Monica LaSalle, Peak to Peak.   Our community knows the tragedy that comes with wildfires. Having gone through most recently the Cold Springs Fire and the Four Mile Fire, the latest wildfire in California is especially heart wrenching for many of us. Therefore it is no surprise that local firefighters from Nederland Fire Department and Timberline Fire Department have traveled to Northern California to help fight one of the worst wildfires in the state’s history. Called the Camp Fire, it was reported to have consumed 125,000 acres and was only 30% contained as of Tuesday morning. 7554 structures had been taken by the fire, with 52,000 evacuee reported and 1385 people in shelters. As of Tuesday morning, 42 people have been reported dead and 228 missing. Three firefighters have been injured fighting the fire.

Nederland Fire Capt. Eric Abramson, Chris Samuelson and John Carder from Timberline have dispatched to the fire. They arrived on Saturday in Timberline Brush Truck 53 and began working the blaze on Sunday. While communicating with John Carder this morning, all he had time to report is “We’re in Division QQ, Branch 11. Time to write anything would be hard.” Earlier on in their deployment, Eric Abramson expressed gratitude for being able to pitch in on the fight and give back to another wildfire effort where other departments from as far as Oregon, Washington and California had pitched in during local firefighting efforts. It should be noted that Timberline stands to bring in 14,000.00 or more in revenue for sending a truck over to assist.

In 2016, The Cold Springs Fire burned more than 528 acres and destroyed 8 homes. Two campers failed to extinguish a campfire illegally built on private property and were convicted of arson and expected to do work release to pay back upwards of 1.25 million dollars in damages from the fire. The Four-Mile Fire, started by an under-extinguished slash pit burn on the morning of Sept 6, 2010 burned 6,181 acres and destroyed 168 homes, costing 14.1 million in fire suppression efforts and 217 million in home owner insurance claims.

As of Monday morning, the entire town of Chico was declared destroyed. When asked, Abramson described the scene as akin to a bomb blast area, comparing it to as if an area similar to downtown Longmont had been wiped out. He stated that over one night, 8 homes had been taken.

North Metro also has firefighters in attendance, and are prepared to stay as long as two weeks. Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the Camp Fire.

(Originally published in the November 15, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)