After decades of gift giving, I’ve decided you
can’t go wrong with gift certificates or sweets.
In an effort to help readers find the best sweets,
for months I’ve been doing research, eating
my way through bags of fudge, caramels, salt
water taffy, and almond bark. Two amazing
handmade candy companies are located right
here in Candyland, er, Seaside. We always send
my father-in-law in Michigan candied ginger
which they make at Bruce’s Candy Kitchen
located in the Seaside Outlet Mall. If you require
shipping, contact their Cannon Beach store. I
love Phillips Candies located on Broadway in
T
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
the heart of town. I’m partial to their candied
grapefruit slices and their fudge. Schwietert’s is
pretty amazing too. If you are a fudge lover, try
the sampler, also available at the very sweetly
stocked Sweet Shop in Gearhart.
Possibly the most conversation-starting
stocking stuffer can be found at By The Way in
Gearhart where they appear to be the exclusive
retailer of Gearhart Elk Poop. It’s not poop. It’s
a chocolate, nut and toffee confection shaped
into, uh, pellets. They are ridiculously tasty. It’s
hard not to gulp down the whole bag despite the
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name. This is a perfect gift to shock your Gear-
hart friends who either love or hate the elk.
I’m all about gift certificates. Seaside
Massage and Spa is offering gift certificates for
all their services including couples massage,
custom facials, and the full monty of waxing
menus. Ladies, surprise your sweetheart with
a French bikini wax; gentleman, surprise your
significant other with a chest or back wax. Or
just get that clump of hair out of your ears.
Seriously. Stop in to purchase a gift certificate
at their location at 810 Broadway in Seaside,
or book a soothing appointment for yourself at
bookseasidemassage.com.
Deborah Albrecht is considered by many,
including other massage professionals, to be
one of the most intuitive and gifted massage
therapists in the area. Serving the north coast
since 1998, she says it’s her pleasure to help
people get more comfortable. Call 541-507-
7780 to book an appointment or inquire about
gift certificates.
Acupuncture is a great way to ease pain and
reduce stress; in years past I’ve made it a point
to get acupuncture a few weeks in advance of
Christmas just to help me deal with stress. I’ve
learned that even if you don’t put up a tree or
make the Christmas dinner, the holiday, while
joyful, has a lot of moving parts. Moving parts
give me a migraine.
If you feel the same way, treat yourself to
a session with Katherine Stewart who works
with kids, pregnant women, adults, and people
like me, i.e. journalists suffering from sciatica.
She recently moved locations in Seaside from
Holladay Drive to 600 Broadway, Suite 8. Book
your next day appointment online at ancient-
healthandhealing.com.
Now about that live Christmas tree.
Hurry to get one while they last.
Seaside Signal
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