Page 371 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

AT HOME IN THE BACKWOODS–QUINTON HURLBURT
Peterson’s Quinton Hurlburt grew up in the woods not far from the burn area in Trinity County, so he knows how to read tree markers and navigate backroads. “I was in places that most people wouldn’t even think about taking
Quinton grew up in a fire family, so working around fires is normal. His grandfather was the fire chief in Hayfork, CA for years.
their trucks. But you’ve got to get to the customer.” One day on the Carr Fire, he was up at French Gulch outside the safe zone, heading in to work on a machine. Alone. “When you’re driving in, your customer knows that you’re coming, but he doesn’t know what it looks like on the way there because
he drove in on a Cat. I’m in my truck. And a lot can happen in the forty-five minutes it takes to drive back in there, especially with that wind.”
Hurlburt was going out to meet Sunrise Excavating for a no-start on their D4H. “They were running from the fire, tracking out of there in third gear, and finally got to a safe stopping point. Everybody got out of their machine to figure out their next move. But when they stopped, they shut off their machines, and then couldn’t get one to start back up.”
Hurlburt had gotten the call at 1:30 that morning and was down at Peterson by 2:00 a.m. loading up his truck with the parts he’d need. “By the time I got out there, the fire had already passed through, but it was still burning pine needles underneath the machine while I was working on it.” It turned out to be a broken wire on the back of the ignition, which had broken loose during their run from the fire.
“Driving back out, the fire had jumped the canyon I’d driven in on and that’s when it started getting a little hair- ball. It had switched directions, so I was driving parallel to it. The dozer crew had taken off to cut contingency lines, so I was by myself at that point. And while I was driving, the fire started burning up the hill toward me. I didn’t stop to look, but it was burning in the treetops above me.”
they were getting ready to Borate bomb the area. Once the wind shifted and the fire switched direc- tions, it was safe for us to leave.”
The convoy had to make their own road out since the fire was burning over the one they’d come in on. They cut through locked gates and miles of wood- ed terrain out to a ranch in the middle of nowhere. “It took us six hours to get out. And it was pretty scary. Basically, from the time the phone rings until the time you get back home, your adrenalin is go- ing absolutely insane. But we do whatever it takes because every dozer that isn’t working, isn’t out there saving people’s lives or somebody’s house.”
The Carr Fire burned nearly 230,000 acres, claimed
eight lives, and destroyed over 1,600 structures. During the cleanup phase, crews hauled out five years-worth of hazardous dirt and debris in just a month and a half.
TUBBS FIRE (OCTOBER 2017)
The Tubbs Fire ignited at 9:43 p.m. on October 8, 2017. It was the most devastating fire Califor- nia had seen up to that point. By the time it was contained on October 31, it had destroyed 5,643 structures, killed 22 people, and burned 37,000 acres in Sonoma and Napa counties. The initial cause traced back to a faulty private electrical sys- tem on Tubbs Lane in rural northern Calistoga.
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