Local firefighters join statewide response

Firefighters from the District 4 Fire Department have been working around the state on wild land fires, including the recent PC Complex fire in Woodland and another fire in Spokane. They're home now, and they're on standby, awaiting another call out.

"We go as part of Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue strike team," Keith Leavitt said. Leavitt, a college student from Utah, is spending his third summer here with extended family.

A strike team is made up of six trucks, with two or three people per truck. Resources and people are hard to come by, and, according to Leavitt, District 4 Fire Chief Jim Wilson and volunteer firefighter and tender driver, Bim McCoy, almost every strike team was created out of more than one company.

Most recently, Leavitt and McCoy, as part of the Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue strike team, spent last week on the Colvin Creek fire near Woodland.

"We left on Monday morning at 5 a.m. and got home about noon on Friday," Leavitt said.

Their team worked nights. Base camp was set up about several miles away in Castle Rock and shifts lasted 14 to 15 hours including the travel time to and from Woodland.

"It was a huge camp," McCoy said. "Well put together. We had 230 people working on the Colvin Creek Fire. They put on a lot of food, with prisoners cooking. They provide about 6,000 calories a day because that's about how much firefighters burn up in a day."

A large fan was set up in a darkened gym where the exhausted firefighters would sleep after eating and a quick shower.

Earlier this summer, Leavitt worked on the wildland fire in Spokane.

"There were 17 structures threatened in that fire," Leavitt said. "We were assigned to structure protection, so we cleaned up around the houses, eliminated fuels, and made sure the grass was wetted down."

He was also assigned to work fire patrol from Kalama to Chehalis and from Mossyrock to White Pass this summer. The team would drive up and down the highway, checking on campsites. They alerted campers to a burn ban that had just been issued by the Department of Natural Resources and as Wilson explained, "they roved, much like a deputy on patrol, just trying to have resources all over in case something did pop up."

Fighting wildland fires is tough work, and not only must firefighters be certified, but they must be fit.

"It's hot and dusty and not a lot of fun," McCoy said.

"The terrain is usually pretty steep and rocky," Leavitt added. "How much you can see depends on where you are. Sometimes you have lookouts in case something blows up and doesn't do what you expect it to."

The urgency of a wildland fire is different from a structure fire, according to Wilson. Things move more slowly because there is more focus on safety. Weather conditions and burn patterns are assessed, and every possible resource is utilized.

"A lot of time is spent assessing the fire and evaluating whether things are being done safely and that firefighters have adequate escape routes and safety zones," Leavitt said.

"They drill into your head every day--safety, safety, safety," McCoy said. "There is no tree worth a person."

The District 4 Fire Department has 35 volunteers. 13 are certified to fight wildland fires and eight are available for mobilization this summer. They even have certified instructors which allows them to train for wildland fires in house.

"Some of our volunteers get the training because of where we live," Wilson said. "A lot of people like to live in the trees and we have brush all around us. We train on that all year long and provide certification for those that want to go on wildland mobilizations."

Mobilization isn't for everyone. It requires a two week obligation which generally rules out anyone with family or job commitments. Firefighters have to be 18 and have a valid driver's license. And again, they must be in great physical condition.

However, there is remuneration for the ones that can go. Best of all, the fire district gets paid.

"The fire district's budget is only $72,000 a year, and that just about covers maintenance for all our equipment," Wilson said. "The revenue generated by sending out the equipment almost doubles our annual budget. This allows us room to make improvements to the district.

"We take pride in our fire department and we want to have good operational equipment. The whole county benefits because we can send the equipment to Puget Island, Skamokawa and Grays River."

"We put a lot of our resources into building this wildland system here so it's a win win," McCoy said. "The community gets protection, and we can make some money for our department. We did this on purpose, it wasn't an accident."