Firefighters help with Gray Fire

REARDAN - Friday, Aug. 18 was a day that will live in West Plains infamy as the Gray Fire, which started that afternoon southwest of Medical Lake, tore through 10,016 acres, destroyed at least 185 structures, forced the city and surrounding area to a complete evacuation and took one life in the south Medical Lake, Silver Lake and Clear Lake areas.

The disastrous fire required a massive response from firefighters and farmers, and crews and farmers from Lincoln County were on hand to help with efforts.

Fire District No. 4 chief Jim Adams said the Reardan and Edwall stations sent two trucks and rotated five crews totaling 15 firefighters between efforts Friday and Saturday, Aug. 19, while Fire District No. 1 sent two brush trucks and a water tender from Sprague.

Edwall fire station chief Scott Krupke said he was helping friends move cattle off their farm near Fancher Road as the blaze began when he got the page for mutual aide around 2 p.m. Friday. The fire danger had been high heading into the weekend due to high winds and temperatures.

"We knew if something happened, it was going to be horrific," Krupke said.

Along with Kayla Soliday and Casey Nonnemacher, Krupke's crew took a brush truck and tried to engage the fire where it started southwest of Medical Lake.

"We tried to enter Medical Lake, but we couldn't because visibility was so bad so we had to go around on Salnave Road," Krupke said. "We then folded onto a crew doing work protecting Lakeland Village."

Krupke said when the fire jumped State Highway 902 and started approaching Silver Lake, it "just exploded."

"When it's in the trees like that, it's very hard to stay in front of it," he said.

After the main danger had passed at Lakeland, Edwall linked with Reardan crews to help fight the fire in the Four Lakes area before moving south of Interstate 90 to help farmers protect their structures.

In the meantime, Reardan-based farmer Ian Wagner was one of several area family farmers trying to help protect the fire in the Fancher Butte area.

"We had decided not to harvest that day due to the high winds," Wagner said. "Then I got a text around lunchtime saying 'there's smoke down near where you farm.'"

"We reached out to everyone we knew in that area and went straight for the disc truck."

Wagner helped work the fire around Fancher Butte, where he recalled being aided by the Spokane Hutterites, Moos family, Musser family and Vold family, to name a few.

"There was a lot of good done by local people," Wagner said. "We were up there for about three hours...Eventually we were able to get it out on the west end."

Krupke said he was fighting the fire until 11 p.m. until his 3-person crew was relieved by a second Edwall crew of Chad Michael, Rod Colvin and Zane Hendrickson.

"This was the worst (fire) I've ever been on," he said. "I've never seen so many structures on fire at the same time."

At the end of his firefighting efforts, Wagner took a moment to sit on the top of Fancher Butte and overlook the wreckage.

"Seeing the devastation was so sad," Wagner said. "Those people lost everything, and they didn't deserve that...That community's going to take a while to recover. I farm at the base of Fancher Butte, so it's pretty near and dear."

"It was just horrible," Krupke agreed. "It's just a bad feeling. You're powerless to stop it when the winds are random like that."

Krupke and Wagner both hailed the efforts of farmers that stayed behind to fight the flames and prevent further damage.

"There's a lot of wheat and farms that would've burned if not for the farmers and their discs," Krupke said.

"We do what we do because we look out for our neighbors," Wagner added.

Author Bio

Drew Lawson, Editor

Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.

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