The forest fires in Washington continue to burn, drawing international aid from firefighters and volunteers, including those from the San Juan Islands. Two firefighters from Orcas Island, and six from San Juan Island along with five Red Cross volunteers have joined the effort to contain the fires and help the affected residents.
Red Cross volunteer Allan Smith, 64, from Friday Harbor began Aug. 30 to assist the Colville Shelter, where he is helping people affected by the fires by listening to their stories, supplying food, maintaining shelter supplies, administration and looking after pets.
“There is really no normal day, one always carries one’s gear because you seldom end up where you started,” Smith said in an email. “As the fire behavior changes, one’s day gets re-ordered, even hour to hour. Red Cross days here are officially 12 hours but in reality we work til the work is done, office staff appear to never be unavailable round the clock.”
State of emergency
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a State of Emergency on June 26 and requested a federal Emergency Declaration Aug. 19 for 11 Washington counties, but resources and people have still been strapped due to the sheer magnitude of the fires.
Capt. Noel Monin, 41, of San Juan Island Fire Rescue assisted in firefighting efforts from Aug. 12-28, first at Renner Canyon, and then the Stick Pin fire which was renamed the Kettle Complex as multiple fires merged together.
“We were strained for resources and personnel on all levels,” Monin said. “From top position to bottom positions. It required a lot of flexibility and collaboration with the resources that were there to go above and beyond what was expected.”
Lt. Tad Lean, 47, of San Juan Fire Rescue said that they would ask for more personnel or resources, but were never guaranteed to get them. Lean was also at the Kettle Complex, from Aug. 14-28.
Lean said he would wake up at 4:45 a.m., have breakfast, head to the daily briefing, and then head out to the line around 7 a.m., work on the line until around 7 p.m. and then return to camp. When working out on the line, Lean said the temperatures were high 70s to low 80s, and the smoke and ash hung like a heavy fog.
“We’re firefighters, it’s what we do,” Lean said. “I mean, for some strange reason firefighters like fire, we’re crazy. Everyone runs away from a burning building and we run towards it.”
Rich Harvey and Seth Ybarra of Orcas Island also assisted with the fires. Harvey, 33, is a volunteer firefighter lieutenant of Orcas Island Fire and Rescue. He was at the Okanogan Complex for two weeks working as a timber faller and securing the areas after the initial flame fronts went through.
“The fire itself magnitude-wise was massive — I’ve never been on something that big,” Harvey said. “But how you go about it doesn’t matter if it’s 5 acres or 5000 because everybody has their job and they do it.”
Harvey owns a logging company on the island, and while on the fire would target hazardous trees leftover from the fire and take them out before they were a danger. He also assisted in securing homes, digging the fire out and setting up a perimeter. Harvey said he was generally unfazed by the fires.
“It was a fire and I did what I was there to do and then I came back home. It’s the normal day to day for me,” Harvey said. “The awesomeness of how big this landscape fire was something to think about but it didn’t impact how I went about the job.”
The Okanogan Complex has damaged or destroyed 120 buildings so far, and burned 132,634 acres as of Sept. 11 according to Incident Information System, updated daily by National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
Tragedy hits
Lean and Monin were both in the field when three firefighters were killed near Twisp Aug. 19, and a fourth taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for severe burns.
“The fire service is a big family, so even if you don’t know the people directly, you know people who know them,” Monin said. “Even in the case that it’s a remote incident, in another state or whatever else, it’s still a big impact because everyone in that industry knows what the job is, understands the risk involved, and it could be anybody. Yeah it really, definitely, that day that we heard about it, it was not a good day.”
Smith said that the firefighter’s deaths affected the area that he is working in as well. Though the work was demanding, Monin said there was also difficulty in leaving the fires.
“We want to stay until the job is complete, and a lot of times you don’t get to do that,” Monin said. “All that work that we do, you don’t get to see if it works, did the line hold? Did what we planned and implemented, did it work or was it a problem? There’s a lot of unknowns when you leave a fire.”
There are 11 large fires in Washington burning 889,684 acres as of Sept. 11, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, which gives daily updates. A large fire is defined as a fire more than 100 acres.
Monin and Lean said locals can help by volunteering on the island because more hands here means they can send more professionals out into the field. Monin also wanted to thank the communities and community leaders for assisting firefighters with supplies and resources.
