By Justin Andress The Mountain Times
In January, a devastating series of fires scorched the hills that surround Los Angeles. As a result of the blaze, firefighters from across the West Coast raced to the area to lend a hand. Among those called to duty were two of Hoodland’s bravest, Division Chief Brian Henrichs and Engineer Pat McAbery.
As we explained in the February edition of The Mountain Times: “A total of 21 strike teams [from the area] were mobilized to California, bringing with them 75 fire engines, 30 water tenders, and 370 firefighters to support fire suppression efforts.” Henrichs and McAbery were charged with delivering water tender 351, a truck capable of hauling 3,000 gallons of water.
According to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, the deployment dispatched “97 fire agencies, 370 personnel, and 105 engines.” The effort was part of the largest mobilization since Oregon’s first responders began traveling to other states as part of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) of 2017.
After a two-day drive with their water tender loaded down, Henrichs and McAbery were eager to lend a hand. When asked whether or not taking these calls was scary, McAbery confirmed that fear didn’t enter the equation. He explained that his and Henrich’s “fire brains” might work a little differently. “That’s why we’re here, and that’s what we wanna go do,” he says.
While a firefighter’s job is built on the unknown, one surprise that caught the team off guard was the time of year the fire started. “I don’t think anybody expected in January that we would be going to California,” explained Henrichs. “It’s typically their off season.”
Henrichs adds that while they’ve been called on to directly fight fires in the past, during their most recent trip, they were charged primarily with making sure there was enough water on hand to drown the flames.
Simply being on-site was a challenge for the firefighters. The same winds that spread the fires so rapidly blew at a sustained 30-40 miles per hour for days on end. Henrichs laughs as he recalls, “You were either standing in the wind getting pelted by sand or dirt, or you just sat in your vehicle [to stay out of it].”
While dodging flying dirt and sand, on-site personnel took opportunities to undertake training sessions every morning.
Hoodland firefighters like McAbery and Henrichs were uniquely suited to aid in extinguishing the fires that plagued the greater Los Angeles area because of the array of skills required for their job. As members of a community that straddles the border between an urban area and a wildland area, Hoodland firefighters are trained to handle the enormous variety of different situations they encounter on a typical shift.
McAbery explains that when it comes to wildland and structural firefighting, “The only thing that’s the same is that something’s actually burning, but the tactics of strategies, the time frame … everything is different.”
Strategy is a critical part of any massive firefighting endeavor like this. Not just the strategy employed on the front lines, but the lessons exchanged between firefighters from different outfits during their downtime.
Henrichs says, “We took a lot of opportunities when we were down there at the mobilization center to talk to other crews and see what they’re doing. I think Pat and I are always looking for ways to improve and make our apparatus and our crews more efficient, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when somebody else already has it down.”
This communication between departments has more than just academic implications, though, as McAbery explains that personnel from different local departments are frequently called to travel long distances and handle the same fires. During these moments, firefighters from the same city have the opportunity to work together, often for the first time.
“You go and spend a couple days or a couple of weeks with these folks and you get to know them pretty well. And then when the next big incident happens locally and these other departments show up, you know these people already.”
For firefighters like McAbery and Henrichs, a trip to another site to help fight a fire is also an opportunity to improve their responsiveness when they’re on home turf.
Ultimately, the rash of fires were put out thanks to the efforts of Henrichs, McAbery, and the veritable army of firefighters who descended on Los Angeles to help. Still, the damage left in the fires’ wake was catastrophic.
Estimates put the total destruction of the fires at more than $250 billion. Over the course of the disaster, more than 15,000 structures were damaged, 150,000 people were driven from their homes, and 28 lost their lives. AccuWeather’s Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter declared it the costliest wildfire in modern US history.