SPOKANE, Washington — Two retired firefighters in a Spokane neighborhood said they relied on training, quick planning and garden hoses as fire moved toward homes on their block.
Scott Butler, a retired Spokane fire captain, said he and Jim Richards, a retired firefighter paramedic from Spokane County Fire District 9, decided early that they were staying to defend the area. “We were sitting there overlooking the bluff. We could see the houses start to torch off, and we kind of started coming up with a soft plan on what we were going to do, because we both knew we were going to stay, and we were coming up with a plan on how we were going to attack the fire if it came up the hill,” Butler said.
They changed into the clothes they had available to give themselves as much protection as possible during the fire. Richards said he put down a wet line as flames approached. “I did a wet line and the flame front came right there. And as you can see, I dropped the hose and the wet line held,” Richards said.
Butler said their training returned quickly, even though they were working with far less equipment than they had during their fire service careers. “We’ve never fought so much fire with so little water. Ever. Never would have dreamed that I would be doing something like that,” Butler said.
Two other men in the neighborhood, a retired teacher and a retired airline pilot, joined them as they tried to hold the line. Butler explained they focused on slowing the fire in lighter grasses before it could spread into trees and bushes. “The fire was coming up through those lighter grasses really fast as the wind was driving it, and we knew we had to kind of keep it down when it hit the trees and the bushes. If we could stop it there, we could save all the houses on that side, because there wouldn’t be enough fuel to ignite the houses at that point,” Butler said.
Butler said they told the group to wear jeans, work boots, gloves and hoodies to get as close as they could to wildland gear with civilian clothes. He also described one point when conditions turned dangerous as smoke and debris overtook them on a gravel road. “We told all the guys get jeans, work boots, gloves and a hoodie so you can cover your hood. And that’s as close to the wildland gears we could get with just civilian clothes. And there was a point where Joe and I had to lay down on that gravel road,” Butler said. “As the smoke and everything overtook us, we could. We couldn’t breathe. There was so much stuff blowing into our eyes and faces. And as we laid down, I had this just this overwhelming sense of guilt that I was going to get Joe hurt. So that for me, that was kind of the most human side of it, that I felt that whole day because I thought, you know, these guys trust me, and I’m putting them in harm’s way to try to help them protect the whole neighborhood. And I was afraid that I was going to get one of them seriously hurt or worse at that point.”
Garden hoses were available at the homes, though some were damaged by the heat as conditions changed with the wind. Butler and Richards were not able to save every home on the block, but they said they saved most of them. Richards said he recorded video so neighbors would understand what happened. “I knew that the neighbors would never know what happened if they didn’t see it. And that’s I wasn’t taking the video for myself. I didn’t even think about it. I was just thinking, you know what? If it burns down, at least they know why it burnt down. They’re going to understand that,” Richards said.
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