Out Of The Armory & Into The Fire

As the first reports were carried by the news services of the fire threatening the Hanford Nuclear Treatment Site last June, emergency responders and Guardsmen who battled the blazes of "Firestorm '94" recognized all of the signs.  Several years of wet, mild winters and warmer than normal summers had produced an abundant fuel supply in the forests and grasslands of the Pacific Northwest.

We were in for another summer of wildfires.

On the 27th of June, 2000, a passenger car collided with a tractor-trailer rig on Washington's State Highway 240, near Hanford.  The resulting fire quickly spread across both sides of the highway, sweeping rapidly through the knee-high fields of dry grass.

Elements of Washington's Emergency Management Division and National Guard tracked the situation closely, prepared to instantly implement response measures if needed.

Firefighters from Tri-County and Yakima County were brought in to combat the flames, which were sweeping rapidly outward from the ignition point.  The Washington State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) activated to a full Phase III, as Governor Locke proclaimed a state of emergency in Benton County and the City of Richland.

The Washington National Guard was activated to provide security, crowd control, and additional fire fighting resources as residents of Benton City were evacuated due to the advancing fire.

The fire was located in rough and inaccessible terrain on a Fish and Wildlife Preserve managed by the U.S. Department Of Energy.  It was moving at an alarming rate.  Propelled through the dry grass by gusting winds, the fire was consuming 2,000 acres per hour.  The speed of the fire surprised even experienced firefighters.  During one 90-minute period, the fire traveled 20 miles!

By the afternoon of June 28th, the fire was threatening the Hanford Nuclear Treatment Site.  This 560-square mile facility had produced weapon-grade plutonium since the 40s. Currently, its more than 10,000 employees are engaged in clean up and treatment operations.  The attention of the national media now focused on the event.

Ultimately, firefighters defeated the flames, mostly along the natural breaks provided by streambeds, roads and highways, with no significant release of hazardous material from Hanford.

From June 27th through its containment on July 1st, the fire, dubbed the "24 Command Fire", after the section of the Hanford facility threatened by the blaze, burned nearly 300 square miles of both public and private lands.

It had been a close call, but it was just the beginning.  The Emergency Operations Center began continuous operations as a contingency against what was surely coming.

A dryer than normal winter and hot summer were about to produce a series of wildfires throughout the northwestern United States, the likes of which had not been seen in 6 years.  Strong gusty winds coupled with hot and dry surface conditions brought about fire watches and "Red Flag Warnings" across the region.

Throughout the month of July dozens of fires raged across the northwest taxing firefighting resources to their limit.

Finally, on August 8th, with no end to the fires and no rain in sight, and temperatures soaring, Governor Locke declared a state of emergency, and activated more than 500 Guardsmen for three days of fire fighter training at the Yakima Firing Center.

These soldiers would be ready to supplement the exhausted firefighters already on the fire lines.

Major fires burned in Klickitat, Benton, Yakima, Okanogan and Ferry Counties, but there were dozens of smaller blazes as well.  And Washington was not suffering as badly as other, nearby states.

Then, in the early morning hours of August 24th, lighting ignited a new fire in southeast Yakima County - an area known as Mule Dry. Firefighters from the Yakima Indian Nation, and Yakima and Klickitat Counties immediately went to work battling this 35,000 plus acre fire.  The Mule Dry Fire was heading northeast on the summer wind, threatening homes and residents there.

With firefighting resources at their lowest point, the Governor called upon the Guardsmen he had sent to fire fighter training earlier in August - as well as a number of other Army and Air Guardsmen who would perform support functions.  On Friday, August 25th a total force of 609 Citizen Soldiers left their homes and headed for their armories to begin the mobilization process that would take them to the fire lines.

On Saturday morning, less than a day after being mobilized, the Guardsmen were on their way to the staging area in Grandview, less than three miles from the raging fire.

"Every one of our guys wanted to come out here and fight fires," commented Kent based A Company 1-161 Infantry Battalion's 1LT Eric Armstrong.

Airmen from the 111th Area Support Command, headquarted on Camp Murray, and the Spokane based 141st Civil Engineering Squadron, pitched tents and assembled portable showers at the Armory, while prisoners from the Airway Heights Corrections Center established a kitchen area to feed the troops.

Along with the Guardsmen came CH-47 helicopters from the 66th Aviation Brigade headquartered at Fort Lewis.  These massive aircraft would serve as the "bucket brigade" in the battle against this new blaze.  With gigantic buckets suspended from steel cables beneath them, they would make countless water drops at critical points within the fire, unleashing enough water in each load to fill a small swimming pool.

By Saturday morning, the troops, with their newly issued fire gear in tow, were on their way to the fire, sometimes spending close to two hours bouncing in the back of cargo trucks as they traversed miles of dirt roads.

Fortunately, winds predicted to ravage the area with up to forty-mile-per-hour gusts never materialized.  The fire had calmed significantly during the night and was staying inside newly established fire lines.  The soldiers split into ten divisions of roughly forty people each, and began to repair the fire line, and to search burned-out areas for "hot spots" or smoldering debris, along the sixty-mile front.

"It's hard work," commented an exhausted and dust covered SGT Anthony Jones, a medic with A Company, 1-161 Infantry Battalion.  "Everyone knew sooner or later that we'd be called up.  It's our job to help.  That's why we wear the uniform."

The crews worked well into the night, hacking at stumps and roots and hiking across ravines and hills, scouring the landscape for heat and smoke as dust devils twisted and turned across the charred earth.

Along one creek, cottonwood trees smoldered in a dusty moonscape of twisted and gnarled sage stumps and bushes.  Soldiers filled their helmets with water from the stream, squelching the few remaining flames and embers in a hiss of steam and soot.

Along another front, rows of yellow "Nomex"-clad soldiers hiked past the burnt shells of some of the 16 structures, including one occupied mobile home that fell victim to the fire.

At Andy Sharpe's house, the fire came close enough to melt his plastic siding.  Sharpe and his neighbors held the blaze at bay earlier in the fire with water hoses while overwhelmed fire crews scrambled to save other houses.  Sharpe, a fifth-generation wheat farmer, lost two garages and numerous vehicles and pieces of equipment to the blaze. 
"It should never have gotten this far," said Sharpe as he surveyed the barren, charred land that just last week had been his farm.  "I just wish the firefighters had gotten here sooner."

By Monday, the now 1200-person strong firefighting force had fully contained the fire, and ensured that there were no remaining hotspots that could flare up and start it all over again.

The main fire camp, in the Prosser, Washington middle school, began to come down as students filed past rows of fire engines and equipment on the way to their first day of school.

The guardsmen, too, began to demobilize and prepare for the journey back to their home stations.  Equipment was turned in, vehicles were checked, and the soldiers spent one last night in Grandview before the drive home the next morning.

Dave Johnson, the Incident Commander, commented on the Guard's contributions as he returned from surveying the fire line.  "They were a tremendous help.  They busted their butts and really did great.  If we have another big fire, I want the Guard there to help."

There was another aspect of Guard involvement during this crisis.  Many Guardsmen are, in their civilian jobs, firefighters, police, emergency medical technicians, doctors, nurses or fill other roles as emergency responders.  Nor does it mention the thousands of full-time emergency responders who fought the fires of the northwest this summer.  To all who were there well done!

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