BROOKINGS – Three Brookings firefighters recently traveled across the state, joining 232 other firefighters in battling the fire at Custer State Park.
Brookings Fire Department Deputy Chief Pete Bolzer, Tabi Scott and Dalton Holm left Brookings on Wednesday afternoon with a fully equipped brush truck and arrived at the Black Hills that night.
“I have not heard back from our personnel, if they were put on the fire or held for what we call day crew or night crew,” Brookings Fire Department Chief Darrell Hartmann said Thursday.
The fire, which began on Monday due to a downed power line, has burned more than 47,000 acres, which is more than 73 square miles. Thanks in part to the snow and the many roads there, what’s become the third largest fire in Black Hills recorded history was 50 percent contained as of Friday evening.
“All the evacuation orders have been lifted, which is a very good sign that the fire is in its final stage,” Hartmann said.
Because of the contract the fire department has with the state, the firefighters go into this expecting two weeks of work. Thanks to progress made in containing the fire, they should be back in Brookings sooner than that, though.
“It’s one of those things you never know. You go expecting two weeks, and if situations dictate, they’ll send you home earlier. One of the deals when you go from this far away is if there’s still some potential, they’ll hold us … in the location for a while until they know everything’s still looking good. That allows local departments to get back to normal,” Hartmann said.
The Brookings Fire Department has had its contract with the state to assist in firefighting elsewhere for 18 years. The farthest they’ve been sent out to assist was in California about six years ago.
According to Hartmann, Scott’s helped in plenty of other wildfires before, especially in her former work on a wildland fire crew, and she was eager to have the chance to assist in fighting this fire.
This is the first wildfire that Holm, who works for Clark Drew Construction, has helped fight.
When assistance in firefighting is needed in cases like this, a message is sent out to the department.
“Anybody who is capable of going understands you sign on for two weeks. … We send that out and they call in and it’s first come, first serve. Dalton and Tabi were the first two takers; not the only ones, but the first two,” Hartmann said.
When BFD sends personnel to assist in fires like this, they have to use vacation time, but there is pay from the state for their work based on what position they fill there.
“The reason the city is willing to allow us to take their apparatus out is that the unit gets reimbursed per hour of use, including travel time,” Hartmann said.
The department also gains useful experience in assisting in these fires.
“We respond to just under 270 square miles of outside the city limits. Even though it’s not forest – it’s grassland – it’s the same tactics,” he said, adding that the knowledge gained there can help keep them safer when fighting fires here.
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
