Kiwanis.org
home > kiwanis magazine > kiwanis magazine october 2006 > son's escape from deadly fire prompts district project
Related Links
Archive
Comment
Kiwanis Connected E-zine Subscription Form
KIWANIS magazine October 2006
Magazine Submission Guidelines

Showcase

Son’s escape from deadly fire
prompts district project

It didn’t take firefighter Jason Emhoff long to reach out and offer helps to others. Lying in a hospital bed, wrapped in gauze that only allowed his ears and nose to peak through, Jason asked the nurses if he could become a volunteer at a burn camp.

Jason Emhoff

Jason Emhoff, who was severely burned in the Thirtymile Fire in the Chewuch River Canyon in Washington, still works for the fire service.

(photo provided by Emhoff family)

Immediate Past Pacific Northwest Governor Steve Emhoff listens as doctors talk about his son’s injuries from the fire. (photo reprinted with permission from Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (photo reprinted with permission from Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Immediate Past Pacific Northwest Governor Steve Emhoff listens as doctors talk about his son’s injuries from the fire.

(photo reprinted with permission from Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (photo reprinted with permission from Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Some fire crew members took shelter on the road, seen below, while others were trapped in the rocks. Four firefighters were killed on this scree slope on July 10, 2001. Jason Emhoff escaped with severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body. (photo reprinted with permission from the Fire Leadership Development Committee)

Some fire crew members took shelter on the road, seen below, while others were trapped in the rocks. Four firefighters were killed on this scree slope on July 10, 2001. Jason Emhoff escaped with severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body.

(photo reprinted with permission from the Fire Leadership Development Committee)

Fire crews could do little but wait and take shelter after flames erupted. (photo reprinted with permission from the Fire Leadership Development Committee)

Fire crews could do little but wait and take shelter after flames erupted.

(photo reprinted with permission from the Fire Leadership Development Committee)

“He’s got an excellent attitude,” says his proud father, Steve Emhoff, immediate past governor of Kiwanis’ Pacific Northwest District. “He’s very courageous.”

Jason suffered severe burns over more than 40 percent of his body—mostly to his hands—during the Thirtymile Fire in Washington in July 2001. He was within feet of the four firefighters who lost their lives that day. And while talking to nurses and family members, all he could think to do was speak out about what happened and how he could do something to help others in his situation.

“Two things happened while Jason was in the hospital that led to our district’s Governor’s Project,” Steve says.

“One day in the mail he received a quilt. We don’t really know exactly who it’s from, but there was a letter in there. There are women around the country who make pieces of quilts, and a woman in Georgia puts all the pieces together. The women decide who in the country will get the quilt. These people who didn’t even know Jason thought enough of him to send him this quilt.

“The second thing that happened is one of his nurses walked in and handed him a Japanese fountain filled with river rocks. Each rock had a hand-written word of inspiration on it. She volunteered as a counselor at a burn camp run by the Northwest Burn Foundation. Jason asked her if he could volunteer. She said, ‘Of course.’”

After his long recovery—he spent 10½ weeks in the hospital, half in intensive care, and had eight operations, one in which doctors inserted his left hand into his abdomen to allow the fat in his abdomen to grow onto his hand so skin grafts could be done—Jason looked forward to talking with the young burn victims at the camp.

“My son has gone up every year and it’s really good for him,” Steve says of Jason, who has regained more than 60 percent use of his left hand and more than 90 percent of his right. “He can relate to these kids. He likes to take the 17-year-olds who are allowed out of the camp out to Puget Sound, kayaking, whitewater rafting, hiking. He has a presentation he puts on. In fact, he was keynote speaker this past January at the Northwest Burn Foundation’s annual fundraiser.”

Related stories: