Stevens County volunteer firefighters help save community

FRUITLAND, Wash. – A forest fire destroyed Jean Sturk’s home in 2001. On Saturday, her home almost burned again.

“This man saved our home,” she said. “It’s a miracle, a miracle.”

The man, Rick Anderson, is the fire chief for Stevens County Fire District 2. Anderson was there when Sturk’s home burned the first time. He wasn’t able to save it then. This time he was.

Over the last five days, his 20-person, all volunteer fire crew has battled a 5,000-plus-acre blaze near Fruitland. The Carpenter Road fire has destroyed 15 homes and displaced 75 people.

“This is the biggest fire we’ve seen in this community. Period,” Anderson said.

Anderson is intimately connected to the fire. Carpenter Road is named after his grandfather.

“Part of the fire burned over the old family farm,” he said.

His story is emblematic of the efforts being made by local firefighters across the region. With state and federal resources overextended, the burden often falls on volunteers. Normally in a large fire incident, local crews get moved off the fire so they can rest and prepare for new fires. A national fire team was called in to manage the fire, but because there are so many severe fires in the region, District 2 volunteers still were needed on the ground.

“The local guys are pretty tired,” said Andy Rothleutner, of the Rocky Mountain Blue fire team, the national group managing the efforts.

The volunteers don’t make any money, said Anderson, who’s also a volunteer. In fact, the total yearly department budget is $50,000. A good portion of that is being consumed by the diesel bill.

Kendall Wines, a volunteer firefighter, said he’s tired but not overwhelmed.

“You’re also stressed and worried,” he said. “Your friends are losing homes. It’s not a good situation.”

On Friday, when the fire blew up, Wines said he was awake for 36 hours. Things really got bad around 3 a.m. when the wind picked up.

“You looked up and it is like it’s snowing, just red embers all the way around,” he said.

Since Friday he’s gotten few breaks, and he’s still working his road maintenance job with the Washington Department of Transportation.

“They’re doing their best to give us a break,” he said. “You deal with it after a while.”

Anderson emphasized that his crews were getting rest days and that the out-of-town support has been vital. In fact, as of Tuesday he sent his troops home so that they could rest and make money at their paying jobs.

“They’re pretty awesome,” said Marcus Storgion of the volunteers. “They’re family.”

Storgion’s home nearly burned on Monday. He said he lost roughly 80 percent of his 40-acre farm. However, concerted air drops and efforts on the ground saved his home. One of the firefighters protecting his home was Chaz Keedy, his son-in-law.

The community is expressing their appreciation. Palettes of water and Gatorade have been donated. While driving this weekend, Anderson said someone handed him a whole donated pizza. On another occasion he was worrying about how he’d feed his crews. When he arrived he found that neighbors had made platters of sandwiches and given them cold drinks.

“They weren’t suffering one little bit,” he said of his crew.

Still, a flare-up Monday reminded residents that the fire is far from contained. With limited resources, the priority is structure protection. That means whole swaths of the fire remain uncontained. The fire started to move into the Fruitland Valley from Coyote Canyon, forcing new evacuations in the Fruitland Valley Road area Monday. Streams of cars hauling boats, RVs and other valuables were seen fleeing the valley.

“We’re just one more fire away from another major disaster,” Anderson said.