Rescues, Not Firefight, Prove Emotional for Firefighters

CHICO, Calif. (AP) — Casey Peck had never prayed so hard. His fire engine was trapped with dozens of cars and panicked people as an inferno roared through the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise on Thursday, hot enough to peel the firetruck's paint and melt its hoses, blowing relief valves designed to withstand 900 degrees and immolating nearby vehicles. Four people fleeing their flaming cars pounded on the firetruck's doors and were pulled inside, including a nurse from a nearby hospital with her pant leg on fire. The firefighters pressed fire-resistant blankets against the truck's windows to provide insulation against the searing heat, and waited out the firestorm. "Faith," Peck said Saturday as he came off a 48-hour double shift. "I don't think I've ever prayed that hard in my life." The fire that leveled the town of 27,000 people and claimed at least 23 lives roared in so fast that for the first 24 hours, there was virtually no firefight at all — just rescues. They mostly had to watch Paradise burn around them; the opposite of what most firefighters are used to doing. "It's not an understatement to say that you got your butts kicked" during the initial fire run Thursday, Cal Fire Butte County Unit Chief Darren Read told assembled firefighters Saturday, pausing several times to gather his emotions. "We had very little time to evacuate our communities, the people were trapped in their homes and their cars, their houses," said...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: News Resiliency Operations Source Type: news