Dragon in the Land:
People and Mega-fire in California
- Episode One:
Lightning and Smoke - Episode Two:
Remembrance of Fires Past - Episode Three:
Red Ball Sun - Episode Four:
The Running Battle - Episode Five:
Evacuations and Destinations - Episode Six:
Maze of Chaos - Episode Seven:
The Dragon in the West Village - Episode Eight:
Fire Camp - Episode Nine:
Man-dragon - Episode Ten:
Percent Contained - Episode Eleven:
Smart Work, Dumb Luck - Episode Twelve:
What To Do Before The Nightmare Comes True — Again
What's New
Writing
Dragon in the Land:
People and Mega-fire in California
by Howard V. Hendrix
Episode Nine:
Man-dragon
Although the lightning that fell on and about Pine Ridge has caused no major fires there, Captain Gary Martin of the Pine Ridge Volunteer Fire Department has not slept well. The sound of the scanner running through channels has been the background to whatever dreams he and his wife Sue have been able to snatch from an uneasy night.
They have already worked one small fire in their area, but have been cycled out for a break as the first of several crews from out of state have come in.
On the scanner he’s recognized several times the voice of his friend, Joe Shaw, working the fires to the west of Shaver Lake. Often during the night Martin has been sure Chief Moore of the Shaver Lake Volunteer Fire Department would again call in mutual aid from Pine Ridge’s Company 68. He initially thought Moore and regional officials up the chain of command might be holding PRVFD in reserve, presumably to protect the area south of Shaver and east of Highway 168. He realizes now that they are also being kept out so that, when mandatory fatigue rotations start, all the crews will not have to leave the fire lines at the same time.
The strategy is turning out to be a good one. Shortly before four in the morning, Pine Ridge Chief Larry Pearsall and Lieutenant Lisbeth Bundli, in the Chief’s Patrol vehicle, and Engineer Gary Howell and Firefighter Michael Banton in Engine 268, all respond to a fire on Peterson Mill Road a mile east of the Sycamore Creek crossing – south and downhill of Pine Ridge. Martin knows that, even before the recent massive dry-lightning event, PRVFD has been called out three times to fight fires along Peterson and Cripe roads.
Giving up at last on any possibility of sleep, Martin dresses and walks into the kitchen. While the coffee brews, he switches between Dispatch, Weather, and Tac channels on his personal radio. From the fire crews’ communications, he learns that the fire on Peterson seems to have been caused by a root smolder from one of the previous day’s lightning strikes. The blaze has spread to two acres or so, but the Pine Ridge responders and a National Forest engine crew from Utah (covering Mountain Rest station for the already assigned Sierra National Forest crew) have now apparently managed to contain the blaze.
Martin thinks it could have been much worse. He’s glad that, at long last, the winds have calmed to almost nothing this morning. The weather reports indicate a cooling trend – maybe even some moisture later in the day, at least over the high country.
He has just filled his battered steel coffee mug and capped it when he hears their fire company being toned out over the radio. A moment later, at 5:35 am, his pager and phone go off. It’s Virginia Pearsall, dispatching him to a fire between the old Peterson Mill site and the crossing on Peterson the locals call “Four Corners”. Virginia informs him that the Chief and Bundli, in the Chief’s Patrol, are already proceeding to the scene, along with the fire crew from Utah. Martin is to take Patrol 68 and pick up Firefighter Frank Borrego on his way. Engineer Gene Van Dyne and Firefighter Dan Clayton will follow after them in Engine 468, just as soon as they can refill E468’s water tank, drained in fighting the small blaze they earlier cycled off of.
As he suits up in his wildland gear, Martin thinks Howell and Banton in E268 must be finishing mop-up on the contained root-smolder fire. Grabbing his gearbag and striding to his Patrol unit in the pre-dawn light, he wonders how far along Gene Van Dyne is on readying E468.
Frank Borrego, already dressed in his yellow wildland gear, is waiting at the end of his driveway. Like Martin, who is a retired Fresno County Sherriff’s deputy, Borrego too has a background in both firefighting and law enforcement. He’s an active duty patrol officer with Fresno PD, and this is supposed to be his day off.
They nod each other hello, and Martin starts the lights and siren. Within moments they see in the dim light Dan Clayton making his way to a fire department water tank on the neighboring property, where Gene Van Dyne is already filling E468’s 500 gallon onboard tank with a short hard-line. Gary Martin leans on the horn, and Dan and Gene wave.
Siren blaring and lights whirling, their Patrol pickup truck bounces down the road, grinds across gravel after the paved road ends, then on past the junction of Upper and Lower Cressman Roads, to the locked gate separating the private lands of Pine Ridge from the public lands of the Sierra National Forest. Borrego jumps from the stopped Patrol unit, unlocks the heavy gate, and swings it out of the way. Borrego climbs back into the Patrol pickup and they drive through the gate, down the rough dirt road, through the deep shade of morning twilight.
They are not far from Four Corners when they come around a turn and encounter a speeding pickup truck ready to plant its headlights in their grille. Martin tries to evade, but they still collide with a glancing blow. The vehicles carome off each other.
Stunned but unhurt, Martin and Borrego hurry out of the Patrol to see if the other driver is all right. As Captain Martin talks to the man in the dawn light, Frank Borrego goes to check the vehicle damage. He happens to look into the bed of the other pickup, where a tarp has come loose. He stares long and hard at what he sees. He’s been a patrolman long enough to know when something doesn’t smell right.
“Hey, Gary! Come back here a minute, will you?”
Captain Martin leaves the driver side window and joins Borrego. Pulling back the tarp a bit more, they see two jeep-cans of fuel, a clutch of road flares, and a drip torch. They glance at each other, but before they can fully turn toward the driver, the man behind the wheel – who has been watching them in his rearview mirror — stomps on the gas pedal and spins away in a cloud of dust and gravel. Borrego and Martin jump away from the fishtailing vehicle.
As it disappears round a bend, Gary Martin walks toward the Patrol and thumbs on his radio.
“Engine 468, this is Patrol 68.”
“Engine 468,” Dan Clayton replies.
“What’s your location?”
“Just coming up on the junction of Upper and Lower Cressman.”
“Copy that. When you get to the back gate, close it and lock it. Repeat, close it and lock it. We have a suspected arsonist in a black pickup coming your way. Judging by his speed, he came through Peterson and doesn’t know about the Cressman gate. Might want to slow him down.”
“We’ll shut the door, Patrol.”
As Frank Borrego pulls P68 around and begins pursuit, Martin gets on the Tac channel and queries the Incident Commander with a description of their situation. The IC indicates he’s waiting on an airdrop but probably has adequate ground resources at the moment. “Finish collaring your suspected firebug,” says the IC, “then proceed to my location.”
The tangle of black pickup and heavy gate is not a pretty sight when they come upon it. Borrego and Martin exit their vehicle, to find Van Dyne and Clayton making use of their first-aid training, already tending to the driver’s injuries.
From his slumped position beside the front tire, the driver scowls at Martin and Borrego.
“Gene, you think you might have some of those plastic wire-ties in that truck of yours?” Martin asks.
“I just might,” says Van Dyne, smiling as he turns away to go look for them. Borrego locates the driver’s wallet and hands his driver’s license to Martin.
“Mister Hiddall, I don’t think these fires we’ve been having need your help. You’re under arrest for suspected arson.”
Borrego reads Walter Hiddall his rights as he and Clayton lift Hiddall to his feet. Van Dyne returns with a handful of long plastic wire-ties as Martin finishes radioing in a report to the Sherriff’s office.
Hiddall stares at Martin.
“Who are you people?”
“Pine Ridge volunteers,” Martin says.
“If you like,” says Borrego, zip-tightening the plastic ties into impromptu handcuffs around Hiddall’s wrists, “you can think of us as humble agents of your karma — ”
“ – which seems to be coming around,” Clayton says, tightening zips around Hiddall’s ankles, “right about now.”
By the time the Sheriff’s deputy arrives in his SUV, Martin and Borrego are already on their way to the Corners/Mill fire. E468 has just finished winching Hiddall’s totaled truck out of the road. As the deputy takes Hiddall into custody, Van Dyne and Clayton drive Engine 468 through the gate and through a morning that — despite multiple fires still needing to be fought – has dawned beautiful with blue skies and puffy clouds.
All episodes were originally published in 2007 as a fire education series in the Mountain Press, the Sanger Herald, the Snowline Tiimes, and their sister publications covering the central California portion of the foothills and Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Spears of God
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