Wildfire! Wildfire! (August 05, 2005)

Pleasanton firefighter's tales from the gates of Hell
By Carol Bogart

Towering flames roar up the ravine. On the ridge, Pleasanton fire captain Peter Richert's heart is racing. "You're at the top of the hill," he remembers, "and it sounds like a freight train comin' at you. You're watchin' it come at you and you're goin', 'OK, when are you going to leave?'" In that moment, he pictures the gates of Hell.

Richert doesn't find such dicey situations exciting. Fighting wildfires is "dirty, hot and dangerous," and the 41-year-old is no more attracted to the work than he is to being first on the scene of a fatal accident, then having to tell bereft parents they've lost a son or daughter.

Richert and his wife Sandra have two children, toddlers Jordan and Samantha. Richert was a firefighter when Sandra met him and she accepts the perils of his job. "She understands me," he said. "I've watched people die in cars. I dig them out of cars all the time with the Jaws of Life on the freeway. I think my chances of being involved in an auto accident and passing (away) are actually higher than me passing in a wildland fire."

But he knows things can and do happen, and the two are "making arrangements" just in case. His own parents died together in a fiery plane crash in Costa Rica in 2000. The story made national headlines. San Francisco travel agents Siegfried and Therese Richert were traveling with former CIA head Admiral Stansfield Turner to set up a speaking tour. Turner's wife, Eli Karen, was also killed when the small plane slammed into the side of a house on take off. Gravely injured, Turner survived. Peter Richert's parents weren't as lucky.

A firefighter since 1987, Richert believes it's experience, not luck, that helped protect him in 2003 when he was on the front lines or what today is called the most destructive wildfire in California history. Along with firefighter Bob Meyers, who also lives in Pleasanton, and engineer Randy Tripp, Richert was on the strike team that helped contain the 240,000-acre Cedar Fire in San Diego County. In combination with another large wildfire there, the Cedar Fire burned more than 2400 businesses and homes - and took 16 lives.

One who died was Steve Rucker, a paramedic-turned-Novato fire engineer who Richert once worked with in Contra Costa County. Richert remembers, "He and I were working together on an ambulance. We sat beside each other, side by side."

Of Rucker's death, Richert reports that the weather shifted and an intentionally set backfire blew out of control. "The terrain was such, it was sort of a valley," he remembers. "They call that a chimney because smoke - the wind - gets drawn up the valley."

Rucker and his engine company were at the top of the chimney, trying to protect the homes. "The fire ran up that chimney and they got burned," said Richert. "The fire overran them." Only Rucker, though, was killed

Just before it happened, Richert and his crew had gone back to camp. They even passed the site where, not long after they fell asleep, Rucker died. Richert knows, "That could easily have been our assignment."

Richert said the Division of Forestry initiates "a big investigation when there's a line of duty death." The investigation, he said, focuses on whether the CDF division supervisor should have: * made the decision for the crew to be there * realized that the fire was coming up there * communicated the information

It's the CDF's responsibility to determine, "Who did what right and who did what wrong and how can we learn from it and keep it from happening again?" Richert explains. While more firefighters' lives have been lost in smaller wildfires than the Cedar Fire, he said, fire departments overall "are losing more firefighters every year," despite Homeland Security grants and extra training. He thinks it could be because so many experienced firefighters are retiring. "We call it a brain drain," he said.

Pointing to fire prevention campaigns, better equipment, quicker response times and fires that are put out more quickly, green recruits don't get the same experience older firefighters have had, adds Richert.

With his many experiences fighting real wildfires, Richert rarely attends the Camp Parks wildfire exercise staged for the past 12 years. There, firefighters only work with "three-foot flame lengths." Richert has faced flame lengths of 50 to 100 feet - flames that dwarf all but the tallest trees.

Richert has helped fight so many wildfires that he can predict what the flames will do, based on the wind, the terrain, the heat and the humidity. The best time to fight a wildfire is at night, he said, because the winds die down, humidity rises, it's cooler and it's safer.

Richert remembers his closest call, an assignment he now thinks he should have refused. A CDF supervisor instructed Richert's team to try to save a 100 foot tree that was burning in its center. "They call it a 'cats eye,'" Richert explains, "Inside the tree, it's on fire."

He and his crew didn't want to try to save the tree. They thought it was a bad idea, but went ahead and followed orders.

"We did a lot of the right things," he remembers. "We parked far away from it - about 120 feet away from the tree - and we pulled hose to it." Because the tree was so tall, they had to shoot water up to it. "That's a 'killer tree,'" said Richert. He'll never forget how, just as the crew got positioned, "It fell." His crew had planned for that possibility. They calculated where the tree would go if it fell, where it was burning the most, and where they needed to be positioned to put themselves up and away from the danger.

No one was hurt, but even so, when the tree came crashing down it showered the firefighters with sparks and ash and dust. Richert often thinks about whether inhaling so much smoke will someday trigger lung cancer as he believes it has in other firefighters.

"I always worry about that," he acknowledges, "we all do."

Richert describes a firefighter's work as so physically demanding it's unlikely any on his crew will actively be fighting fires after they turn 50. Even at 45, he said, "you start to feel it."

Richert loves his job but does dream of his retirement. He and Sandra have a vacation home at Squaw Valley. Years ago, Richert was on the ski patrol. He thinks maybe someday, he'll rejoin it.
The wildfire strike team

Wildfire strike teams are part of California's "mutual aid plan" - a plan Pleasanton fire captain Peter Richert describes as one of the most sophisticated mutual aid plans in the country. If California Division of Forestry firefighters call for, say, 200 wildfire strike teams - one or two strike teams will come from each county. Larger counties and departments may send more, and smaller departments decide whether they have any bodies they can spare.

Alameda County has three areas - north, east and south. The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Dept. is one of five departments that contribute an engine and a crew for the "east" area which includes Livermore-Pleasanton, Fremont, Newark, Alameda County Fire, Union City and, sometimes, a crew will be contributed by the Livermore Lab. A battalion chief heads up each strike team.

Once on site, crews work 24 hours on, 24 hours off. The reason the Cedar Fire got so big, Richert explains, was because resources (firefighters and equipment) were tied up fighting more than a dozen other wildfires. The Cedar Fire burned out of control for 18 hours before reinforcements could arrive.

In San Diego County, Richert's strike team backed up prison hand crews - the handcrews' job is to dig the fire line - and the "Navajo Hot Shots," Navajo Indians who'd come in from Arizona to help build backfires.

Richert's all-wheel drive fire engine carried 500 gallons of water. His 4-man team manned the hoses.
Tips for preventing wildfires

Densely wooded western forests of cedar, hemlock and fir, once ignited - burn intensely - and make traditional firefighting particularly hazardous. To protect homes and other structures, as well as responding firefighters: * Construct roofs and exterior walls from non-combustible or fire resistant material such as slate, tile, sheet iron, aluminum, brick or stone. Treat wood siding, cedar shingles, exterior wood paneling and other highly combustible materials with fire retardant chemicals. * Clean roof surfaces and gutters free of pine needles, leaves and branches regularly. * Space landscape plants to limit fire from spreading to surrounding vegetation or structures. * Maintain fuel breaks around all structures. * Store gasoline only in approved containers, and well away from occupied buildings. * Store firewood and other combustibles away from structures. * Keep firefighting tools (such as ladders, shovels, rakes and water buckets) handy and water hoses connected. * Have a fire escape and evacuation plan. Include current phone numbers for emergency service providers, just in case. Property entrances should be clearly posted, and it's a good idea to ensure roads and driveways are suitable for emergency vehicles (12 to 16 feet wide), with adequate turnaround space. * Be careful when barbecuing, camping and even operating equipment near flammable brush or dry lawns. Even a carelessly discarded cigarette can spark a wildfire. - Source:U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

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