RSSFirefighters feel heat in Sunnyside meeting on Dry Creek blaze
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SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- Firefighters told one man with a water tank he couldn't proceed to his restaurant to protect it from approaching flames. It burned down.
No one stopped a man who drove down a smoke-covered highway, where he ran off the road and died of what was believed to be a heart attack.
Lawmakers heard these stories and others from angry residents complaining about contradictory orders, lack of action and jurisdictional concerns they blame for allowing two Aug. 20 lightning strike fires to grow into the destructive 49,000-acre wildland fire last August.
"If you're not going to fight (the fire), get the hell out of there and let us," said Paul Tilley, who lives near the intersections of State Routes 24 and 241, part of an area blackened by the Dry Creek fire complex that burned down the Silver Dollar Café and a state highway bridge.
Residents unloaded on firefighters who they said refused to help build fire lines because they weren't authorized but then denied people access to do it themselves.
"Hope you got thick skins," state Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, told the dozen or so uniformed fire officials in the room.
Firefighters did not dispute many of the complaints, but they described a large, rapidly changing range fire complicated by spotty radio communication and jurisdictional problems.
All told, about 100 people attended the meeting at Snipes Mountain Brewery and Restaurant.
Lawmakers wanted to hear about fires in "no man's land," areas so remote they're not part of a tax-supported protection district. Firefighters from neighboring districts often do not respond to these areas for fear of liability .
After the meeting, the lawmakers said they plan to introduce new legislation in 2010 to allow -- perhaps even require -- equipped firefighters fight fires wherever they can.
State Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, called it a "duty to serve" law.
While the meeting was convened by 15th District legislators, it attracted lawmakers from across Central Washington and one from as far as Longview.
Legislators at the meeting included Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee; Rep. Dean Takko, D-Longview; Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima; Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima; and Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake.
In spite of the venting, lawmakers tried to steer the direction toward suggestions rather than blame.
"Everybody is a Monday morning quarterback on everything a firefighter does," Chandler said.
******
Resident Darlene Dahlin gave one of the saddest testimonies.
She lives near the intersection of the two highways and had invited a longtime family friend, George Calkin Jr. of Molalla, Ore., to spend the weekend.
However, they grew frightened as the fire grew on the second day and decided to move her fifth wheel out of harm's way, she said.
They talked about visiting the nearby Silver Dollar, but she changed her mind when she saw how thick the smoke was.
She instead headed toward Sunnyside in her truck. Calkin, following in her fifth wheel, evidently didn't see her and headed west on State Route 24 toward Yakima.
Later that evening, he was found dead in the fifth wheel, which had veered off the road into a pasture. She said he died of a heart attack.
"Why he was allowed to go up that highway ... I'll never know," she said.
By state law, firefighters may stop traffic on a road if they decide it's too dangerous. Firefighters, however, say they weren't at a location at that time to stop traffic from entering SR 24. At some point, however, traffic was barred from the highway.
Rick Lounsbury, owner of the Silver Dollar told lawmakers he had left his restaurant to help a neighbor and returned with a truck carrying 3,000 gallons of water. A firefighter told him the road was too dangerous and wouldn't let him through.
While pointing his finger and raising his voice, Benton REA General Manager Chuck Dawsey rallied for "Good Samaritan" laws that allow firefighters to fight fires anywhere as an ethical issue.
"It is time for us to do the right thing," Dawsey said.
Dawsey said the rural electric cooperative lost 16 power poles while firefighters watched from their trucks. The Bonneville Power Administration also lost about 12 poles, said Allan Call, a substation operator.
******
Bob Gear, the Pasco fire chief who served as an operations commander during the Dry Creek fire, listened patiently and answered questions, but said in an interview afterward that more laws won't solve anything.
People in "no man's land" should simply form their own tax-supported district, annex into a neighboring district or contract with a fire agency, he said.
"Why have (residents pay for) fire protection in some places but not others, but everybody gets help?" he said in an interview following the meeting.
Gear expressed sympathy for Calkin and the Lounsburys, but said he does not keep tabs on everything individual firefighters say and do.
Crews had been battling dozens of lightning fires all through the previous night, and conditions changed rapidly over the course of an hour. Radios and cellular phones sometimes didn't work in the rugged canyons and hillsides.
The fire surprised everybody, he said.
"I had things going everywhere," he said. "Next thing we know, the whole place is on fire."
Mike Harris, fire chief of Benton County Fire District 1, showed pictures of the fires and of firefighters helping move propane tanks away from the Silver Dollar, trying to dispel the notion that they simply watched. Firefighters had been eating at the restaurant when it caught fire.
While the restaurant was being used as a staging ground, firefighters were not in a position to fight the fire, they said. Many did not have radios. The only equipment in the parking lot was a fuel truck and private vehicles, Harris said. All the firefighting trucks were in the hills.
The fire that destroyed the Silver Dollar was not part of the two fires they had been fighting. He still doesn't know where it started, he said.
"It hit so hard, so fast, it caught them off guard," he said.
He said he did not mind the criticism, though, and thought the meeting helped.
"I learn from it," he said.
* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.
This is a sad thing that happened. If I were Pasco I would fire Bob Gear on the spot for his comment. This man should maybe start worrying about people instaed of the almighty dollar and the laws. At times laws are to be broken when it saves lives and personal things. I am so saddened that these fore fighters do not use their own brains. Unfortunately many of these full time firefighters are union members and cannot use their own minds or judgement. I cannot in my right mind seeing people just standing there and watching a building burn down because it is not in a taxing district. Bob Gear, you should go bury your head and the city of Pasco; you need to find you a fire chief with a heart !
Report Violationit was bound to happen. That dry terrain. The fact that cell phones don't even work in that area, the jurisdictional quandry, and the fact it spread so fast....all of these things and probably more didnt help. Why not let people protect their own homes? Every home up there should be required to have access to a resorvoir or have water available and plant landscaping that is a natural fire line. It's like living in Florida during hurricane season, you take risks living in a no fire protection zone, surrounded by dry brush.
Report ViolationAs a taxpayer, I object strenuously to allowing or requiring fire protection that I pay for going to protect someone else's property who doesn't pay taxes. Sounds pretty @#$% socialist to me, at my expense. firefighters don't fight those fires not out of fears of liability, but because they're hired to protect the property owners that pay them. If people in no-man's land want fire protection, they can form a fire district and pay taxes like everyone else. Don't try to use my taxes to give them some kind of fire welfare.
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Will, if they are using your resources or ignoring the fire at your home, I agree. If they are just in a position to do the right thing and help out, they should be allowed to help. I'd have been glad to help if I were able and I'd hope that these poor folk would have been glad to help me in return.
not paying taxes and expecting them to do something is kind of like an oximoron. they werent asked to come out there by the people that have property there. but they were there. if your going to be in the way of people protecting themselves and their property, then jump in and help or dont be there. thats all that is being asked
Report ViolationThere is a different perspective to this story that is not being reported by the Yakima Herald Republic. Everyone is reacting to emotions and the fact that they are in “no man’s land” with no fire protection from an organized fire protection district. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has land land in that area and their adjacent neighbors; US Fish and Wildlife and Department of Energy have an interest in protecting their land as well. The fire resources that were on the scene were working for BLM as they had jurisdiction for fire suppression. Firefighters, volunteer, career or seasonal don’t watch fires. They fight fires on their terms, not Mother Nature’s. When she is at work and it’s hot, dry and the afternoon winds come up. If you confront her and take her head on she will win every time, and somebody gets hurt or killed! Sometimes you have to stay out of her way till the opportunity presents its self to slow her down or stop her. And in this fire fight at the Dry Creek Complex, nobody is mentioning the 12 homes saved by firefighters along the ridge west of SR 241 and Ceilo Vista Lane. We forget about those people in all the emotions of this story, I certainly haven’t!
Report ViolationLook, if these forefighter were out of their jurisdiction and there is no fire district. Then stay the heck out and let the people save their dwellings. I did notice the houses saved were owned by wealthier people than the restarant that was burnt. I know for a fact that the neighbor would have had heart to save that structure. They are all good people around there. But when outsiders get involved, people mean nothing to them. This is exactly what happened. I personally think being there was no fire district, then these fire fighters should be held accountable for the restarant burning to the ground. They had no right being there. And I am almost positive that if the fire fighhters put the fire out and billed the insurance company or owner. They would have been paid. It would not bother me to see the Pasco's chief fired. THis man is a low life that should be removed from his position. I hope for his soul he does not go to church. Because if so, it is for show and the same with the firement that watched that structure burn to the ground. Now if any of these firemen have any heart, they would start a fund to help this man rebuild his place or else start a work week and get it built for him. These firemen should be ashamed of themselves to worry about lines.
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