Wheat fire threatens Smith homestead

WAITSBURG-On the afternoon of Aug. 8, Jake Adams got the phone call no one wants to receive. The Papé territory manager was working near Minnick Hill when his wife called to say there was a wheat fire and flames were heading toward their home. Moments later, the Fire District No. 2 volunteer received a call from dispatch.

"The fire was initially toned for Miller Road, which is just over the hill. The house wasn't even in the picture yet. When I heard that, I called dispatch and let them know the fire was heading toward my home and we needed structure protection immediately at Preston Ranch Road," Jake said.

Jake said his wife, Angela, was home with their daughters, Oaklee, 5, and Ember, almost 2, when she thought she saw dust out the open window. She looked closer, realized it was smoke, and then saw flames. Angela grabbed the girls and the house phone (the homestead is out of cell reception range) and drove away from the house to call Jake.

The fire, which began in freshly cut stubble, surrounded the Smith homestead, owned jointly by Perry and Darleen (Smith) Dozier and Glen and Adelle Smith, where Jake and Angela live.

Jake rushed home and made sure his family was safe. With the fire just 20 to 30 feet from the house, he immediately set the sprinklers running and began hosing things down. It was several minutes before District 8 Fire Chief Bob Clendaniel arrived, alone, out of Dixie with a grass engine.

Adams is grateful for his volunteer firefighter experience and knowledge which helped in saving the day.

"I was able to take all I've learned and put it to work to pay off. Being on the fire department I was able to get directly on the radio and tell dispatch who I was and that we needed as many tenders as we could get. I knew what to call for and what to tell them," he said.

As an experienced firefighter, Adams was able to jump on the back of the grass engine with Clendaniel and the two men knocked down the fire and got it back away from the house.

"I swear that the reason the house didn't burn is that I've spent the last couple of years making a defensive space around it. When I moved out there, there were dead and dried poplars on the back side and tall, overgrown dried grass. Where the fire stopped, was in that grass that I'd just watered and kept it short, and I'd cut the trees down," Jake said.

Jake said that Walla Walla County Fire District No. 4 Chief Rocky Eastman complimented him on the defensive space around his home.

"That's one thing I really want to bring home to people. It's very important to keep the space around your home defendable," Jake said.

He said the fire did go into standing wheat owned by Howard and Glen Smith, but he was unsure how many acres were lost.

"The fire started in stubble in McCaw's field where someone had just gone through and cut. Someone happened to turn around and notice we had a raging fire headed up the canyon," Jake said.

When asked about possible causes, Jake said it could be a multitude of things.

"It could be the combine that had something on the exhaust that fell off, it could be a hot bearing, it could have been one of the tractors. There are so many things that can go wrong in a harvest field. That's part of harvest," he said.

While he's usually the one responding to a fire, Jake said it was a good feeling seeing and knowing the people that responded when he was the one in need.

Responders from Fire Districts No. 2, 4, 7, and 8 out of Walla Walla and No. 3 out of Columbia County all responded to the fire. Farmers Glen Smith, Ed Stonecipher and Jesse McCaw showed up with discs to make fire lines and McGregor's sent a water truck.

"Farmers will stop what they're doing and get a disc going if the fire is close and they have one available. Everyone helps everyone else when they can. If a farmer has a water truck, he'll bring it out," Jake said.

"This was a wake-up call for myself. Just because it's a wheat fire doesn't mean lives aren't in danger. We've got to remember that 99 percent of the time we're working our butts off to help others but that one percent of the time that it happens to you, you want that same response everyone else wants. And without people, without volunteers, you won't have any protection. That really hit home," Adams said.