Bravest Organization

Honoring Brave Firefighters, Police,
Military & Others

We must honor the bravest among us and the
the bravest of the brave!

Bulletin, today September 11 2001, early news reports estimate as many as several hundred brave New York City fire fighters, police and rescue workers were killed in the "Attack On America" by insane terrorists who used innocent civilians on jetliners to kill other innocent civilians.

This bravest organization website is dedicated to New York City Firefighters & Police. They are the bravest of the brave. Isn't it odd how the the most significant 911 emergency calls in America's history occurred today, which was 9-11 (9-11-2001)!

Please note: Bravest Organization posted the above information on the 911 Attack on this web-site on 9-11-01, within hours of the attack happening on that infamous day. As a monument to that date in history and its victims, we intend to keep the exact words used here on that Sept 11 date posted on this web-site, even though today is obviously not 9-11-01.

NBC - The Thirty Mile Fire Yakima, WA, July 11

An unattended camp fire is the suspected cause of the Twisp fire now know as The Thirty Mile fire. High winds caused the fire to grow from an estimated 5 acres to over 2,500 acres within 2-hours in the Chewuch River Valley, North of Winthrop Washington.

21 fire firefighterfighter and 2 civilians were entrapped in a narrow canyon of the Chewuch River Valley. Fire shelters were deployed in an area surrounded by fire on all sides. Four brave fire firefightersfighters were killed and another four brave fire firefightersfighters and 2 civilians were injured. A national investigation team will visit the site to determine the cause of the tragedy and to look for lessons that can improve brave fire firefighterfighter safety.

Instead, the small blaze roared into a fast-moving fire firestormstorm. Four fire firefightersfighters died in a wicked combination of flame and heat. Six other people were injured. The dead, three kids from Yakima and an experienced hand from Ellensburg, became the focal point of "a tragedy of almost indescribable proportions," said Sonny O'Neal, supervisor of the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests.

It was the worst loss of life battling a forest fire since 14 brave fire firefightersfighters died near Glenwood Springs, Colo., seven years ago this month. The fire rolled over the walls of a steep canyon Tuesday afternoon and bore down on 21 fire firefightersfighters and two campers. Experts believe the blaze moved so swiftly that it could have caught a moving vehicle. Unable to outrun the flames, many sought protection under specially designed shelters made of thin aluminum and fiberglass fabric that firefighters carry with them.

The shelters, which fire crews call "shake and bakes," are each designed to protect one person. But the campers, Bruce and Paula Hagemeyer of Ellensburg, had to huddle under one shelter with a firefighter to escape the flames. The deaths of the four Forest Service workers brought efforts to fight the Thirtymile Fire to a halt yesterday. Crews grieved, and their bosses, bolstered by national experts and hundreds of more hands, tried to figure out how to handle a fire that had grown to 8,200 acres last night. "I can't think of a worse day in my career, coming to work this morning and seeing the flag at half-staff," said John Newcom, a ranger who works in the Methow Valley District.

The fire was moving north last night with nothing in its way to the Canadian border but wild, uninhabited country. "I'm not interested in knocking heads with nature in an area that wants to burn," Elton Thomas, a fire manager, told a somber crew of national firefighting experts gathered in Winthrop. "We want to focus on firefighter safety." Crews were hoping to reach the bodies of the bravest dead fire fighters before nightfall.

Forest Service officials also were left worrying whether any other hikers had been victims of the fire or were trapped by it. Rangers helped to evacuate hikers Tuesday from the rugged and remote Pasayten Wilderness. The Forest Service had just begun a signup system for hikers, but it is voluntary.

Okanogan County Sheriff Mike Murray will send deputies in helicopters into the Pasayten Wilderness this morning to look for people who might be in peril. Authorities were able to reach a Boy Scout troop, as well as some people whose car was one of three found burned out at a trailhead, Murray said. The Scouts will be able to hike out. "They'll just have to go out of their way," he said. However, authorities haven't found the drivers of two other cars found burned. The battle against the Thirtymile Fire -- named for a national forest campground near the source of ignition -- won't resume until today at the earliest. And then a national management team and 600-person crew will take over.

"It's time to take a timeout and rethink what happened," O'Neal, the national forest supervisor, told reporters before he flew off to Yakima to meet with families of the four dead fire fighters. They were: Tom Craven, 30, a squad leader from Ellensburg, and Karen Fitzpatrick, 18, Devin Weaver, 21, and Jessica Johnson, 19, all of Yakima. Craven, a former college football player, started fighting forest fires 11 years ago after he graduated from high school. Fitzpatrick, who graduated from high school this year, had just undergone firefighter training. Weaver was taking a break from the family flower shop to fight fires, and Johnson, a rugby player at Central Washington University, was spending her summer on the fire lines.

The fire left four crew members injured, including Jason Emhoff, 25, of Yakima, who was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle Tuesday. He was in serious condition there yesterday. He suffered burns over 30 percent of his body. The other three were treated and released from clinics in Winthrop and Brewster, as were the two campers caught up in the blaze with the fire fighters.

Gov. Gary Locke and state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland toured the fire fighters' base camp in Winthrop yesterday. "Everybody is shaken up over the tragedy that occurred," Locke said. "fire fighters are a very tight-knit group of brave people. The ones we lost were really just in the prime of their life, graduates of high school, going off to college, people in college looking forward to studying, getting a degree and actually joining the fire service or the local fire departments, so this is quite a tragedy for the bravest of the brave."

The fire began about 20 miles north of Winthrop. The Thirtymile campground is far from any settlement, but does see activity in the summer. It is near the trailhead for a route that takes hikers along the Chewuch River and into the Pasayten Wilderness. An unattended campfire was thought to have set it off, O'Neal said. The fire was first noticed Monday night, but at the time there were bigger worries: an 1,800-acre fire 20 miles south of Winthrop.

The Thirtymile Fire didn't seem to be much of a headache "Conditions earlier in the day were somewhat quiet. It was a smoldering ground fire," said Pete Soderquist, a fire management officer for the Forest Service. The fire crew was sent into the narrow Chewuch Canyon for "mop-up." All had undergone training and were "being led by experienced personnel," Soderquist said. Lookouts were posted, and there were flights overhead to look for trouble. But conditions changed quickly, Soderquist said.

Fire scientists described the canyon where the fire fighters got caught as a perfect environment for a fire so severe. With hot, dry winds, temperatures in the middle 90s, thirsty lodgepole pines, humidity ranging from 10 to 12 percent and canyon slopes at 60 degrees, the Chewuch Canyon became an inferno "wind tunnel," said Chuck Vickrey, a fire behavior specialist from Oregon called to help on the blaze. "The walls there were damn near cliffs," he said. "It was a very intense fire."

The worst fears of every firefighter on the line were realized -- there was a blowup in Chewuch Canyon. "All of them were in serious threat of losing their lives," O'Neal said. Tom Leuschen, a fire behavior analyst with the Forest Service, said a firefighter can go a lifetime and never see a firestorm like the one that hit Chewuch Canyon. The brave fire fighters had little choice but to hunker down in their shelters. Experts say going in the shelters -- which look like one-person pup tents -- is a last resort when everything else fails.

The four dead fire fighters all were in shelters, as were the injured. "No matter how bad it is in the shelters, it's 10 times worse outside," Soderquist said. Jason Emhoff was in his shelter, but was without his protective gloves, said his father, Steve Emhoff. The missing gloves may have saved his life. Jason's hands hurt so much from the heat that he ran from the shelter to behind a rock, then to a truck. He had severe burns on his hands as well as burns to his face and thighs. "I just have to think that the only thing that saved his life was that he didn't have his gloves on, and they were on the other truck," Steve Emhoff said. Eight fire fighters were far enough away from the blaze that they didn't need to get into shelters. Soderquist said the fire fighters made a heroic brave effort to save themselves and others. "We're very sorry people died," Soderquist said, breaking into tears. "But a lot of people made it." Reporter Eric Ruthford contributed to this report.