1.Okay, thank you for being here Brian. I just want to let you know this meeting will be shared publicly with the Talent Historical Society. So, let's get started. Were you on call when the fire started?
2. I was not on duty but in the summertime any off-duty firefighter can come help with any bigger event. So, that day, I was off duty but went to help because it was clearly a big fire.
1. Yeah, for sure. Did you think the fire was going to spread like it did or did you think that people that were on call were going to get it put out quickly?
2.Good Question. In the summer, most of the grass fires we have, if we go help, if there's plenty of folks available, then usually, it's taken care of in a relatively small area and timeframe. If we have a fire bigger than an acre, that's kind of a bigger deal and obviously takes more time and people to put out. When I first went down there, I figured it was a grassfire that, you know, I'd be home within a couple of hours, as per usual, in the summertime. It became obvious, pretty early on, that that wasn't the case due to the wind quickly spreading it.
1.So, other than the wind and the dryness, what other factors, that many people don't know about, can cause a fire to spread into strain ways?
2.Well, there maybe a few other minor reasons are contributors how fire spreads but wind is probably the biggest. Also, low humidity, like the dryness. Even now, fire season was declared in mid-May because the fuels have low moisture. The State Department of Forestry measures the fuel moisture and that's what determines what fire danger level we're at right now. Fuels are pretty dry but temperatures aren't that extreme, yet, although they're supposed to be 100 degrees. So, as temperatures go up and the fuels drought further then the fire danger will go up. So, dryness, heat, low humidity and wind are all contributors for red flag warnings. These are days where the Weather Service basically warns the public and fire departments that any fire that starts is likely to grow quickly. And that was the case on September 8
1. I know we're not getting any water for sprinklers or anything yet, so everything's so dry around here.
2.Yeah, my ground’s cracking, I mean it was cracking two weeks ago, and it's crazy for me. I mean, everything looks so dry.
1. Yeah. So, what happened to the water pressure for the fire hydrants and how did it affect you guys filling up the tanks in your truck?
2. Great question. That became, for me personally, and the crews I was in charge of…that became a big issue. Later in the day on the 8th I phoned the Phoenix public works director and asked about the hydrants in Phoenix because I got complaints from crews that it was taking more than 20 minutes to fill a fire engine. Normally, that takes less than five minutes to fill. And so, crews were fighting fires, then they had to leave the scenes to go fill up with water and return with that kind of delay. Obviously, that allows fires to grow more quickly. He told me that during the power outage, they're running on backup generators to run the pump, and they were at full capacity, He said Phoenix and Talent were running at full capacity on the backup generator and it wasn't enough. Later, as we talked about it, he said, yeah, you know, with each home that's burning or burned down, broken water pipes are leaking water throughout both towns. On top of the water that all the fire engines were using. So, it just tapped the reservoirs basically.
1.So, what was the craziest thing you witnessed working on the fire?
2.A normal house fire will have four engines. Battalion Chief, on a first response. So, the call comes in as a structure fire or a potential structure fire. We'll get that many vehicles and that many people. On September 8th, in the first 10 hours, I think 900 structures were burning in our area, so you can imagine how thinly we were spread. I think the toughest part for me was having crews engage in a particular spot, like trying to put out fires in one spot and making little headway but looking down when two fires away were starting to grow. That was the hardest part. I remember pulling into a mobile home park, and there were three fires in there. Each one of them was working on a different house that was on fire, just a little bit, you know how a small fire kind of has incipient stages of a house fire but within minutes...
The amber shower in the air and the winds blowing embers around, there were probably 20 structures on fire and so they had to retreat and pull out of there. One way in, one way out of the park, single fires are hard enough for one crew, which is typically either two or three people, but 20 is just impossible. Especially with that mass amount of fuel load, fire potential and actual fire spread.
1.Wow. So, how many hours did you work straight on the fire?
2.I showed up about noon, the fire slowly started around 11. I dropped my son off to his driver's test at Phoenix high at 11, and went straight to the station. My gear is in the Phoenix station. When I arrived there to get it there were no vehicles in the station. That that was a clue to me that it had grown and it was big. So, I grabbed my gear and drove to Talent Fire Station. When I got there, there were only two vehicles left, one is a ladder truck that wasn't in service yet and a battalion Chiefs rig. So, I got in that vehicle and started to take some direction from the instant commander, like where I should be. We were assigned down to South Valley View near Ashland, I was actually assigned some engines to manage about noon and then my regular shift was supposed to start the next day for 48 hours. So, I ended up putting in about 68 hours straight, without sleep. That was challenging. We were exhausted in more ways than just physically and emotionally. It was a lot.
1.For my last question, I have to ask you these three things. What would you rather use at your department. First, drive the back foot ladder truck, second, have fire pole or third use the Dalmatian dog?
2.I do like heights, so a lot for each option. I have to go with the Dalmatian. I think it'd be fun having a station pet. Yeah, that's a good question.
1.Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here. It's been a great interview, I got some great things, and it’s cool hearing a firefighter’s point of view.
2.Yeah, you're welcome. I’ve got to hand it to law enforcement because they dealt with the evacuation side of it. Considering the destruction that you see every day, you and I see when we drive through our community, it's amazing that they were able to evacuate as many people as they did. I know it was chaos for most people trying to evacuate but I think our death toll could have been a lot higher. Yeah, if it weren't for law enforcement work.
1.Well you guys did a great job too and we thank you so much for working that many hours straight and saving many lives and homes.
2.We did what we could but with that wind. If the wind was a light breeze that day it would have been a one-acre grass fire and wouldn't even make it in the newspaper. Here with those high winds, it just pushed that fire right through our communities.
1.Thank you for being here Brian.
2.Yeah, you're welcome, take care man,
1.You too. I will talk to you later then.
