Firefighters feel heat in Sunnyside meeting on Dry Creek blaze

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.

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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.

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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.