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WSMR-Pictoglyph-006
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| Tyee Complex Wildfire 1994 |
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In the summer and early fall of 1994, the second largest wildfire in Washington State history devastated the Wenatchee National Forest near Wenatchee and Lake Chelan Washington, it was known as the Tyee Complex Wildfire. The firefighters from all over the U.S. already assigned to this fire, were exhausted from an already busy wildfire season and needed help. From this need and a request from the U.S. Forest Service, Task Force Wildfire was formed… this is the story of one twenty man strike team assigned to the Task Force.
July 23rd 1994, Marines at Camp Pendleton assigned to Air Contingency Force (ACF) received a call during a long weekend. The Officers of the Day from the 5th Bn 11th Marines and the 1st Bn 5th Marines instructed everyone to report to their duty stations immediately. Upon their arrival back at base, four days of wildfire training started. Men normally use to grabbing their rifles and packs were told to grab a Pulaski, shovel or McLeod and a personal fire shelter. The camouflage utility uniform was traded in for Nomex uniforms and a hard hat. In four days, nearly twelve hundred Marines were deployed to Washington State. A five-hour flight and an all night bus ride later, they reported to an unknown camp outside of Lake Chelan and setup home for the next thirty days.
The same morning, the reinforced battalions of 5/11 and 1/5 divided into twenty man strike teams led by a certified and experienced firefighter and were sent out to reassure the local community by putting out hotspots in an already devastated area. After about a week of putting out hotspots and digging fire lines miles away from the actual fire, many of the Marines were getting restless and wanted to make more of a difference. Later that same week, the Marines from 1/5 were relocated to Montana to help with another upcoming blaze and the Marines from 5/11,specifically strike team-2, were headed to the front of the fire.
Over the next three weeks, working side by side with experienced sawyers, Hot Shot crews, Smoke Jumpers and Forest Service and prisoner firefighting teams the Marine strike teams were no different than any fireman rookies turned salty. They were up at 4am and back at 8pm and they consumed five thousand calories a day. The once clean and bright Nomex suits were turned greenish from sweat and stained black from soot. Many went through a pair of boots per week as a result of falling in hot sinkholes. Over the weeks, they assisted in back burns and digging more than fifteen miles of fire line. Usually, they were inserted by helo or picked up by helo but never both in the same day. Most days, it was a ten-mile hike to get to the targeted area.
On one particular day, after a convoy ride to the rally point, an unknown firefighter shouted,"Grab a hose and go, attach it to the end when you get to it." Fifteen miles later across mountains and on a nameless ridge was the end of the hose and the front of the Tyee wildfire.
Trees were torching and strike team-2 started quickly improving a fire line. Sky cranes were called in to drop fire retardant on the hundred foot high torches. Unfortunately, one crane missed the target and hit team-2 instead. They continued digging the line the rest of the day through the heat and smoke and succeeded in helping prevent the Tyee fire from jumping the ridge with only two injuries. One man down from smoke inhalation and one man down from falling down the ridge, both men were sent out via helo MedEvac and both survived.
After thirty days, strike team-2 and the rest of 5/11 were sent home. No overtime pay, most with only a souvenir burrow cut from a burned tree and a Type 2 firefighter certification. Later, they received the Humanitarian Service Medal by order of the Secretary of the Army.
140,000 acres were burned in this fire; the following pictorial provides a visual account of the fire fighters from strike team-2, whom were not fire fighters by trade but were artillery men, radio operators and mechanics. (Hits: 1572)
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