“It’s the fire fighting that happened yesterday that made the difference…All we’ve done is just improve on what they had already started,” Dave Hamilton, Incident Commander at the Holmes Gulch Fire said August 25. The “they” to whom Hamilton referred were the local firefighters and emergency responders who showed up for the lightning-caused fire sparked near dozens of homes in the Montana City area a day earlier.
Standing nearby to hear the comments were Montana City VFD Chief Rick Abraham, Jefferson County Sheriff Craig Doolittle and others involved in the initial response. It had been a long 30 hours for Abraham, Doolittle and their crews. The fire blew up in a hurry. After starting to head north, the blaze reversed its course, making a beeline for area homes and forcing some emergency responders to retreat “out the back” after be- ing separated by the flames from their base, Doolittle said. That’s when the decision was made: alert homeowners to clear out in a hurry. Deputies made their way through the area, knocking on doors and spreading the word. South Hills Road, Holmes Gulch and the Ponderosa area were ordered to evacuate – and do it now. Jackson Creek Road residents were put on pre-evacuation alert.
For both Abraham and Doo- little, that had personal implications. Both lived within the pre-evacuation area. Both stayed on the job while back at home family members gathered up treasured items and prepared to leave. Fortunately for the pair, and for everyone else in the fire area, no homes were lost. No one was injured. Clearly, Hamilton, part of a specially trained “Type III” fire crew that travels to manage large fires all over the West, credited that success to the initial response. Thirty hours after that fast start on an ominous fire, Doolittle and Abraham were in a room full of evacuees at the Montana City fire station.
