Published: August 31,2015
The memorial service for 20-year-old Tom Zbyszewski, 26-year-old Andrew Zajac, and 31-year-old Richard Wheeler was held in Wenatchee, about 90 miles south of Twisp, the eastern Washington town where they were killed Aug. 19 as flames overtook their vehicle.
"They dedicated their lives to protecting our national forests and the people in the communities surrounding them," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in a eulogy. "And for that we should be grateful."
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Through the Fire Management Assistance Grant program, we continue to support firefighters working hard in Washington.
More than 80 vehicles took part in a procession leading to the memorial service Sunday where more than 100 firefighters stood at attention. Dozens of civilians also took part, many holding U.S. flags and others with signs that said "You are heroes!"
Tom Zbyszewski followed in his father's footsteps as a firefighter. He was the youngest of the three who died, and a physics major at Whitman College with an acting bent. He was due to return to school in about a week.
"Tom was the light of my life," his father, Richard Zbyszewski, said in his eulogy. "My path I'm afraid will always be a little bit darker because I miss him so much."
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Zajac was the son of a Methodist minister from Downers Grove, Illinois. He was in his second year as a professional wildland firefighter for the Forest Service and earned a master's degree in biology last year from the University of South Dakota. Zajac and his wife, Jenn, were married last year after hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Coast Trail together in 2013.
Jenn, in a statement read by Zajec's mother, Mary, said, "Andrew was my calm and my strength; my belay (climbing) partner, my fishing buddy, my hiking companion, my love. Just under a year ago we made a promise until death do us part. I just never imaged it would come so soon. I'll miss him forever."
Wheeler, "Wheels" as his friends called him during their eulogies, was a fourth-generation firefighter as well as an avid fisherman, hiker and hunter.
This was Wheeler and his wife Celeste's second year living in Wenatchee after he graduated in 2013 from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He was a seasonal worker with hopes of becoming a permanent wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was out of the country, so his wife, Trudi Inslee, presented each of the families with state flags. The families also received Forest Service flags, small statues, and a Pulaski, a firefighting tool still in use today but also heavy with symbolism. When a person becomes a wildland firefighter, they are said to "pick up the Pulaski."
"Without men like Tom and Richard and Andrew, we would not be able to protect and care for the lands they devoted their lives to," Tidwell said.
Daniel Lyon, who sustained burns on more than 60 percent of his body in the fire that killed the three firefighters, on Sunday remained in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he's had two successful burn surgeries. A spokeswoman said the 25-year-old is scheduled to undergo another operation this week.
Meanwhile, crews made gains on the state's largest wildfire ever recorded as some rain fell over the weekend in north-central Washington. The Okanogan Complex of fires has burned more than 475 square miles and is 25 percent contained.
More than 7.8 million acres have burned in wildfires this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. That's well above the 10-year average of about 5.47 million acres through Aug. 29.
There are currently dozens of large wildfires burning across the West; here's an update on a few of them.
Oregon
Firefighters on Sunday worked to stop the spread of a group of central Oregon wildfires that have grown to 159 square miles and destroyed two more homes and a guest house.Firefighters built fire lines around the buildings and set up sprinklers but had to flee Saturday when winds gusted up to 50 mph and threatened their escape routes.
About 950 firefighters are battling the blazes that have previously destroyed more than three dozen homes in the area.
Some residents in the area have been told to evacuate and residents of the town of Prairie City have been told to be ready to evacuate.
Fire spokesman Damon Simmons says crews have better conditions Sunday and are trying to stop the flames from spreading to the north and northeast.
Idaho
Northern Idaho residents on Sunday have been told to be ready to flee from a wildfire burning on the Idaho-Washington state border.The Bonner County Sheriff's Office expanded the alert for north of Idaho State Highway 57 to include the Nordman area.
A group of six fires burning mostly in Washington has consumed about 33 square miles. About 765 firefighters are assigned to the blazes. Fire managers say they are facing tough conditions with strong and shifting winds.
In west-central Idaho, a 76-square-mile fire two miles east of Riggins jumped the Salmon River. Some residents in the area have been told to evacuate and others have been told to be ready to leave.
More than 800 firefighters are battling that blaze that's burning through timber.
Alaska
Additional
firefighting crews were expected to arrive Friday to help battle a
wind-whipped wildfire that prompted evacuation orders for a small Kodiak
Island community and destroyed a library and some other properties.
The
fire erupted Thursday in Chiniak (chihn-ee-AHK'), which is about 10
miles southeast of Kodiak on the easternmost point of Kodiak Island.
Kodiak Fire Chief Jim Mullican told KMXT radio the fire was burning out
of control.
The cause of the blaze wasn't immediately
clear. There also was no immediately reliable estimate for its size,
Kodiak City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski told the station.
Police said the library had burned down and some properties had been destroyed.Montana
Light rain dampened some wildfires in far western Montana on Sunday, while other fires closer to the central part of the state continued to spread and threaten rural residences.After most fires grew on Saturday because of warm, windy conditions, Sunday's weather brought at least cooler temperatures across the state.
"We were hoping that today would not be so active and that's the way things have been working out," Brad Purdy, spokesman for a complex of fires burning in the Kootenai National Forest near the Idaho border, said Sunday afternoon.
Purdy said conditions improved so much on one fire burning south of Libby that fire managers on Sunday morning lifted an evacuation order issued the previous day for 28 rural residences outside the town.
Rain also calmed fires burning in Mineral and Missoula counties west of Missoula that had earlier destroyed five Forest Service structures.
To the north, a fire in the Flathead National Forest near Glacier National Park that forced the evacuation of the small community of Essex also was not as active Sunday, according to fire spokesman Ted Pettis.
"It behaved itself pretty well," Pettis said. "I drove through the fire area today and it was pretty calm. I didn't see any open flames. It was smoking in places."
In the western part of the state close to the Idaho border, a wildfire near Tarkio, Montana, that had grown to about 19 square miles slowed down on Sunday, spokeswoman Kim Smolt said.
"It hasn't grown much in a day and a half. It's just creeping along right now," Smolt said, noting that five U.S. Forest Service structures have been destroyed. There are no reports of injuries or deaths, she said.
About 300 people in the area have evacuated from their homes, Smolt said.
California
A stray shot at a Salinas firing range sparked a blaze that burned 48.8 acres and took dozens of firefighters to contain.The Monterey County Herald reports that the fire began around 1 p.m. Sunday when a shooter at the Laguna Seca Rifle and Pistol Range accidentally shot a concrete culvert that diverts rainwater. A spark from the bullet ignited nearby grass.
Ten fire trucks, two air tankers, two helicopters, about 40 firefighters and two prison inmate crews responded to the blaze. It was extinguished after about an hour. There were no injuries and no structures were destroyed.
Officials say there will be no charges for the shooter or fines for the range, which will be taking out the concrete culvert.
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