Oregon Firefighters Injured and forced to deploy emergency fire shelters

Oregon Live/ AP ^ | 25 July 2002 | Jeff Barnard

[Grampa Dave]

Firefighters forced to deploy emergency shelters

By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 7/25/02 11:36 AM

BEND, Ore. (AP) -- Flames overran a 20-person crew battling Oregon's biggest wildfire, forcing them to deploy their emergency shelters. Eleven firefighters were treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation and released from a hospital here.

They returned to fire camp at 3 a.m. Thursday, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Fire Coordination Center.

The firefighters were members of a contract crew known as Ferguson 53 from somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, hired by the U.S. Forest Service to fight the Tool Box and Winter fires, which have burned together to cover more than 108,000 acres of sagebrush and timber in south central Oregon since they were ignited by lightning nearly two weeks ago, the Forest Service said.

The crew was fighting spot fires on the northern tip of the Winter Fire in Fremont National Forest timber near Picture Rock Pass, not far from Oregon Highway 31, said Marc Rounsaville, deputy area commander for the U.S. Forest Service.

Ten minutes after the firefighters took shelter, a contract helicopter pilot making water drops began losing power and made an emergency landing in front of the fire line, Rounsaville said. The pilot walked away uninjured, but the helicopter remained on the ground, a fire line and fire retardant protecting it from the advance of the fire.

Rounsaville said there appeared to be no obvious breakdown in procedures or communications that would account for the need of the firefighters to resort to what is generally regarded as a last-ditch survival tactic, but an interagency investigation team has been dispatched to evaluate the case.

"It is serious," he said.

At St. Charles Medical Center, crew members declined to be interviewed.

The firefighters would not work on Thursday, and would undergo special crisis debriefing, Rounsaville said.

Rounsaville said a division supervisor had just checked the crew at about 4 p.m., when the main fire made a run at the line. The firefighters shook out the silvery foil shelters each carries in a pack on his belt and crawled inside, laying face flat on the bare dirt of the fire line.

"The fire spotted across the line, then ran back at them from the opposite side," he said. "They moved their shelters a couple of times, maybe as many as three times. They weren't in the shelters a very long time. A division supervisor let them out and brought them to camp."

The Tool Box Fire remained 40 percent contained late Wednesday.

A total of 15 major fires, all started by lightning, were burning across 211,000 acres of Oregon, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Two air tankers and two heavy helicopters fought Wednesday to stop a lightning-sparked fire burning through scraggly, beetle-infested stands in the Deschutes National Forest about 15 miles west of Sisters. The fire prompted the voluntary evacuation of a church camp.

The 48 campers and 12 adults at the United Methodist Camp at Suttle Lake took shelter at a nearby church, said Geneva Cook, registrar for the United Methodist Conference of Oregon and Idaho.

"It was just a little too close for comfort," she said. "Everyone is fine ... but it is smoky and we are busy keeping the parents up-to-date."

Though just six miles west of the Black Butte Ranch and 2½ miles south of Oregon Highway 20, the fire posed no immediate threat to the golf resort and subdivision, said Jinny Pitman, Sisters Ranger District spokeswoman.

Adjoining the Tool Box Fire, the Winter Fire burned over 34,000 acres outside the town of Paisley, where this weekend's Mosquito Festival had to be postponed because the town has turned into a fire camp. The Winter fire was 45 percent contained

Four miles north of Maupin, a center of whitewater rafting and fishing on the Deschutes River, the White River Fire burned about 100 acres and high winds prompted the evacuation of the White River Campground, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Two more fires were burning Thursday morning, including the Skunk Fire about 17 miles from Chiloquin and the 300-acre Swamp Creek Fire in the Diamond Craters Natural Research Area near the south-central town of Diamond.

[EBUCK]

You poor folks in Kali have even more restrictions that we do. If it gets going down there you'll be in real trouble!Buy a sticker, or two, and send your political whores a message. We know who is responsible and we won't let them get away with it!

EBUCK

[EBUCK]

No, no, on second thought, we don't want the wifees thinking we can get things done in timely fashion or it will become expected behaviour.

EBUCK

[Species8472]

"To imagine the terror. You have a fire rushing towards you. You break out your fire emergency shelter which is really a big aluming hot dog wrapper, you are the hot dog."

Been there, done that got the scars to prove it. Started my career in the fire service 30 years ago as a wildland firefighter. Going to the shelters is something the average joe cannot even imagine.

I cannot help thinking about the 4 firefighters that died last year in the "30 mile fire" in Washington state when the fire managers were prevented from utilizing a nearby water source because of ESA concerns.

[Grampa Dave]

You posted two chilling comments based on your life experiences:

1. Been there, done that got the scars to prove it. Started my career in the fire service 30 years ago as a wildland firefighter. Going to the shelters is something the average joe cannot even imagine.

2. I cannot help thinking about the 4 firefighters that died last year in the "30 mile fire" in Washington state when the fire managers were prevented from utilizing a nearby water source because of ESA concerns.

The parents or grand parents of those 4 kids should have taken those fire managers and the enviralists who set up that mass murder of 4 innocents and administered some justice.

When parents and Grandparents say that saying sorry is not enough for liberal agendas killing my children/grandchildren. We will see a tidal wave change in the dangerous behavior of the left wingers who prefer us to die for their plants and critters!

[Species8472]

A little background on the "30 mile fire" Fatalities:

According to the timeline, the first team of firefighters had contained what came to be known as the "30-mile fire" by the very early morning and requested a helicopter water drop at 5:30 a.m. However, they were told one would not be available until 10 a.m.

At 9 a.m., the hot shot crew was replaced with a young, inexperienced "mop-up" crew expecting helicopter relief to arrive within the hour. When the mop-up crew inquired about the missing helicopter just after noon, the dispatch office told the crew field boss that helicopters could not be used in the area because the Chewuch River contained endangered fish.

It took several hours to gain permission to use water out of the Chewuch River. The first load of helicopter water was dumped on the then out of control fire around 3 p.m. An hour later, air tankers had to be turned back and the ground crew fled on foot to an area near the river where they deployed their survival shelters. The crew was completely surrounded by the flames with no avenue for escape.

The four firefighters suffered horribly as they slowly burned to death in their shelters, the survivors were severely burned as well.

The ESA is the policy distillation of liberal emotion, liberal enforcement, and economic practice. It is the perfect reflection of liberal self-loathing, totalitarianism, and categorical economics. It demands that people come last, by any means, and always. The Endangered Species Act should be repealed, sunseted and a stake driven through it’s heart.

[cake_crumb]

"No, no, on second thought, we don't want the wifees thinking we can get things done in timely fashion or it will become expected behaviour."

LOL...ok....I won't make any "performance anxiety" jokes.

[ElkGroveDan]

Yeah I drove down to Bakersfield yesterday and smoke from those Sequoia fires was hanging all over the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.

(Then I drove back home again after my meeting -- gotta stop doing that. Gas station coffee after 10pm will give you a nasty hangover the next day.)

[EBUCK]

And no one was held responsible for their deaths I suppose. Because no one can be held responsible in a leaderless system of lawmaking.

EBUCK

[cake_crumb]

"I cannot help thinking about the 4 firefighters that died last year in the "30 mile fire" in Washington state when the fire managers were prevented from utilizing a nearby water source because of ESA concerns"

I thought of that as I was reading how this crew was saved by their shelters, while the helicopter they were expecting to drop water never came (at least it wasn't the fault of some stupid EPA reg this time, at least)...and I broke out in goosebumps. The Washington crew sheltered under Reynold's wrap, too.

Hubby was also a fireghter...sometimes he talks about trees exploding like shrapnel grenades, and flashovers, and injuries....it's chilling. I have a lot of respect for what firefighters have to go through to fight wildfires.

[f.Christian]

Nice... pic!

[B4Ranch]

Both of you boys left out the praying that goes on when the fire is burning 360 around you. That's when the atheists start believing. Kinda like night combat.

[AuntB]

Ah, Gramps, it's just awful here today, smoke so thick you can't see the foothills. Last night about 7:00 pm, about 20 miles away I saw a huge "cloud" rising in the sky to the north. It was of course, smoke from a fire that had just exploded. It looked like an "end of the world" nuclear cloud.

[AuntB]

I'm so glad I didn't see those posts. I fear I would have lost it. So, that's the best the enviro freaks can come up with for destroying the oldest living thing on earth? Sorry SOB's. :<)

[RightWhale]

A person might take a moment to contact his personal deity or perhaps begin planning what to do for the rest of his life in the unlikely event he survives the inferno. So says Joe Smokejumper.

[cake_crumb]

I know how you feel. I have a tendency to lose it when I do see them. Actually, I tend to go ballistic. I had a moron on another thread earlier tell me that fires are so necessary for sequoia cones to open up, because he saw it on TELEVISION.

I gave him two links for proof, and recommended that he not depend on television so much for information.

Besides, if he WERE right, which he isn't, ARSON IS BAD!! PERIOD!! UNCONTROLLABLE BRUSH FED WILDFIRES ARE BAD. PERIOD!!

...err...sorry. I just have a 'thing' about people like that.

[Grampa Dave]

Actually I mentioned the good Lord first in my reply.

In a forest fire situation like this, any type of combat on the land in the sea or the air, there aren't too many athesists running around telling the rest of us not to pray.

Thank you, Lord for enabling these young men to save themselves.

[Grampa Dave]

The good Oregonians should sue Andy Kerr, the elite of the ONRC, Club Sierra, Greenpeace, the Guardians of the Forest and Dirt First for polluting the air you are breathing due to their agendas.

You need about 10,000 vehicles in Medford driving around with Ebuck's bumper stickers on the front and back bumpers.

These enviral POS's are the terrorists of rural America!

[Grampa Dave]

I knew that the pink panty wearing florist service leader refused to allow the helicopter to pick up water from that creek because of the possibility of ESA fish in the creek.

Also, I knew about the inexperience that they had as newbies on the scene.

Your story makes me even more angered at these enviral scumbags who have endangered forestry people, fire fighters and all of us who live in the west.

Thanks for sharing this gruesome reality of how envirals can kill any of us via their ESA agendas that put humans at risk when it comes to critters.

Here is your reality of what the Envirals can do to us, repeated for all to read it:

---

To: Grampa Dave

A little background on the "30 mile fire" Fatalities:

According to the timeline, the first team of firefighters had contained what came to be known as the "30-mile fire" by the very early morning and requested a helicopter water drop at 5:30 a.m. However, they were told one would not be available until 10 a.m.

At 9 a.m., the hot shot crew was replaced with a young, inexperienced "mop-up" crew expecting helicopter relief to arrive within the hour. When the mop-up crew inquired about the missing helicopter just after noon, the dispatch office told the crew field boss that helicopters could not be used in the area because the Chewuch River contained endangered fish.

It took several hours to gain permission to use water out of the Chewuch River. The first load of helicopter water was dumped on the then out of control fire around 3 p.m. An hour later, air tankers had to be turned back and the ground crew fled on foot to an area near the river where they deployed their survival shelters. The crew was completely surrounded by the flames with no avenue for escape.

The four firefighters suffered horribly as they slowly burned to death in their shelters, the survivors were severely burned as well.

The ESA is the policy distillation of liberal emotion, liberal enforcement, and economic practice. It is the perfect reflection of liberal self-loathing, totalitarianism, and categorical economics. It demands that people come last, by any means, and always. The Endangered Species Act should be repealed, sunseted and a stake driven through it’s heart.

---

Thanks, Species, for this grim and gruesome look at how Envirals can kill Americans with their agendas. Those 20 firefighters yesterday were lucky.

[nimc]

Grampa, That's what we called the 'Shake-N-Bake'...(gallows hurmor)We were trained that it was the very last option.

3 Steps:

1. Open pack, shake open foil bag
2.Step in.
3. Lay down, close bag tight, and pray.

[Grampa Dave]

In 1956/57, we wet our clothes and panchos with water, laid down and pulled the panchos over us. Praying was not an option. Fortunately, I never had to due this procedure except in training.

It is very scary. I would like to put every enviral into one of these shake, bake and pray foil packs and see how they feel about creating tinder boxes out of our forests to make them Druid Cathedrals.