08-01-07 (Happy birthday Joel!) As many of you know, Idaho is now leading the nation in wildfires! Over the past couple of months, I have been responding to such fires on nearly every shift. There are a few reasons that the Sheriff's Office responds. Most of all to make sure that people are safe but also to investigate the cause. A lot of the fires are caused by lightening but unfortunalety there are people out there who enjoy watching the world burn.
As mobile patrol units, we are able to respond more quickly than the fire departments (most of the time) and are able to provide intel on the fire's location or size so that the fire department has a heads up as to personnel and equipment needed to battle the blaze.
Last week, I was working a swing shift, 15:00-23:00 (3:00 PM-11:00PM). Toward the end of my shift, I could see a brilliant display of natures fury working it's way over the mountain from the East. A lightening storm like I haven't seen in quite some time. I parked very close to home and watched as the lightening struck over and over in an area over 10 miles wide. The lightening was striking all over Howard Mountain where we already had a substantial fire this season.
I knew that there would be a fire on this night and the direction it was coming, it was going to be close to home. With my windows down and lights off, I watched the light show and listened to the thunder as it rolled and rumbled up and down the valley. I could smell the distinctive aroma of ripe wheat, reminding me of grain harvest with my dad. I expected at any moment to see the strike that would start the inevitable. Knowing that I could see for miles from my location, I just knew that at any moment, I would be giving the fire department a very early report on a possibly large fire.
I was parked right at the edge of a large ripe grain field which is bordered by another ripe grain field and another. To the South, acres and acres of dry weeds and sagebrush well into the foothills and up the mountains toward Michaud Creek and Trail Creek.
The end of my shift came without a fire. I guess I was wrong. I briefed the deputy who came on duty next to replace me and told him that the lightening was touching down in the area and to be ready.
I drove home and checked out of service. (11:00 PM) I went inside, and checked on the kids, all alseep. I talked to Trudi as I changed out of my unifrom and then I went downstairs to remove my big toenail. Just as I started digging in at it and making pretty decent progress, the phone rang. "Yell ow?" (When I answer the phone I like to make it sound like I'm saying yellow) It was the dispatcher (11:26 PM). "Hey Jared, Mark just wanted me to check on you and make sure that you guys are ok." "Yep, I'm doing pretty well, why? Wassup?" "Uh... the fire." "What fire?" "go look out the window!" "Aight".
So I looked outside to see a bright orange glow in the sky. I couldn't see how close it actually was yet but I could see that Paul's (my father-in-law) house was backlit. It appeared that the fire was right on his house. It was so eerily silent with this near daylight glow in the middle of the night.
I ran back inside and put my jeans and boots on, ran out to my truck, and drove back to where I had been sitting watching the lightening. There was still lightening, but I hardly noticed it now. The fire was sweeping across the ripe grainfield and it was making good time directly toward my home and the other 6 homes which include Trudi's parents, her grandparents, her brother, to sets of aunts and uncles, and her cousin and his wife and kids.
I called Trudi and told her to get the kids up and wait by the phone, that she may have to leave in a moment, that I needed to watch for minute to see what the fire was actually doing. I tried to call her parents, the line was busy. This both frustrated me and relieved me. It frustrated me because I wanted that contact, to know that they knew, but it relieved me because they are very scheduled and I knew that if the line was busy, they aren't alseep and they must know.
I tried to call Trudi's brother, Eric, no answer. I hoped that meant he was busy talking to Paul or others and that the hillside was waking up and getting ready to move out.
I could see that there were two center pivots (irrigation thingies for you city types) that were on my side of the fire. I called the farmer who lives 45 or so miles away and asked him what I could do to turn the water on to the center pivots in hopes of at least protecting that expensive equipment from the blaze. He said that they had been completely shut down for grain harvest so I would have to go to the centers and then down to the canal to the pump. I told him nevermind, the fire will be through there by then and to try to get some sleep. :( I could hear the grain popping and the wind that the fire generated as it roared toward me. The fire was burning so hot that it was hard to see where the highest point of the flames actually were. It was as if the entire sky was burning.
I could see fire trucks responding but not coming up the actual road to where I was. Fires can be very deceiving in their size and location, especially at night. That coupled with the fact that a lot of the area that was burning to the South, has little to no access roads I decided to drive out to Arbon Valley Highway to show them the way back in to the fire, at least the part that I was watching as it had already spread a few miles in each direction.
As I sped toward the firemen, I called Trudi again and told her that she needed to leave right now. I told her to drive as fast as she could and get to the Bannock Peak Truck Stop parking lot and wait until she saw me again. (11:30) Just 4 minutes had passed from the time that I recieved the call to this point, every minute seemed like an hour.
As I drove the 1 1/2 miles out to where the fire trucks were passing by, I tried the phone calls again to Paul and Eric, still not getting through. At any given time, I could yell out my front door and every family member would be able to hear me, and yet I just realized that I don't know any other phone numbers on the hill. We are "walk to each other's house people", not "call on the phone people." It really started to bother me that I hadn't made contact with anyone else. What if they really were still asleep? Was I doing everything right? Was I being efficient?
The emergency radios were flooded with traffic between the numerous fire agencies including Power County Fire, Chubbuck Fire, Fort Hall Fire, Inkom Fire and other agencies responding as well as Power County Sheriff's Office, Fort Hall Police, and Idaho State Police. I stopped a fire truck and told them in person how to get back to where I was and the unknown status of the occupants of my in-law's homes as well as the neigbors further up the road. He said that if I kept my emergency lights on so that he could see me, he would follow me in as soon as a couple more trucks caught up so they could follow as well.
I turned around and sped toward the blaze, toward home. What I saw made me sick to my stomach. The fire had advanced at such a hightened rate that there was no way through. I called the house to tell Trudi not to come through after all, no answer! She had already left and doesn't have a cell phone (I KEEP TELLING HER THAT I WANT HER TO GET A CELL PHONE!) It sickened me to know that she would trust my orders 100% that I would NOT tell her to drive through if it was dangerous. And now that the danger had become extreme, I couldn't update her, I didn't even know if she was ok! Were my wife and three kids trapped halfway through?
The flames were almost to the road but the smoke was like a brick wall. A brick wall that I drove right into. As I did, I was instantly blinded by the glare of my lights against the smoke, like driving through a blizzard. This was no winter wonderland. I turned all of my lights off hoping that I wouldn't crash into her or drive into the canal, or get crashed into from the responding firetrucks. I could see a little better but was afraid that she wouldn't see me so I turned my emergency lights back on.
Suddenly, there she was! Driving right beside me in the opposite direction She looked so worried as I made eye contact with her. She rolled her window down and all I could do was yell, "GO GO GO!" They made it! What a relief. But I still didn't know about the others.
I knew that I had to pass back through but I also knew that I couldn't pass through, what a feeling! I felt like I was barely moving as I blindly drove on. I could feel the heat through the glass and I had filled the cab with smoke to yell at Trudi to drive on through. I couldn't see the front of my pickup. Flames started to cross in front of me and behind me with embers landing on the hood. I knew that I was so close to the canal which has a 15 foot drop off before hitting the water. I also knew that I was close to power poles that may well be engulfed at this point. Then I felt the bumping and jarring as I ran off the road. I hit the breaks and immediately stopped since I had slowed to a near stand still anyway.
It started setting in that I may have just found the end of the line. There have been a few times in my life when I had reached this same realization that this just may be it for me. (since you're reading this, it may be obvious but I'll tell you anyway, I made it through every time, sorry to ruin the surprise) I remember thinking of the men who just lost their lives in a fire in Utah and wondered if they were feeling the same emotions that I was. My strongest emotion and feeling at that point was that I messed up, and that I failed. We are constantly trained that we can't save others if we can't first save ourselves. In the back of my mind I have always thought that sounded selfish, but now I understood. How brave and smart is it to get yourself killed right here right now, you're not saving any lives or homes now! This is just great!
As my breathing was getting me less and less oxygen and I could not see anything but fire in every direction, I grabbed the microphone to my police radio to alert others that I might possibly check out. I remember telling myself not to do so in a panic. I calmed my nerves to prepare myself for my final call for assistance. In doing so, I guess my thinking cleared as well. I realized that to my left were acres of green grass, the sod field. I didn't know my exact location but this is home to me and I know it very well. I visualized my surroundings, turned left about 90 degrees and accelerated. As I turned, I spun out a bit in the dirt and gravel before hitting the paved portion of the road, I hoped that I had caught it in time and that I was truly driving 90 degrees to the road. A little more left would put me into power poles and a canal, a little more right would have put me into a wheel line (irrigation thingy to you city types).
I must admit that for a brief moment, I had to ask myself what I was thinking as I had accellerated to 70 miles per hour and couldn't see out the windsheild. That was kind of a rush all by itself. I remember thinking that at any moment I should outrun the smoke and that I should see lights from the airport, the moment that thought passed through my mind, I outran the thick smoke and could see the lights to the airport. I could only think to say one thing and I said it out loud, not loud, but out loud. I looked around for a minute, saw that I was driving on a dryer part of the sod field where I was doing little to no damage at all (I later checked, no damage at all) and I said outloud, "sweet".
I took a couple of deep breaths of contaminated air and gathered myself for about 3 seconds. Then I called again, Jeannie answered and said that eveyone on the hill knew and that they were getting out. I told her where Trudi and the kids were and that they couldn't do the same but that they should go to the middle of the North Central sod field. She told me that she couldn't get a hold of Sorrels up the road so I was on my way.
I was glad that I chose not to mention on the radio that I had gotten myself in trouble, It would have distracted the entire operation and it's my job to make things run smoother, quicker, and more efficiently, not to interfere with tasks at hand so that they can squirt water on me.
Between the canal, the green grass, and the paved road, the fire lost a lot of it's force and energy in my direction and started to let up just a bit. On my second attempt, I cruised right through. I say that now but it was still something that ya probably shouldn't try. I made good time to Sorrel's house with flames lashing out at me most of the way. They were all outside and quite aware of the situation. From this new view point, I could see that the fire had become a large ring burning for miles in every direction. The winds would shift and help move it one direction giving certain areas a false sense of relief, then it would shift again and accelerate the burning right back the way it had just come.
It was now about 11:45, I was relieved to know that all of my family were in safe locations but then I saw Eric, my brother-in-law and Jerome Clinger, my cousin driving toward the fire in tractors pulling discs to make fire breaks. Tractors are slow and cumbersome and I couldn't help but think that the advantages may not outweigh the risks here.
I then lost contact with my fellow deputy, Mark. I called him several times on the radio without an answer. I asked dispatch how long it had been since she heard from him. She said that it had been about 10 to 15 minutes. I thought of how much trouble I was in in a matter of 30 seconds and kept trying until finally I reached him on his cell phone. He was on Michaud Creek Rd trying to evacuate more homes and was away from his radio. As I thought about how un-nerving it was for me not knowing the welfare of one of my buddies, I realized what Trudi must be going through sitting out at the truck stop watching floods of emergency vehicles and news crews driving down the now closed to public roadway. She would be able to see the fire very well and not know the status of a single member of her family outside of the three little ones.
I blasted through the flames again, they were getting smaller and smaller as the night went on and it actually was a little bit fun, I guess, a little, for a second or two, maybe. I drove past the staging area and Incident Command and made it out to the truck stop which had become a quite popular spectator location. As I pulled in, people were rushing to me from all parts of the parking lot, "Jared, what started it?" "Jared, did your house burn down?" "Jared can we get any closer?" "Hey officer, is anybody hurt?" I heard them but I don't remember responding, I do remember wondering how they all knew my name, I didn't recognize anybody. I just sort of zoned them out and went straight to my wife and kids. They all looked pretty nervous, unlike the look of excitement and curiousity of all the others who were enjoying the show.
All four started crying when they saw me, I guess a release of tension. I told Trudi that she wouldn't get through the road blocks in the Monte Carlo and that I wasn't going to make her drive through all of that again. I told her that I figured she would want to be closer to home with her family and guess what, I was right, AGAIN! I felt brilliant on that one!
I drove them home and out to where her family was. Paul was all over the place, making sure that every sprinkler was on, everybody was out of the houses, and keeping tabs on Eric out on the tractor.
Paul and I laid out some handlines (irrigation thingies to you city types) and hoped that the lightening didn't light us up in the process. That's the first time that I ever laid out a handline in the middle of the night, during a lightening storm and both of us carrying more than one section at a time as we laid this thing out through trees and over terraces and hillsides. I told Paul that I would be mad if this all burns since I spent all of the prior week tearing down my old house and it could have burned down this week!
Back to Jerome Clinger, I'm sure it was Jerome because it was his tractor and I saw his pickup parked out in a field where the tractor had been earlier. I watched him discing away as the fire approached him. I thought that it was getting too close and that he was getting into trouble, I kept waiting for him to pull away (he was parallel to the fire line). Just as he reached the end of the fire line, I was relieved for him and watched for him to continue down the hill and into safety. NOPE! That guy turned right around and headed straight back for another pass. Jerome lives miles away and this wasn't his field or his property. He was doing this for us, and for the neighbors. I'll never forget it. It was one of those things that night that lasted 15 seconds but is tattoed on my memory forever.
Paul and I saw as one of the Power County fire trucks squirted the last of it's water. They drove down to the canal to draw more into their truck and were surprised to see how far down below the ground level that the water surface actually is in this area. The trucks wouldn't be able to refill without driving back to town, 12 miles either direction. Paul and I set them up with a system to refill off the mainline (the water source for those irrigation thingies for you city types).
At this time, I started feeling very light headed and realized that I was struggling for air. It wasn't much unlike the time I was hospitalized for pneumonia. (Jason Bohrer instisted that it was actually pnuemonoultramicroscopicsilicovalconoconiosis, but it wasn't.)
I drank 4 bottles of water and headed out to the Incident Command and staging area. The firemen and ambulance crew took good care of me as they treated me for smoke inhalation, I won't forget them either. (2:00 AM)
As I'm sitting in the ambulance huffing 100% oxygen, they told me that another person was suffering the same symptoms and was going to be joining me in the ambulance. "hello Eric!" I only say "yellow" on the phone. It was my brother-in-law and he wasn't looking so well. We got a little chatty about everything that had gone on and we both kept taking our oxygen masks off to talk, our stats would drop and the ambulance personnel would give us dirty looks so we shut up for a while. Eric had made a large fire break and was able to save several horses that would have otherwise succombed to the fire.
4:00 AM, Paul and Eric brought out a spray rig for spraying weeds and started spraying weeds. (They sure do care about the quality of their sod out here I'm telling you!) They filled the spray rig with water and began hitting hot spots in some of the sage brush right along the property line. I was able to put the four bottled waters I drank earlier to good use on one of the sagebrush!
5:07 AM it started raining! Did I ever mention how much I love the rain? I LOVE RAIN! I don't care what's going on, it's better if it's raining. Maybe it would be hard to make flour tortillas outside in the rain but I don't know that for sure.
I saw a group of Chubbuck firemen staged out by the mainline and I wandered my tired heiny over to them, slight exageration, I drove most of the way. I thanked them for saving our homes and all the cool stuff that they get underpaid to do and I made a couple of smart remarks to one of them, a buddy of mine who was recently involved in a vigilante posse style aprehension of a campsite burglarizing little turd but that's a whole different story.
6:00 AM Probably one of the most refreshing and black boogered showers that I can remember.
6:30 AM SLEEP!
7:00 AM phone calls start coming in to see if I heard about the fire last night! :)