Fire near Sunnyside spread needlessly, several say at meeting

SUNNYSIDE, Yakima County — Firefighters told one man with a water tank he couldn't proceed to his restaurant to protect it from approaching flames. It burned down.

No one stopped a man who drove down a smoke-covered highway, where he ran off the road and died of what was believed to be a heart attack.

Lawmakers heard these stories and others from angry residents complaining about contradictory orders, lack of action and jurisdictional concerns they blame for allowing two Aug. 20 lightning-strike fires to grow into a destructive 49,000-acre wildland fire.

"If you're not going to fight [the fire], get the hell out of there and let us," said Paul Tilley, who lives near the intersections of state highways 24 and 241, part of an area blackened by the Dry Creek fire complex that burned down the Silver Dollar Cafe and a state highway bridge.

Residents' anger

Residents unloaded on firefighters who they said refused to help build fire lines because they weren't authorized but then denied people access to do it themselves.

"Hope you got thick skins," state Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, told the dozen or so uniformed fire officials in the room.

Firefighters did not dispute many of the complaints, but they described a large, rapidly changing range fire complicated by spotty radio communication and jurisdictional problems.

All told, about 100 people attended the meeting Tuesday at Snipes Mountain Brewery and Restaurant.

Lawmakers wanted to hear about fires in "no man's land," areas so remote they're not part of a tax-supported protection district. Firefighters from neighboring districts often do not respond to these areas for fear of liability.

Legislation planned

After the meeting, the lawmakers said they plan to introduce new legislation in 2010 to allow — perhaps even require — equipped firefighters to fight fires wherever they can.

State Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, called it a "duty to serve" law.

Resident Darlene Dahlin gave one of the saddest testimonies.

She lives near the intersection of the two highways and had invited a longtime family friend, George Calkin Jr., of Molalla, Ore., to spend the weekend.

However, they grew frightened as the fire grew on the second day and decided to move her fifth wheel out of harm's way, she said.

They talked about visiting the nearby Silver Dollar, but she changed her mind when she saw how thick the smoke was.

She instead headed toward Sunnyside in her truck. Calkin, following in her fifth wheel, evidently didn't see her and headed west on Highway 24 toward Yakima.

Man found dead

Later that evening, he was found dead in the fifth wheel, which had veered off the road into a pasture. She said he died of a heart attack.

"Why he was allowed to go up that highway ... I'll never know," she said.

Firefighters say they weren't at a location at that time to stop traffic from entering Highway 24. At some point, however, traffic was barred from the highway.

Rick Lounsbury, owner of the Silver Dollar, told lawmakers he had left his restaurant to help a neighbor and returned with a truck carrying 3,000 gallons of water. A firefighter told him the road was too dangerous and wouldn't let him through.

Bob Gear, the Pasco fire chief who served as an operations commander during the Dry Creek fire, listened patiently and answered questions, but said in an interview afterward that more laws won't solve anything.

"No man's land"

People in "no man's land" should simply form their own tax-supported district, annex into a neighboring district or contract with a fire agency, he said.

"Why have [residents pay for] fire protection in some places but not others, but everybody gets help?" he said after the meeting.

Gear expressed sympathy for Calkin and the Lounsburys but said he does not keep tabs on everything individual firefighters say and do.

Crews had been battling dozens of lightning fires all through the previous night, and conditions changed rapidly over the course of an hour. Radios and cellular phones sometimes didn't work in the rugged canyons and hillsides.

Mike Harris, fire chief of Benton County Fire District 1, showed pictures of the fires and of firefighters helping move propane tanks away from the Silver Dollar, trying to dispel the notion that they simply watched.

While the restaurant was being used as a staging ground, firefighters were not in a position to fight the fire, they said. Many did not have radios. The only equipment in the parking lot was a fuel truck and private vehicles, Harris said. All the firefighting trucks were in the hills.

The fire that destroyed the Silver Dollar was not part of the two fires they had been fighting. He still doesn't know where it started, he said.

"It hit so hard, so fast, it caught them off guard," he said.

Ross Courtney: 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com