Keith Crossler BY
Do you ever get that feeling that you need to just drop what you’re doing and go? Not like I’m watching TV and I really need to go do the dishes type of feeling... but an unexplainable urge that you need to be somewhere else. Helping somewhere else or that even though you aren’t really available, but you just go. It was late August. All of the Palouse area was in a Red Flag Warning. Which means hot, dry, low humidity, and high winds. Potential for rapid fire growth is extreme. It’s very common that time of year. Fire departments all over the area know about the warnings and are prepared to go quickly and with extra resources. The faster you can stop an event the better. Mutual aid requests are made early into an event as it always takes time to get those extra resources on scene. This particular day, I was at work holding down the office by myself. So, I knew if there was a call that day, I wouldn’t be able to go. At least not until after the normal work hours. It was about 3 in the afternoon and we were dispatched to a reported barn fire out by Idler’s Rest. I waited and listened as the call unfolded. We had a quick response. A fully staffed structure truck headed out in hopes of knocking down the flames fast. Keeping it from spreading to anything else. Water tenders were close behind them with a brush truck out the door in case it spread to the grass. This is when you realize how dry it was that day. Before we even got the call, it was spreading to the grass. Moving quickly. Very quickly. Later, the guys would talk about the fire spotting out 20-30 feet from the fire lines. There was no stopping it out in the open fields. Mutual aid requests were given. Idaho Department of Lands was coming from their Deary office. They jumped on the radio and said they had already requested air support. As I sat and listened, I couldn’t help but feel like I needed to go help. But I couldn’t. I knew I would go after work, but man it was tough to just sit and listen. As the fire progressed, you could tell these guys were trying their absolute best to get a handle on things. It was an uphill battle at best. As the fire moved over a ridge and into the next draw, it was overwhelmingly obvious that things were getting worse and folks were getting confused. It was about 45 minutes into the event and I heard one of the water tenders say something we never want to here. “I’m up at the house and my escape route just burned over!” My heart sank. For the first time in my 22 years, I thought we had a real possibility of losing one of our own. I stood up, locked the office, and left. I had to go. There was no way I couldn’t be there to help. I raced to the station. I knew a bunch of our trucks were already out there, but I would take whatever was left and go help. To my surprise, there was still a brush truck there and waiting. I was by myself so I radioed into Command and asked if they would like me to respond. “Absolutely!”. Just as I was about to head out, another member pulled up. He jumped in and we were off.
