These are from an intersection my partner and I personally worked late Friday night [August 18th], on the Oregon Fire in North Spokane County. The first, we took looking up a road we had just cleared barely ahead of the fire, while refilling our water tank so we could continue on. The second, was at most an hour later, looking back towards the same intersection right after the fire rolled through.
Photos By: Victoria Ediger

Wildland Firefighter Victoria Ediger, shares her experiences during the early stages of the Oregon Road Fire. Ediger’s account was originally shared on facebook and reprinted with permission. 

When we say we love fires and/or firefighting… It’s not the destruction we love. It’s not the loss of human life, animal life or property/nature that we love. It’s the privilege of fighting a literal fire-breathing monster on behalf of and for the protection of those who can’t fight it themselves. Yes, the adrenaline is great… We’re pretty much all adrenaline junkies. LOL! But, the thing that keeps most of us, if not all of us, coming back again and again, is the privilege of doing battle for the preservation of our families, our friends, and our communities. That is what we mean when we say we love fire and fighting fire!

I’d like to tell you the story of the intersection in the pictures below. It’s an intersection that will forever hold a place in my heart and mind. The destruction was great, yes… To all but the few of us who were there that night, these photos and that intersection will probably only ever represent the destruction that the fire brought. But that is not all that happened at that intersection.

At 11:30 p.m., my partner and I met up with a water tender at this intersection so we could refill our water tank before continuing on. Shortly after refilling, while my partner was communicating with command and other units to get our next assignment, I heard something running towards us on the road and turned to see what it was. It was a dog. It was nearly soaking wet, so I knew it had come into contact with one of our crews and they’d done their best to give it a fighting chance, but I knew it had no real chance. I could see the terror in its eyes, as it ran erratically and darted back and forth looking for its family. I called it to me, caught its collar and held on tight, comforting it as best I could and knowing my hands would likely be the last to ever give it love. The Tender Operator and I exchanged glances, our eyes screaming the same silent question, “How could we leave the dog here? How could I ever let go of its collar again?” But we couldn’t take it with us. Even if there was room in our truck, it might jump out at a spot where there was literally no chance for it to live. I spent the following minutes silently praying, holding on to the dog until the very moment I had to go. Then, we saw a truck with a horse trailer driving towards us! My eyes met the Tender Operator, and with a quick word he went running to flag down the truck. A minute later, we were loading the dog into the passenger side door, and he was gratefully and excitedly licking the face of the driver who was to be his ticket to safety ❤️❤️❤️ You’d never know it by the pictures… But a life was saved in this intersection.

Earlier that evening, a man had left a house just off one of the corners of this intersection, evacuating with his dogs. As he left, we could see the hopelessness in his eyes as he told us he wasn’t expecting anything to be there when he came back. In the early morning hours, when we returned to this intersection and found it in flames, we found that the fire hadn’t yet reached his house. His house was one of the few we came across that night that had enough open space around it to allow us to attempt to defend the house and still have an escape route if the fire overran us. We spent the next 4 hours defending the house and shop as the fire raged around it. Around 6:30 am, as we were watching the fire slowly move into the last large clump of brush that could threaten the structures, a belligerent and angry civilian began coming through the woods toward us. He was shouting and screaming curses at us because we were strategically letting it burn, rather than using our limited water supply to put it out before the threat was gone. Because we didn’t know if he had a gun and there were no deputies close enough to come to our aid, we were forced to put out the patch of brush early to appease him, knowing it was going to light up again when the wind changed later in the day and our 4 hours of fighting would then have been for nothing. By the grace of God, when it did catch fire again 11 hours later, our relief crew and a second engine just happened to be sitting in the intersection, and they put it out before it reached the structures. Back up again to just before 7am that morning… The homeowner came back, fully expecting to see nothing but ash where his home had once been. When he saw everything – except a small outbuilding – still standing and untouched, he pulled up, stopped his car, put his head down on his steering wheel and began to cry tears of relief. I know I wasn’t the only one of us whose eyes weren’t dry as we watched from our post. You’d never know it by the pictures… But a house still stands near this intersection ❤️

    So… When a firefighter or an officer tells you that you have to leave now and there isn’t time for anything else, or they tell you that no, you can’t come back in to get animals… We don’t want to tell you to leave or keep you from coming back in. Please don’t fight us. Please don’t take your anger out on us. But if you lose your cool and you fight us or scream and yell at us… Please know, we understand. And we don’t hold it against you. A piece of our hearts break too when we have to release animals, knowing they probably won’t live to see the sunrise. A piece of our hearts break too when we drive past home after home that we couldn’t save… Even one lost is one too many. We know pieces of your heart – often your entire lives – are behind the line we hold. We wish we could save it all but we know we can’t and we know you know that too. So, if you lose your cool and take it out on us, we understand.

    Also… If a firefighter or officer loses their cool or seems harsh with you, please understand. They may have just finished releasing someone’s animals to give them their last best chance, while knowing that they’re probably only delaying their imminent end. They may have just left a home, having done all they could yet knowing it still won’t be enough when the fire comes through. They may have been forced to let someone’s beloved dog continue running down the road, looking for safety that doesn’t exist because there’s literally nothing they can do. They may not have slept or eaten anything besides a little trail mix since yesterday morning… Or longer. They may be fighting to protect your home, not knowing if they’ll have a home to return to when the fire is finally over. One of the firefighters who helped us defend the house on that corner… Worked the whole night wondering if anyone would be there to defend her house if/when the fire reached it. But you never would have known that if you’d talked to her. We try to always be kind and understanding and keep our cool… But if, for a moment, we don’t… Please understand.

What you can/should do to prepare yourself and your home to survive a fire:

Level 1 Evac “Be Ready”:

• Immediately evacuate any family members or relatives that are elderly or have any difficulty with mobility. Sending young kids to stay with friends or family outside the zone, wouldn’t be a bad idea either! It’s better to move them now and find out you didn’t need to, than to delay and have to either race the fire or leave animals or other important things behind you waited too long!
• Mow the lawn that you haven’t gotten around to for the last month! The shorter the grass, the smaller the fire and the lower the heat. Also, shorter grass means less water to put out the fire… Which means we can put out more fire before having to leave to refill our tanks!
• Call friends, fairgrounds, etc. and figure out where you can take your animals for safety. If you need extra cattle trailers, call some friends and invite them over for a pre-fire prep party! Know where you’re going and make sure you have enough trailers/vehicles to take everything in one trip!
• Catch your horses, bring in your cattle, round up your chickens, cats and dogs, etc. If even one gives you a hard time, you may run out of time if you wait to do this!
• Gather up any and all valuables you want to be saved, pack them and stage them by your front door or in your vehicle.
• Pull up or cut off dead/dying landscape plants within 5-10 feet of house/structure walls. Remove dead leaves or pine needles that may have gathered in corners/crevices. Less to burn is always better!
• Put a ladder up and clean pine needles and leaves out of your gutters. This is one of the worst culprits for houses catching fire even when everything else has been done!
• Move all burnable furniture, wooden planters, rugs, wall decor, EVERYTHING that could burn, at least 20 feet away from the walls of any structures you don’t want to lose.
• If you have the capability and the know-how, now is the time to disc around your property/buildings or build a fire break – you won’t have time later!
• If you have evergreens – especially if multiple evergreens – within 60 feet of your house, now is the time to fell them and/or ask a friend who knows how to come by asap and do it for you. They burn extremely hot and you wouldn’t believe the number of fire-starting embers that just one evergreen puts off! Unfortunately, it’s not very often that a house with evergreens next to it survives the fire – even if they’ve done everything else right. I know they’re beautiful… But the farther they are from your house and barn/shop, the better. Even 60 feet away is pushing it, but it’s better than 20 or 40 feet.

Level 2 Evac “Get Set”:

• This is when you load your animals in trailers/vehicles! Don’t wait!! I know it might be a pain and you may load them and never get a “Level 3 Go”… But if you have to leave some of them behind, you’ll regret not having done this now.
• If you can’t fit all your animals into one load/trip, then take all but the last trip out now! When Level 3 hits, you won’t have time for multiple trips, and they probably won’t let you back in.
• Load your valuables, if you haven’t already… Don’t waste time because it’s “inconvenient” and then regret it later!
• Make sure all your windows and buildings are secure! We won’t break in or steal anything, but sometimes we’re spread so thin that looters decide to come in and try their luck. If everything is secure, they’ll usually move on to an easier target because they don’t want to get caught.
• Close any vents in your home that lead to the outside. Don’t cover them or stuff them with cloth!!! Use something that either won’t burn at all or is at least fire resistant! These catch sparks and embers and give them a sheltered place to try to find new fuel.
• If you have sprinklers, set them up and make sure they’re working! If you’ve got the capability, set a sprinkler up on your roof even! You’d be amazed how much protection a single sprinkler can give you from flying embers!
• If you haven’t moved your elderly family members yet… Do it NOW!!
• Once everything of yours is ready to leave, go check on your neighbors! Make sure they know about the evac, see if they need help, and do what you can to get them ready also!

Level 3 Evac “Go now!”:

• Turn on your sprinklers!!
• Lock the last of your doors!
• Leave immediately!! Fires are unpredictable. The more unpredictable they are, the larger the evac zone! Just because it may be 3+ miles away still or you don’t think it could possibly make it all the way to you… It’s far better to leave and find out you could have stayed, than to stay and have to leave animals and valuables behind when you realize the fire is actually going to come through your area.
• If you have to leave animals behind, but don’t want to let them out yet… Sharpie your phone number onto something that we’ll see without looking for it. We can’t guarantee that we’ll even have time to call you when we race ahead of the fire trying to clear and prep structures… But if we have time, we’ll call and ask what you want us to do and how you want it done. And, in the case of the dog on Friday night… When a couple crews talk and put 2 and 2 together, you might get a call letting you know that your dog got a ride to safety.
• If you didn’t have time to prepare beforehand (or if it started super close to you) and are still trying to pack and prep your house… Keep your eyes PEELED!!! Assign someone specifically to watch outside, and when the fire gets close, ditch whatever isn’t done yet and leave! The right wind can drive a fire faster than you can out-run (or out-drive) it, and wind can change at any moment. Fires are unpredictable and the bigger the fire, the farther out they throw spot fires. The fire could still be a half mile or more away, and an ember could land in your back yard or woods… And all of a sudden, you’re looking at a fire you didn’t expect and which might cut off your escape route and trap you.
• Drive carefully! Keep your eyes peeled for fire that may have jumped ahead of the main fire and the animals that will be running ahead of it. Also, keep your eyes peeled for us! We’ll be moving and working on/near the roads, and we need to be able to get where we’re going safely and quickly.

We want to defend every home, and save every animal and structure… But we can’t. Fire moves too fast and there are never enough of us, especially at the beginning. Prepping your house beforehand doesn’t guarantee that your house will survive… But it increases the chances significantly! We usually only have 5, maybe 10 minutes at the most when we’re clearing and prepping ahead of the fire… We do as much as we can, but that’s not much at all compared to what you could do if you made use of the time that comes with Evac Levels 1 and 2. And if we can come in and just take care of the things you might have missed? Your house has a much better chance at surviving, and we might have a few extra minutes to spend prepping the house down the road who either didn’t get to finish their preparations or didn’t know how to prepare.

    Also, the bigger the open space you leave around your home and buildings, the bigger the chance we might be able to actually post up and defend your home, rather than having to leave and hope we can circle back around after the flame front passes but before your house actually starts burning. Often, especially in the beginning hours of a fire, there are too few of us and too much work to do for us to sit and defend even a home that is well-defendable… But we’ll remember which homes have room around them for us to sit and defend, and we’ll do it if it’s at all possible!

Love you guys!! Stay safe and PLEASE be prepared!!! We’ve already lost far too many homes and animals 💔💔💔

Sources:

Facebook Post Victoria Ediger DPGazette.com/bre3l Accessed August 25, 2023