Southern Illinoisans fight Colorado fires, protect homes

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) - A person needs a giving spirit to travel across the country to fight for property that's not even theirs, and several such individuals from Southern Illinois did just that last month as they traveled to fight wildfires in Colorado.

Tom Gargrave, of Oswego, served as crew boss for a team of trained firefighters who were sent to serve on the Pine Gulch Fire in western Colorado beginning Aug. 9. Gargrave, regional forester for Illinois Department of Natural Resources, led a crew that included five Southern Illinoisans to what started as a 13,000-acre fire on the western border of Colorado. By the time the crew left two weeks later, the fire had spread to 130,000 acres. The Pine Gulch Fire was designated the largest wildfire in Colorado history.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources annually assembles teams of volunteers from a variety of state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, Shawnee Resource and Conservation District, and The Nature Conservancy.

Gargrave said his team spent 14 days working long hours on the fire and were amazed by the sights of 300-foot flames, glowing hillsides at night, and huge plumes of smoke. But, what was most impactful, he said, was meeting people who needed help. He wasn't alone in this feeling.

'œI had a really good experience '¦ because we got to talk to a lot of homeowners and prep their houses,'ť Hannah Hagarty, 24, of Carbondale, said of her first trip fighting wildfires.

There is an adrenaline rush to the job, too. Hagarty, who works for the U.S. Forest Service on the Shawnee National Forest, described the work at its most frantic as controlled chaos - she would look to her fellow firefighters to learn when to be concerned. The work was brutally hard, too - Hagarty said by Day 11, the fatigue hit her. But, she said, leaving was bittersweet.

'œOn the ride home, I wanted to go back,'ť she said.

Nathan Speagle, of Carbondale, is no novice to these summer trips to fight fires, but he, too, said it was moving to help protect people's property.

'œIn this case it was especially rewarding because we were able to work with those landowners and homeowners,'ť Speagle, who works for the Southern Illinois Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, said.

Much of the team's work with homeowners was finding ways to buffer their homes and properties from the flames. Speagle and Gargrave said sometimes this meant removing potential fuel for the fire - things like dried vegetation - while other times, it was boarding up windows and safeguarding a home's eaves from the fire.

Speagle said there was no loss of property in the areas his team worked, save an old hay barn.

Gargrave said it takes a special person to be willing to travel and risk life and limb for others. Yes, the pay is OK, but money isn't what compels his crew, Gargrave said. In a time when the country is divided, Gargrave said politics didn't even enter into the conversation when his team met with residents.

'œAll they really cared about was you were there to help them and they were grateful,'ť he said.

'œThe point is they are servants,'ť he said of his crew. He said they all became invested in the land and its owners, he said.

'œI had to hold them back in some cases,'ť he said of keeping his crew from putting themselves in too much danger while helping property owners.

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Source: The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan, https://bit.ly/3jPbvHS