Talking with Lake County Fire’s Chief, Willie Sapeta

  

It was my pleasure

today to sit down in the office of Willie Sapeta, Chief of Lake County Fire Protection District, in Clearlake California. Although always busy with an endless list of responsibilities, he cordially accepted my request at an interview.

Upon sitting down, we discussed family, which if you know Willie, is his heart and soul next to public service. Of his wife, Rachelle, (pictured above), he simply said, “She’s just amazing.” His four children are his pride and joy, and with his eldest, Shelby,(also above), in high school sports, Willie gushed about her success thus far and how he couldn’t be more proud.

I explained the reason I was there to talk was not only to get his point of view of the Valley Fire, but also to ask him about any community involvement he may have witnessed during, and after the horrific inferno. What kind of contributions did he personally see come from citizens in our county.

Before I go any further, I’d like to tell you all, that I’m paraphrasing what Willie told me, as I didn’t bring a recorder. I am also not a professional journalist, however I DO hate it when they get things wrong! Ha! So Willie, if you read this and find I misspoke for you, please leave a comment in this blog, and within 24 hours it will be posted to correct me.

To begin with, 2015’s fire season really set off with a bang! The date of July 26th, being the most obvious point of reference because of the Dam Fire. Following that were several others, but the media started taking notice with the Rocky Fire, and then the Jerusalem Fire.

The mother of all fires was of course, The Valley Fire. It ate up 35% of Lake County’s landmass, and to date, Willie said it is California’s #1 worst fire for losing as many structures as it did, in as short a period of time as it did. This beating out even the Oakland Hills Fire, in that aspect.

To tell Willie’s story from the beginning, September 12, 2015, he was setting out to go to his son Logan’s, football game. He had stopped by the station for ice for their trip and ultimately, never left for the game. His wife retrieved their son, who was riding with Willie, from the fire station, and Willie was gone for days.

The fire started near High Valley off of Bottlerock Road. Willie heard over the radio from Middletown’s Division Chief, Linda Green, that a helitack crew was over run twice and then had to deploy their fire shelters due to entrapment. She initially called for 20 engines, 20 crews, 20 dozers, and would augment that with 40 additional engines in the next 10.

Everyone later learned that the helitack crew had all survived, but were sent to a burn center where they all stayed for days, receiving treatment for the burns they sustained. Niko Matteoli, Richard Reiff, and  Logan Pridemore, all made a full recovery. Their Captain Pat Ward, has recovered well, although he sustained far worse injuries, losing some fingers, due to the fact he was last to take shelter, risking himself to be certain his crew were all in theirs first.

So off Willie went, getting together a strike team and his department, like others,was stripped of resources, sending everything they could spare, including medic units. Eventually, becoming a Division Group Supervisor, Willie was sent to Hoberg’s Resort area.

Of the fire, Willie said, “The ominous, cyclonic smoke cloud was nothing short of amazing. It was truly Armageddon!”

The fire wasn’t the worst of the matter, it was more about saving lives. They worked with entities such as Highway Patrol, State Parks, and Fish and Game, initially, to evacuate the Cobb area in which he was working. All along, trying to get a handle on attacking the fire with the resources they had available.

Radio traffic was horrendous! There was so much going on at once, and the fire was taking on an unpredictable life of it’s own, that everyone was talking over the other, jamming the frequencies. Some confusion about what was happening with your crew could happen at times, because there was so much communication loss, and they couldn’t hear one another. Also, the cell towers were down, there was no PG&E, phone lines were down, so it was a mess.

Some of the engines sent got trapped with evacuees for a short period of time. With winds at 55-60 mph, and the fire storm so immense, there was spontaneous ignition of some homes! Truly a scene from right out of a movie.

From Hoberg’s to Evergreen, Willie worked in the first few hours, then going back towards the Cobb Station, it was just crazy! Things just were blowing up so fast, and the sound of exploding propane tanks made it sound like a warzone!

The evacuations went better than you would think, under such grisly circumstance. However, when he drove the Highway 29 from Middletown to Lower Lake corridor, there were burned out cars everywhere, just left on the highway. “I wondered, where were the people that were driving these cars?” Willie asked. Some vehicles were abandoned right in the middle of the highway. One could only imagine what those people went through, and probably are still going through today with PTSD.

“As a fireman,” Willie said, “I can tell you, that going through my mind, as I saw all those homes lost, I felt that every single home was the loss of someone’s life! Just like a doctor or medic would feel in losing a patient, as firemen, we feel the same thing if we lose a home. It contains someone’s life. In that, I can say, I still carry some amount of PTSD, with me today.”

As we both were tearing up, we talked of the next day.  He said, really, night fall came quickly because time was flying by and there was so much to do. By 5:00am the next day, it was 58 degrees and a light rain started, but it was all still burning. It did slow things down a bit though, allowing for assessments of the fire conditions. However, this fire was still unpredictable. What they do, he told me, is they have air attack assessments and reports on conditions, Cal Fire has their meteorologist assess the weather and then they make predictions based on humidity, fuel modeling, and years of drought.

But their plans for how to fight the fire went past, during the next day! The fire was already beyond the point where they had predicted it would be! It was amazingly unpredictable, and some temperatures were from 2500 to 4000 degrees. Where most fires leave foundations and chimneys in tact, in some places, this fire, if you touched the concrete foundations, it crumbled and turned to dust!

The fire went on and on, with Willie assigned up until October 6th before he was released. During this time he witnessed some disgusting people that would even put themselves in harms way, just to loot evacuee’s homes. He stopped what he saw, the best he could, but there were other amazing people he encountered.

Because of the erratic behavior of the fire, some homes survived right next to some that burned, and during the fire, one home was burning, and the firemen working that area, opened a coop that held chickens and turkeys. These birds ran from their cage to the neighbor’s house that survived, and still reside there today!

Others that were going door to door, like the Sherriff’s Department, Police, CHP, and Fish & Wildlife, including fire personnel, rescued animals whenever possible. Dogs, cats, one guy had a mule and sheep in the bed of his truck! And the veterinary offices! They were simply amazing, helping these animals however they could.

In that retrospect, truck loads of UC Davis pharmaceuticals, hay, grain, alfalfa, and all kinds of pet food were flooding our community, to help feed and care for these animals in need.

PG&E worked at record speed, as did AT&T, to restore poles starting the next day! The mobile command posts were helpful! POD’s, (point of distributions) were put up all over, as well as a local assistant center at Cal Pine. These were along side the many other areas that helped house people!

One place that stood out in Willie’s mind was the Lion’s Club Little Red School House. They set up with items to donate to evacuees for everything they could possibly need to camp outside. Tents, sleeping bags, lanterns, and tools. There were clothing items, food, toiletries, and more!

This was just the beginning! People who were probably on their last $5.00 came to donate to the firefighters. Waters, food, homemade cookies, it was very heartfelt and amazing. Others were local venders such as Walmart, who when the evacuees camped in their parking lot, gave them waters and food items. The local McDonalds, both Clearlake and Lakeport donated food items as well to both evacuees, and firefighters.

And it goes on! One entire football team from a Sonoma County high school came to sift through people’s rubble of their lost homes, to help look for anything that might have survived. In Fort Bragg, the city housed many people and fed them for free. And Cactus Grill in Clearlake, she made 100 burritos and brought them to Lake County Fire.  Cecil’s brought over 20 pizzas. An anonymous woman, dropped off 20 Tupperware containers of spaghetti, and Claudine Graf made an entire dinner for the department one night! These people all were looking for a way to give back and help.

Twin Pines Casino went all out! They housed in their hotel a ton of evacuees and fed them all. Hidden Valley Lake also fed people that were evacuated.

The thing that also happened, that most people may not think of, was the fact that the call volume for Lake County Fire and 911 calls were reduced by 25% during the fire. People in the community, that normally wouldn’t think twice about calling 911 for assistance of some sort, didn’t place calls, and reduced the number of calls the fire and medic personnel had to make. That was huge!

As his family walked in, and I had errands to run, we wrapped up our conversation. The way Willie lights up at seeing his family is touching. I have known Willie about 30 years from just living in the same community, and my husband Charlie, has worked with him for a really long time. He’s a very dedicated man, Willie, and I was honored to interview him and hear his story. I want to thank him for taking the time out of his dreadfully busy schedule, to humor this writing fanatic!

Willie, your information was essential, and much appreciated. It gives me joy to be reminded of the heroic and also humble people of our community here in Lake County.

Next Blog: Some things I’ve learned about the rebuilding process for some of our fire victims. Also, future interviews to be posted in upcoming blogs.