Most of us, not surprisingly, focus on the flames.
We watch on TV as grassy stretches of backwoods California catch fire. Then we check back, again and again, on the scorecard from the fire lines: acres burned, percentage contained, firefighters on duty, structures threatened, structures destroyed.
This fire season, those numbers have become a mantra of misery. But while the wildfires’ roll call grinds on – the Ferguson, the Carr, the Ranch and River, the Holy – other smaller stories play out in and around the containment lines.
Here are a few of those tales, under the radar and behind the scenes, that you may have missed:
“‘Ocean of compassion’: Support pours in for couple who accidentally started deadly Carr Fire” — from the Record Searchlight in Redding, Aug. 15
REDDING, Calif. – A Facebook message posted Sunday offering to forward compassionate messages to the couple whose trailer started a deadly wild fire in Northern California took off in ways the woman who posted it never expected. After she read news reports that the Carr Fire had started because of a blown tire on a trailer, Rachel Pilli of Redding prayed for the couple in the car.
“I couldn’t imagine the grief,” she said. “If I were the one responsible for the accident I couldn’t imagine the shame and the torture I’d feel.”
Officials say the Carr Fire began on the afternoon of July 23 close to Whiskeytown Lake when a flat tire caused a rim-riding trailer to scrape the road, causing sparks. The sparks ignited nearby brush and the fire grew quickly – destroying parts of Whiskeytown, flattening most of Keswick, and burning communities in Shasta and west Redding.
Officials haven’t released the couple’s names, but when Pilli visited The Gathering Church on Sunday, she met a firefighter who said they were his mother’s neighbors. The firefighter agreed to give them a card with Pilli’s sympathetic message.
Pilli thought she’d try to collect more well-wishes from friends on Facebook so she could send a few cards from other people along with hers.
On Sunday evening, she posted the following:
“Many of us have been praying for this man, 81. I learned that his wife is blaming herself for the Carr Fire because she asked him to take the trailer in the first place. She has been crying day and night on her couch. They live several miles away from Redding.”
When she woke up Monday morning she read dozens of responses. It left her in tears.
It was “an ocean of compassion, of love and grace,” she said.
The cards keep coming.
“Fallen firefighter honored in Fresno. ‘There will be a baby Hughes’” — from the Fresno Bee, Aug. 8
Hundreds gathered in downtown Fresno on Saturday morning to honor Brian Hughes, the firefighter who lost his life in the Ferguson Fire on July 29.
The 50-vehicle procession carrying Hughes’ body crossed through Inyo and M streets at 10 a.m. below a billowing American flag tied between two fire truck ladders.
Smoke hung thick in the summer sky, a sign that the fire Hughes lost his life battling is still raging in the nearby mountains.
Inside Valdez Hall, Hughes’ colleagues and family remembered him as dedicated, selfless, positive and hard-working.
Before his death, Hughes was expecting a baby, due next February, with his fiancée, Paige Miller.
“I will never forget the excitement when he told me he and Paige were having a baby,” sister Meriel Hughes said. “It breaks my heart that he will never experience fatherhood, but I am happy there will be a baby Hughes.”
“Carr Fire bear kicking back in hammock as her burned paws heal” — from the Record Searchlight, Aug. 14
The Whiskeytown bear whose paws were severely burned in the Carr Fire is healing quickly and walking around as best she can. The 1-year-old bruin also is liking the comfort of a hammock that’s hanging in a covered holding facility on California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) property in Rancho Cordova, agency spokeswoman Kirsten Macintyre said Tuesday.
“She seems to be using and enjoying the hammock,” she said. Otherwise, the bear is doing “great,” Macintyre said.
Credit: California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
“Tribes call on spirits to give Hawaiian, Samoan firefighters strength to fight Carr Fire” — from the Record Searchlight, Aug. 15
Twenty-one firefighters from American Samoa and Hawaii were welcomed with prayer, food, drumming, dancing and singing by North State Native Americans in an historic gathering on Tuesday night in Redding.
“When we first heard they were coming” to help fight the Carr Fire, “we wanted to reach out to them,” said Jack Potter Jr., Redding Rancheria tribal chairman. “It’s traditional protocol when you have guests in your land.”
Seventeen firefighters from American Samoa and four from Hawaii joined 168 North State residents at Redding Rancheria’s cultural arbor in spiritual songs and dance.
“It’s the first time the Winnemem dancers came out of Winnemem territory,” Potter said. “The Pit River Feather Dancers did a dance for the animals, and prayer dances for the water. Then the Winnemem dancers did a fire and water dance; they did the war dance to give strength to the firefighters for this war — the war against fire.”
“Card of Thanks” — from a reader in the Mariposa Gazette, Aug. 9
“Thank you, Jim Allen, plumber, for your help with the repair of my plumbing problem at no charge. I appreciated that you worked through the triple-digit weather and dug down four feet of muddy water to the area of the leak, a hole in the pipe. My neighbor, Hank Lane, also received much of the water spill-off on his property and was able to find you while I was still evacuated from Lushmeadows.”
“Ferguson Fire leaves many neighbors hurting’‘ — from columnist Dr. Bill Atwood in the Sierra Star in Oakhurst, Aug. 9
As the smoke from the Ferguson Fire and other blazes begins to subside and the firefighters are sent back to their respective stations we find that there exists a group who have been financially harmed by the fires.
To be sure, the owners and operators of the local hotels and motels along with the owners of vacation rentals have seen a severe dropoff in the revenue stream that normally makes it possible to make it through the year.
Restaurants have seen the effects of far less traffic heading toward Yosemite or to Bass Lake which means that the cash registers aren’t as full as hoped for. Gasoline stations are not as crowded as when the tourists are filling up boat tanks, campers and trucks hauling trailers.
Then there are the hundreds of employees who have seen fewer hours than planned or even zero hours because their jobs have disappeared once the smoke arrived. I talk with many high school and college students in the spring about their summer job plans and their desire to work and save so that they can head off to school with some money in the bank to last until next year. The lost employment cannot be made up. Those hours are gone with the wind.
We can help our neighbors. Those of us whose employment and income are not dependent upon the tourist industry directly can go into town to buy meals out. The crowds aren’t nearly as bad as they could be and the restaurant will be happy to see you. Be sure to tip the server well; in fact, overtip them to help ease the pain of the lost wages.
“Wildfire blocked SF kids from Lake County camp. Sierra’s Camp Jack Hazard stepped in” — from the Modesto Bee, Aug. 2
Camp Jack Hazard, a long-time High Sierra spot for Modesto-area residents, stepped up this week for San Francisco-area kids whose travel plans went awry. A wildfire kept an at-risk youth group called PSI World from its usual camp near Clear Lake, so leaders scrambled to arrange a stay at Camp Jack Hazard.
The camp, along Highway 108 roughly 100 miles from Modesto, had ended its 2018 season last week. Executive Director Jason Poisson said he then got a call from PSI World, which asked to rent the place from Monday to Friday. Camp Jack Hazard, a long-time High Sierra spot for Modesto-area residents, stepped up this week for San Francisco-area kids whose travel plans went awry.
Sixty-five young campers and about two dozen adults made the trip and have been enjoying the scenery, swimming pool, arts and other activities. “This has been an incredible adventure,” PSI World Vice President Kathy Quinlan-Perez said in a voice mail to the Bee.
The camp dates to the early 1920s, when Modesto residents Jack and Buena Hazard started driving youths to the area for spartan camping. It soon came under the YMCA of Stanislaus County, which ran it until the Y chapter folded in 2009 amid financial trouble. The camp has been run since 2011 by the Jack and Buena Foundation, based in Modesto, and is rented to users around Northern California.
