SPOKANE, Wash. — When a massive wildfire swept across Spokane County on Saturday, firefighters found themselves overwhelmed. They had to deploy to a fire so large and fast-moving that every available resource in the area still wasn’t enough.
Brian Turpen, a Fire Equipment Operator with the City of Spokane Fire Department, was on the front lines where conditions were far more dangerous than most people could imagine.
“There were flames 150 feet tall behind us just moving in on us,” Turpen said.
Turpen said smoke became so thick at times that firefighters dropped to their knees just to breathe. Some crews vomited while continuing to work. Firefighters used intravenous fluids to stay hydrated as they fought the fire all afternoon and into the evening without a break.
Before the fires started, crews were anticipating wildfire conditions and had already increased staffing. In those critical first hours, local crews battled the advancing flames without out-of-state reinforcements. The Spokane Fire Department, along with several other agencies, deployed every available firefighter
“The front of the fire was so wide that we didn’t have enough resources. Our resources were spread thin,” Turpen said.
Homes, cars and entire neighborhoods were engulfed in flames. For a department known for its aggressive approach to firefighting, the situation forced difficult decisions about where to focus limited resources.
“We are not used to seeing houses burn without doing anything,” Turpen explained. “Incidents like this we had to, we had to get ahead of it and stop it.”
Turpen himself worked a 39-hour shift. Many others remained on the front lines even longer.
“I was just in one little part of it. But on the radio I could hear the magnitude of the situation,” Turpen said.
As resources began arriving from across the country, Turpen said witnessing the influx of support at the incident command post at the fairgrounds was remarkable.
“I stuck out on Havana for 10 minutes with all these resources leaving. It is great to see everybody come and help us,” he said.
The arrival of mutual aid from neighboring states and regions provided critical support to exhausted local crews.
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