Firefighters are on-call in Sisters

GFP Enterprises firefighters (l.-r.) Tim Decamp, John Simpson, Josh Canaday and Jedediah Belcher await their next fire call. photo by Tom Chace

It may be for only a few hours or a day or two at the most, but during the break between Central Oregon's rash of wildfires, a team of 20 firefighters rests in downtown Sisters.

"We're ready to go when we get the call," said Tech-2 fireman Tim Decamp from Government Camp, near Mt. Hood. "We'll catch up on our sleep and get some good food and check out our equipment and be always at the ready."

Of the 20 men in this gang, eight are from out of state and 13 are from Sisters -- for the present, back in their homes.

They are doing the same as the half-dozen exhausted contract firemen who are tent camping at the corner of Main Avenue and Larch Street, in the grassy square behind the former AllStars Eatery restaurant.

Headquarters for the GFP company is in the back of the building at 175 North Larch.

This firefighting company is a commercial enterprise, hiring firefighters under contract to fight fires as needed.

"We have about 120 people total in our company of which 100 are seasonal," said Don Pollard, owner of GFP. "Of that number, 60 are from the Sisters area. Our seasonal people work between five and six months a year."

"As far as firefighting companies are concerned, we're about medium size," Pollard said. "We operate six crews of 20 men each and back them up with seven fire engines. You'll find us fighting fires all over the country from California to Montana to Tennessee.

Their contracts with the U.S. Forest Service range from one year to multi-year with options to renew.

John Canaday, a T-1 firefighter who lives in Sisters, explained that their front line is called sawyers, because they go in first with power saws and cut away trees that could hinder the advancing crew.

"Next come the swampers who throw the downed wood out of the way so the 'ground pounders' can get in to dig lines," said Canaday who has two years experience with GFP.

"If we get a hot one or a spot fire blows over our heads," he said, "our crew boss tells us where it is and what to do if we get overwhelmed and need to pull out in a hurry."

Others who are camped out locally are John Simpson, in his second year, a class T-2 fireman from Olympia, Washington, and Jedediah Belcher, a first-year man, T-2 "basic" firefighter, from Salem.

GFP is in the process of finishing new headquarters in the Sisters Industrial Park.

"We expect to move there within the month," said Pollard.

Much of their ready equipment is housed there. They work with Type 6 tankers holding 250 gallons of water with low engine pressure.

"But our main effort," said Belcher, "in our initial attack is with 'dozers and our hand crews. We really are up front and on the fire line."

Decamp said that they "seemed to have been on duty for a month steady," starting with the Davis Fire near La Pine, then the Link Fire near Black Butte Ranch and the 18 Fire southeast of Bend.

"We were even in Idaho recently," he said.

A GFP firefighter died in a single-vehicle wreck in Idaho last week (see story).

GFP crews were on the Davis Fire the entire two weeks it was active.

When not fighting fires, Canaday said he would still be "in the forests only this time cutting wood for home fires," which he sells locally to Black Butte Ranch residents and others.