Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Dramatic account of how firefighters were burned during CA rescue attempt; Orange Co. chief blasts state; Links to coverage
LA Times photo by Karen Tapia of firefighters in Orange County deploying their emergency packs. Read the story here and see a related story below.
Alameda County firefighters get a drop from a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter in a San Diego Union-Tribune photo by K.C. Alfred
Southern California section of statewide fire mapCA fire links
RimOfTheWorld.net (this has a great deal of detailed information, but is sometimes tough to access)
More links from California Fire News and Firefighter Spot
Details of rescue that left firefighters burned
I had been searching since Sunday, trying to learn more about how 4 firefighters were burned during the Harris fire near the US-Mexico border. Now the San Diego Union-Tribune's Tony Manolatos has the details. Make sure you read their entire account of the efforts to save a 15-year-old boy and his father. This may be the most compelling of many dramatic stories from the fires in Southern California (CNN has been in the UC-SD Medical Center and has interiewed the mother of one of the burned firefighters. You can see that video, here.):
Hours after the Harris fire started on a rural road near the U.S.-Mexico border, one man was dead and his son and four firefighters were rushed to a hospital with severe injuries.
It appears the firefighters – three men and a woman – were trying to save Thomas Varshock and his son, Richard, 15.
“We have not interviewed them (the firefighters), but that's what it looks like,” said Capt. Matt Streck of Cal Fire.
On a day when multiple fires took hold of San Diego County, there was heroism.
Several firefighters, including Streck, tried to get to the four firefighters – a captain and three others who haven't been identified – but the flames kept everyone at bay except for a rescue helicopter.
Varshock died and his son remains hospitalized. Fire officials said the two were trying to save their home in Potrero.
Three of the firefighters remained in critical condition last night at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. One was in fair condition.
Streck did not know the station where the four firefighters are based. They drove an engine to the area shortly after the fire started at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on Harris Ranch Road in Potrero.
It was just after noon when a helicopter pilot, who has not been identified, heard the firefighters calling for help on their radios.
The firefighters were south of state Route 94 and east of state Route 188, which is where the fire jumped Route 94 and continued west.
Streck and other firefighters in the area heard the calls for help and tried to rush to their colleagues. Streck was in a Cal Fire Ford F-350 pickup with a news crew. He left the reporters behind on Route 188 between Tecate and Route 94.
“I tried to drive to them,” Streck said. “I tried, but I couldn't get through the flames.
“A lot of people drove through a lot of flame fronts to try and get there. It was a very dramatic experience.”
Cal Fire Chief Ray Chaney, who was flying a plane, served as a guide for the men and women below. Chaney could see the flames surrounding the firefighters, so he calmly directed the ground units, urging them to wait for the flames to clear.
One of the people Chaney was directing was Chief John Francois, who was desperately trying to reach the firefighters. The flames never eased enough for Chaney to give him the go-ahead.
“That was very frustrating to listen to on the ground,” Streck said. “But he was a great calming influence on everyone. It was a real emotional time for everybody on the ground, and he was giving clear direction. We needed that.”
Fortunately, Streck said, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter was in the area, dropping water on the Harris fire. The pilot spotted the firefighters, found a clearing and extracted them.
“It was a very heroic rescue,” Streck said. “There was fire all around. There were downed power lines. There were 80 mph wind gusts.”
Streck isn't sure if the same copter rescued Richard Varshock.
The firefighters were airlifted to a Cal Fire station a half-mile away in Potrero. Minutes later, they were in an air ambulance to UCSD Medical Center. They arrived at 1:30 p.m.
Thomas Varshock, 52, grew up in San Diego County and attended Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley. He helped coach his son's high school wrestling team, said Margaret Varshock, Thomas' stepmother.
Gordon Hammers, chairman of the Potrero Community Planning Group and a close friend of Thomas Varshock, said father and son “were defending their home and trying to save it. The fire was moving so fast, they just got overwhelmed.”
“He was a sterling character,” Hammers said of Varshock.
Jan Hedlun, a former business partner of Varshock's, described him as an extremely intelligent geologist and expert in evaluating construction defects. “He was an entirely generous person with a family spirit” who donated his time to build a local library, she said.
Hammers said Richard Varshock has set goals of a military academy appointment and admission to the special forces.
The teenager, the four firefighters and a fifth firefighter who was burned elsewhere in the county are among 16 patients hospitalized at UCSD Medical Center with injuries. The patients have burns covering between 3 percent and 60 percent of their bodies. Many had serious lung damage from inhaling smoke and debris.
Dr. Raul Coimbra, director of the hospital's trauma, burn and surgical intensive care units, said staff members were particularly taken with the firefighters who were hurt.
“We look at them as our partners,” he said. “We're touched and saddened and compelled to help them and try and save their lives.”
Hours after the Harris fire started on a rural road near the U.S.-Mexico border, one man was dead and his son and four firefighters were rushed to a hospital with severe injuries.
It appears the firefighters – three men and a woman – were trying to save Thomas Varshock and his son, Richard, 15.
“We have not interviewed them (the firefighters), but that's what it looks like,” said Capt. Matt Streck of Cal Fire.
On a day when multiple fires took hold of San Diego County, there was heroism.
Several firefighters, including Streck, tried to get to the four firefighters – a captain and three others who haven't been identified – but the flames kept everyone at bay except for a rescue helicopter.
Varshock died and his son remains hospitalized. Fire officials said the two were trying to save their home in Potrero.
Three of the firefighters remained in critical condition last night at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. One was in fair condition.
Streck did not know the station where the four firefighters are based. They drove an engine to the area shortly after the fire started at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on Harris Ranch Road in Potrero.
It was just after noon when a helicopter pilot, who has not been identified, heard the firefighters calling for help on their radios.
The firefighters were south of state Route 94 and east of state Route 188, which is where the fire jumped Route 94 and continued west.
Streck and other firefighters in the area heard the calls for help and tried to rush to their colleagues. Streck was in a Cal Fire Ford F-350 pickup with a news crew. He left the reporters behind on Route 188 between Tecate and Route 94.
“I tried to drive to them,” Streck said. “I tried, but I couldn't get through the flames.
“A lot of people drove through a lot of flame fronts to try and get there. It was a very dramatic experience.”
Cal Fire Chief Ray Chaney, who was flying a plane, served as a guide for the men and women below. Chaney could see the flames surrounding the firefighters, so he calmly directed the ground units, urging them to wait for the flames to clear.
One of the people Chaney was directing was Chief John Francois, who was desperately trying to reach the firefighters. The flames never eased enough for Chaney to give him the go-ahead.
“That was very frustrating to listen to on the ground,” Streck said. “But he was a great calming influence on everyone. It was a real emotional time for everybody on the ground, and he was giving clear direction. We needed that.”
Fortunately, Streck said, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter was in the area, dropping water on the Harris fire. The pilot spotted the firefighters, found a clearing and extracted them.
“It was a very heroic rescue,” Streck said. “There was fire all around. There were downed power lines. There were 80 mph wind gusts.”
Streck isn't sure if the same copter rescued Richard Varshock.
The firefighters were airlifted to a Cal Fire station a half-mile away in Potrero. Minutes later, they were in an air ambulance to UCSD Medical Center. They arrived at 1:30 p.m.
Thomas Varshock, 52, grew up in San Diego County and attended Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley. He helped coach his son's high school wrestling team, said Margaret Varshock, Thomas' stepmother.
Gordon Hammers, chairman of the Potrero Community Planning Group and a close friend of Thomas Varshock, said father and son “were defending their home and trying to save it. The fire was moving so fast, they just got overwhelmed.”
“He was a sterling character,” Hammers said of Varshock.
Jan Hedlun, a former business partner of Varshock's, described him as an extremely intelligent geologist and expert in evaluating construction defects. “He was an entirely generous person with a family spirit” who donated his time to build a local library, she said.
Hammers said Richard Varshock has set goals of a military academy appointment and admission to the special forces.
The teenager, the four firefighters and a fifth firefighter who was burned elsewhere in the county are among 16 patients hospitalized at UCSD Medical Center with injuries. The patients have burns covering between 3 percent and 60 percent of their bodies. Many had serious lung damage from inhaling smoke and debris.
Dr. Raul Coimbra, director of the hospital's trauma, burn and surgical intensive care units, said staff members were particularly taken with the firefighters who were hurt.
“We look at them as our partners,” he said. “We're touched and saddened and compelled to help them and try and save their lives.”
Fire chief says help was slow in coming
I first saw mention of this Tuesday while putting together a TV report on the fires. Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather, who had a dozen firefighters forced to deploy their emergency shelters, lashes out at the state's handling of the fires. Here are excerpts from an AP article:
"It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have been able to control this fire," Chief Chip Prather told reporters.
Prather said that a dozen firefighters' lives were threatened at one point because too few crews were on the ground. It was not an isolated problem, he suggested, saying the bigger issue was the lack of an overarching scheme to attack several large fires at once.
"What we need to have is a national strategy and a state strategy," he said.
The state was supposed to be better prepared after a commission made dozens of recommendations following 2003 blazes that killed 24 people and destroyed 3,361 residences. Prather said many recommendations have been ignored, though others, led by Schwarzenegger, said the response was much improved.
"There is much more equipment available, more manpower is available, quicker action," Schwarzenegger said.
The state's top firefighter said Prather, who was part of a group formed to implement the state commission's recommendations, was misstating the availability of firefighters and equipment. Eight of the state's nine water-dumping helicopters were in Southern California by Sunday, when the first fires began, along with 13 air tankers, said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Hundreds more firefighters were hired this year.
Grijalva suggested these fires, which have burned the equivalent of about 600 square miles, would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight them.
"I don't believe the kind of additional resources he's talking about would have been capable of containing those fires," Grijalva said. "They are fighting nature here. This is not something that can be easily eliminated with a few additional aircraft or firefighters."
Especially when there's such great need over such a sprawling area.
"With 100 mph winds, you can only do so much," said Dave Gillotte, president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1014, which represents members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Crews fighting a fire in San Bernardino County have been vastly understaffed but by Wednesday morning, "we're going to have a lot more resources," said Bob Shidelar, a fire operations branch director in from Sonora to help out.
Helicopter orders placed Sunday shortly after a fire erupted near the U.S.-Mexico border weren't satisfied until early Tuesday, said Steve Heil, a state commander at the Harris Fire. That's when four National Guard Blackhawk helicopters based at Los Alamitos arrived in San Diego.
Two Navy Seahawks were also flying above San Diego County on Tuesday, but Heil said he was having trouble finding firefighters with qualifications to go up with additional pilots the Navy was offering to help direct water drops.
"We need to have firefighting personnel in the cockpit," Heil said. "We're trying to find firefighters to work with them—once we get more resources we can use them."
"It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have been able to control this fire," Chief Chip Prather told reporters.
Prather said that a dozen firefighters' lives were threatened at one point because too few crews were on the ground. It was not an isolated problem, he suggested, saying the bigger issue was the lack of an overarching scheme to attack several large fires at once.
"What we need to have is a national strategy and a state strategy," he said.
The state was supposed to be better prepared after a commission made dozens of recommendations following 2003 blazes that killed 24 people and destroyed 3,361 residences. Prather said many recommendations have been ignored, though others, led by Schwarzenegger, said the response was much improved.
"There is much more equipment available, more manpower is available, quicker action," Schwarzenegger said.
The state's top firefighter said Prather, who was part of a group formed to implement the state commission's recommendations, was misstating the availability of firefighters and equipment. Eight of the state's nine water-dumping helicopters were in Southern California by Sunday, when the first fires began, along with 13 air tankers, said Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Hundreds more firefighters were hired this year.
Grijalva suggested these fires, which have burned the equivalent of about 600 square miles, would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight them.
"I don't believe the kind of additional resources he's talking about would have been capable of containing those fires," Grijalva said. "They are fighting nature here. This is not something that can be easily eliminated with a few additional aircraft or firefighters."
Especially when there's such great need over such a sprawling area.
"With 100 mph winds, you can only do so much," said Dave Gillotte, president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1014, which represents members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Crews fighting a fire in San Bernardino County have been vastly understaffed but by Wednesday morning, "we're going to have a lot more resources," said Bob Shidelar, a fire operations branch director in from Sonora to help out.
Helicopter orders placed Sunday shortly after a fire erupted near the U.S.-Mexico border weren't satisfied until early Tuesday, said Steve Heil, a state commander at the Harris Fire. That's when four National Guard Blackhawk helicopters based at Los Alamitos arrived in San Diego.
Two Navy Seahawks were also flying above San Diego County on Tuesday, but Heil said he was having trouble finding firefighters with qualifications to go up with additional pilots the Navy was offering to help direct water drops.
"We need to have firefighting personnel in the cockpit," Heil said. "We're trying to find firefighters to work with them—once we get more resources we can use them."
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Any chance of an up-date on the firefighters and Richard Varshock? We always get the beginning of the story, but never the ending, Thanks
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# posted by 
: December 3, 2007 6:56 PM
: December 3, 2007 6:56 PM Links to this post:
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