Kincade Fire

Start Date: 10/29/2019

Description:

We were asked by Cal Fire Battalion Chief, Nicole Schutz, to help with her Peer Support efforts at the base-camp located in the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds..

Within 24 hours we were able to respond with 2 canine teams and within 72 hours (thanks to the generous support of our SoCal HOPE colleagues) we were able to provide our dog-teams for subsequent days.
Because of the combination of extensive power outages and a massive number of evacuees, finding accommodations on short notice was a major challenge. Accordingly, for the first 2 days Kathy and I commuted to and from the base-camp, leaving the Mid-Peninsula at 4 AM each day to make the 7 AM deployment briefing. Since there was no LAC in operation, all of our efforts were configured around the briefings, accompanying the soon-to-deploy firefighters to their rigs, meeting the firefighters returning from the line after their 12-24 hour shift, and visiting support personnel permanently based in the base-camp. The mutual enjoyment of these many interactions was extremely gratifying.

Although we went to the 2 adjacent evacuation centers, there were too many resident dogs to make a visit there feasible.

Agency: Cal-Fire Peer Support
Teams:

Kathy Felix/Cody


Region: