The Bug Fire started on Aug. 8 and burned more than 93,000 acres north of Cold Springs and Stead. One person was killed as a result of the blaze, and nine homes were destroyed.
On Aug. 22—five days before the Bug Fire was fully contained—the Hawk Fire broke out near Somersett. It burned around 15,000 acres and was contained on Sept. 9, killing one person and destroying 47 residences.
Meanwhile, several more fires were burning in Northern Nevada.
Firefighting is a tough job to begin with—both mentally and physically—and when fires overlap like they did this summer, the challenges mount. Two firefighters spoke with the RN&R about what it was like to be on more than one frontline.
A 21-day work week
Cameron Moore, 29, a wildland engine captain with Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, was on his 10th consecutive day fighting the New Pass Fire near Austin when his division chief made a request.
“He comes to me and asks, ‘Hey, we got a new fire in Reno. Are you OK with getting reassigned to the Bug Fire?’” said Moore. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’” He loaded up his things and drove back to Reno.
Later that day, and for 11 days after, Moore worked on the Bug Fire as one of the heavy-equipment bosses with the Truckee Meadows dozers.
“We were assigned a lot to the Rancho Haven area at 395 and Hallelujah Junction, and it was chaotic for sure,” said Moore. “It was the wind. The fuel moistures were near historic lows.”
Fuel, in local wildfire speak, refers to sagebrush, rabbitbrush, cheatgrass and juniper. When fuel moistures are low, it means the “fuel” catches fire easily.
Halfway through Moore’s assignment on the Bug Fire, a storm rolled in.
“The storm was just east of us, and we got the winds out of it,” Moore said. “The fire, normally pushing to the northeast, switched directions on us and started pushing directly west with those winds. And that’s when it jumped 395. It was some of the most erratic fire behavior I’ve seen in Reno in my career.”
After 21 consecutive days of working on the Bug and New Pass fires, Moore took his three-day R&R.
“I’ve only extended a few times in my career, only ever to, like, 17 or 18 days, just enough to where we could meet objectives and kind of wrap things up,” said Moore. “But 21 days—that’s the first time I’ve done 21 days, and it’s very much taxing, especially with what was going on the later half of the role on the Bug—chaotic fire behavior like that when I’m already two-plus weeks into a fire assignment. It’s definitely mentally taxing.”
Two days into his R&R, the Hawk Fire started.
“I live in northwest Reno,” said Moore. “So I got quite the view of it from my house and realized, oh boy, this is going to go big.”
Moore called his battalion chief to see if they needed an extra person. The next morning, on which would have been his third day of R&R, he was assigned to the Hawk Fire.
Fighting a wildland fire and city fires, all in one day
John Gerbatz, 42, a fire captain with the Reno Fire Department, Station 13, was working an extra day at Station 4 on Ralston Street when he and his engine company saw the Hawk Fire start from the front lot.
“You could quickly tell that it was going to be one of those fires that was going to go big just by how fast it grew in a short amount of time,” said Gerbatz.
Later that afternoon, a call came in for an activated fire alarm at a warehouse off North Virginia Street.
“We got to the warehouse, and it was pretty evident that the fire alarm was going off because there’s so much smoke in the area,” said Gerbatz. “As we circled around to the back of the warehouse, we saw a little spot fire.”
After taking care of the spot fire, Gerbatz noticed the main body of the fire was hitting a small pocket of mobile homes in the Seneca Drive neighborhood. He observed that there were about 20 homes to protect and—only four crew members who’d been sent to the spot fire, so he called for additional resources.
“We pulled around, and we protected what we could,” he said. “(The fire) was already pretty established in a couple homes. And then, by the time where it was really getting bad, I had two more additional engine companies coming to help.”
Gerbatz explained that, to protect homes, firefighters divert and direct the fire away from the them.
“You’re not just, like, rogue spraying out into the sagebrush, hoping to put it out,” he said. “You let it come to you, which is an uncomfortable feeling, because you have heat, smoke, everything’s blowing at you. So, it’s just kind of this wait-and-hold thing. And then, at that trigger point, you engage.”
Gerbatz and his engine company spent more than nine consecutive hours on the Hawk Fire. After that, since the fire was in the jurisdiction of Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue, they returned to Station 4—and went right back to running calls in the city.
“It’s one of those days where you come into work, and you think it’s just going to be kind of a standard day, and then next thing you know, you’re out of your station for nine hours, and the time flies by, and you’re exhausted afterwards,” said Gerbatz.
Gerbatz referred to the Hawk as a “career fire,” meaning it was a significant event. What did he learn from the experience?
“That being in the smoke for that long kind of screws you up for weeks, months, because you’re inhaling it,” he said. “Most of my crew’s eyes were just bloodshot red. You have all your stuff on. We had our masks on. We had respirators on, but still—you’re in it the whole time.”
Lessons for the future
Moore and Gerbatz both have advice for how to prepare for the next time that wildfires break out again in the region.
Moore noted that Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue partners with Living With Fire, an organization that provides resources to homeowners, educators, community groups and firefighting professionals to improve defensible space, ensure homes use proper building materials, manage native and non-native vegetation, and prepare for evacuation.
Said Gerbatz: “If you live adjacent to the ‘wildland urban interface,’ we call it, you’ve got be cognizant of how well your home is going to survive with those conditions—so, clearing that space around your property the best you can, not having ornamental shrubs next to your home, a bunch of junk in your yard. Those fuels that will take it from the sagebrush to your home, you want to get rid of.”
It’s important for people to “make smart choices” while dirt biking, shooting and recreating in any of the mountain ranges, Gerbatz added. “People don’t realize, in the heat of July, August, even September, how fast these (fires) start to move. And if you have any kind of wind on them, they’re going to get away from you. Until you’ve seen it in real life—how fast these things can move through terrain—you don’t believe it. … If you had a spark from a ricocheting bullet, you’re probably not going to notice it right away. And by the time you do, it’s going to be too late.”
Funding for this story was provided by the Institute for Nonprofit News and Google News Initiative’s Disaster Response Fund.