Meeting will review fire response in 'no man's land'

SUNNYSIDE -- Could firefighters have done more to prevent this summer's Dry Creek fire from burning down a rural landmark, power line poles and a highway bridge?

Fifteenth District lawmakers want to know.

State Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, and Reps. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, and David Taylor, R-Moxee, have scheduled a public meeting Nov. 23 to hear all sides of the story involving the Dry Creek blaze and ideas for fighting fires in the state's most remote areas.

"The experience with the Dry Creek fire ... demonstrated pretty graphically the ambiguities, I guess I'd call them," said Chandler. "I don't know what the solution is."

The meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. at Snipes Mountain Brewery and Restaurant, 905 Yakima Valley Highway.

At issue is "no man's land," areas that lie outside of tax-supported fire districts. Neighbor-ing agencies usually don't leave their boundaries to fight fires in these areas for liability reasons.

On Aug. 20, lightning sparked a 49,000-acre blaze near the intersection of State Routes 24 and 241 north of Sunnyside. The flames destroyed a bridge on SR 241 and the landmark Silver Dollar Café.

The fire started in no man's land while neighboring districts were busy with flames in their own boundaries. The area includes a patchwork of land under federal, state and private ownership.

The fire prompted many questions and complaints about how the blaze was managed and fought.

"I think we need to get to the bottom of this," Honeyford said.

Silver Dollar owners told the Yakima Herald-Republic in August that firefighters ate lunch in their restaurant shortly before flames consumed it.

The owners, Rick and Martha Lounsbury of Terrace Heights, declined comment for this story but said they plan to attend the upcoming meeting. They have applied for Yakima County permits to rebuild.

Others say property owners tried to fight the fire with their own water trucks but firefighters denied them access.

Benton Rural Electric Association general manager Chuck Dawsey has some of the most stern criticism.

Dawsey said his agency lost 16 power poles, at a cost of $30,000 to $40,000, while firefighters watched from their trucks.

He said his own crews wanted to attack the flames but firefighters would not allow them through. The REA sometimes uses a 1-ton pickup with a water tank for protecting poles and equipment from fires.

Some of those crew members will be at the Nov. 23 meeting, Dawsey said.

He added that because of the downed poles, about four homes on private wells lost power, leaving them without electricity for their pumps.

Dawsey calls it an ethical issue: If you can help somebody, you should -- regardless of liability or jurisdiction, he said.

"My cause is to find a way to allow people ... to do the right thing," he said.

Brian Vogel, chief of the Lower Valley Fire District 5, said ethics are irrelevant in no man's land.

"Unfortunately, ethics and morals don't keep you out of court when something goes wrong," Vogel said.

His firefighters owe their allegiance to the residents paying taxes in their district. He likens fighting somebody else's fire to mowing a neighbor's yard.

He also disagreed with the notion that firefighters should fight whatever fire they see. Many wildland firefighters aren't trained in fighting structure fires, and fire is never predictable. Fighters have been killed protecting power poles, "as simple as it sounds," he said.

He said people who live in no man's land chose the risk that comes with it.

"The farther out you get from civilization, the farther out you get from those services that civilization provides," he said.

He suggested one solution: Allow the state to contract with local departments to fight fires in no man's land.

Paul Perz, the state's assistant fire marshal, said all big fires prompt questions.

"There will always be the question of what was fire service's role or responsibility in this," he said.

Perz urged residents of remote areas to form their own fire districts.

Several hundred property owners at Rimrock Lake on White Pass did that in this month's general election when they voted in favor of creating the first new fire district in Yakima County in three decades. The 200 or so full-time residents and 300 seasonal residents will pay $1 per $1,000 of property value toward the district, which will contract with the nearby Naches Fire District for fire and ambulance service.

The legislators hope more than finger-pointing come out the meeting.

"What we do know is that we got an issue and we need to figure out how to address it," said Taylor.

They envision something like the state's Good Samaritan law, which shields doctors and emergency medical workers from liability if they try to help somebody.

Taylor understands the fire officials' perspective, too, he said.

If firefighters died fighting a fire outside their jurisdiction, he said, "then we'd be second guessing that now."

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.

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