Austin firefighters recall ‘surreal’ California blaze
Five endured long shifts over two weeks as they helped fight Carr Fire.
Austin Fire Specialist Stacy Oakley used to watch wildfires burn in California and around the world on the news.
Earlier this month, though, he got a phone call — Oakley and four other Austin firefighters were needed in Northern California to help put out the Carr Fire, a massive wildland fire that engulfed more than 229,000 acres, destroyed 1,079 homes and killed three firefighters.
“It was very interesting ... you know, you’re watching this on the news for obviously weeks before we went out there, and then all of a sudden you end up out there. So that was a little surreal,” Oakley said. He had fought fires in Fort Davis and Amarillo this year, but this was the first time he’d gone out of state to help.
Oakley traveled with Austin Battalion Chief Randy Denzer, Lt. Steve Gibbon, Lt. Mike Scott and Fire Specialist Jim Buhrkuhl on Aug. 8 to Shasta and Trinity counties, where for two weeks they worked shifts lasting 16 to 28 hours, assisting a fight that began July 23, California fire officials said. Austin’s firefighters were part of a group of 94 Texas firefighters who assisted in laying fire retardant, dousing flames with dirt or water, and keeping the fire within a containment line, Denzer said. The Carr Fire is now 100 percent contained, they said.
Since returning home Aug. 22, the firefighters have reflected on what they learned in California and what they brought from Austin.
Denzer said working on the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire — which killed two people, injured 12 and destroyed 1,660 homes — helped the team battle the blaze in California.
“The fact that I had guys and girls on this task force that I led that had been to Bastrop and other big fires, it helped us in being prepared for what we saw (in California),” Denzer said. “For most of us, this is the largest fire we’ve ever seen in our career. You’re standing on one mountaintop, at a lookout position, and you can see a fire that looks like it’s in another part of the state and then find out it’s actually the same fire, it’s kind of mind-boggling.”
Temperatures were 105 degrees during the day and 55 at night, Denzer said. California’s air is much drier than in Texas, he explained, making the conditions “brutally hot” but more comfortable than the oppressive humidity in Austin.
“The temperatures were very similar as they are here, which was really not something I was expecting,” Oakley said, adding he had envisioned cooler temperatures in the 70s and 80s during the day.