Courtesy Photo | A hillside in Southern California is covered in ash, giving a snow-like appearance in...... read more read more
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LOSANGELES, Calif.--From afar, the scene resembled a winter wonderland, with snow blanketing the hilltops. However, a closer look revealed that the white coating was not snow, but ash. This was the haunting landscape that Master Sgt. Steven Boyd, Deputy Fire Chief of the Portland Air National Guard Base, Ore. saw when assisting with the Palisade fire in Southern California last month.
Boyd had spent fourteen days in the thick of it, working alongside his strike team from Kittitas Valley Fire & Rescue, based in Central Washington. Unlike his role as the Deputy Fire Chief in the Portland Air National Guard, where administrative duties filled most of his days, this was boots-on-the-ground firefighting. On base, he oversees logistics, planning, and coordination, but on this latest expedition, he wielded a shovel and an axe, clearing brush and extinguishing embers that threatened to reignite the inferno.
"The pictures do some justice, but when you actually see it hands-on, you're like, that is a lot of houses that got wiped out really fast," Boyd said, recalling the devastation.
The fire had been swift and merciless, driven by Santa Ana winds that turned flickers into walls of flame. Though the official footprint was only 24,000 acres, the destruction was overwhelming. Entire communities had been wiped out in mere hours. Thousands of homes were gone, and businesses were reduced to rubble.
His team’s primary mission wasn’t glamorous. They weren’t battling flames with hoses and saving families from burning buildings like in the movies. Instead, they were in the aftermath, mitigating further destruction, ensuring that what remained didn’t become fuel for another fire.
"So we worked with the prison crew, and we just cleared off whole hillsides and moved down all the brush to the streets," he explained. "They brought in chippers and chipped it all away. It’s labor-intensive work. It’s not fun, but it’s got to get done for these communities."
On their first day, they arrived at a fire line where a bulldozer operator had inadvertently buried burning vegetation beneath layers of soil. To the untrained eye, the ground looked secure, but Boyd and his crew knew the heat could tunnel under the dozer tracks and reemerge, potentially reigniting on the other side.
The days blurred together, the crew working thirty-two hours on, twelve off. They caught sleep in shifts, crammed inside the cabs of their rigs. Thousands of personnel and equipment operated in unison to contain the fire.
"At the peak, when I was down there, there were just over 5,300 firefighters," he recalled. "You're talking over 1,100 apparatus in one concentrated area, and half of those were on duty while the other half were off duty."
Boyd’s strike team wasn’t alone. Seven teams operated in their division, totaling 50 apparatus and over 100 personnel. Together, they methodically moved through the disaster zone, assessing buildings for structural integrity, ensuring hotspots were fully extinguished, and advising on fire prevention measures. In Mandeville Canyon, he stood in the ruins of a home where only two vases remained untouched.
Though the devastation was clear, so was his purpose and reason for being a firefighter. Whether in the military or as a civilian, the mission was the same, to serve, protect, and prevent further loss. His dual roles complemented each other.
"It works well by just mirroring each other, quite literally. I see one aspect of things as a deputy chief, then I go back to my civilian life and see the other side. It helps me understand what my guys need," he explained.
“These fires, specifically this one, it just brings to light the importance of the fire-wise community versus a non-fire-wise community,” said Boyd.
He continues by highlighting that the local fire department can assist by assessing your residence and letting you know how to upkeep your property to prevent fire hazards.
The job wasn’t about glory. It wasn’t about heroics. It was about showing up, doing the work, and making sure that, in the end, there was something left to save.
| Date Taken: | 02.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2025 13:22 |
| Story ID: | 490098 |
| Location: | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Ash Like Snow: ORANG Airman Aids in Aftermath of Palisade Fire, by SrA Yuki Klein, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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