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Father recalls son’s battle in Thirtymile Fire

Immediate Past Pacific Northwest District Governor Steve Emhoff says the events of July 2001 led him to focus on children at burn camps for the district’s 2005-06 Governor’s Project.

Though father and son have talked a lot about the Thirtymile Fire over the past five years, Steve says “it’s not one of those things where we sit down every day to talk about it.”

However, Jason has shared the events of the day with his father, who shares them with Kiwanis magazine.

“All of the 14 members of the fire crew who were there thought the fire would stay on one side and move up the canyon. But the fire came across right at them. They had 30 to 45 minutes where six of them went up in the rocks to gain elevation and to see what the fire was doing. In the fire manual, rocks, or a “scree slope,” is a good safety zone. That’s where the fire can’t get you. When the fire turned, everyone deployed, and six of them went up into the rocks. The fire swept across. The rest went down on the road. Those in the rocks set up their shelters. Where they were in the rocks was kind of like a ravine. When the heat came across, it came up through the rocks and up into their shelters. They weren’t burned. They asphyxiated from the heat. Jason said ‘I could hear them screaming. I could hear myself screaming. Then it got quiet.’ When he knew they were gone, that’s when he got up and ran.

“He didn’t have his gloves on, and he was in so much pain that in his mind he was concentrating on his pain. His body for whatever reason didn’t absorb the ‘super heat.’

“He got up and ran up the rocks. He got behind a boulder. He crouched down behind it. He had his left hand on the rock. There is still to this day a blood-red handprint on that rock. The heat was so bad he ran down the rocks toward the river. He remembers a log about two feet wide he couldn’t get across because it was on fire. There is nothing in the rocks to this day but a line where that log had disintegrated. Some people were in the water. But he knew from EMT training that if he jumped into the water he’d suffer from hypothermia.

“He got in a crew van and sort of pulled the door shut. When people got out of the river they came to the van and tried to help. When additional rescue efforts began, because of the firestorm—it’s just like a hurricane wind—it took about 45 minutes to get rescue crews in. He was later airlifted out.

“I didn’t know he was even there. His crew had just come from another fire. A phone message was left for me. I didn’t get the message for almost two hours.

“They wanted me to call the doctor before heading to the hospital. They wanted to describe what I’d see when I got there. And I’m glad they did. When I walked in there, Jason looked like a mummy. I didn’t even recognize him. You could only see his ears and nose.

“I got there at about one in the morning, and he wanted to talk. He wanted to tell me what happened. He told the story even with all the morphine in him.

“And you know what? His story never changed.

“Everyone says he has the best recollection of what happened up there.”