Red, white and blew
Sudden storm brings Forest Grove firefighters to giant flag’s rescue as high winds whip it around
Chase Allgood / News-Times
Thirteen firefighters rescued Forest Grove’s new commemorative flag from its pole during a sudden windstorm Thursday.
Last Thursday Forest Grove Fire & Rescue put in a day’s worth of work in a couple of hours when a massive storm front lashed Washington County with a dust storm and torrential rain.
Firefighters also learned how difficult it can be to wrangle Forest Grove’s new 30-by-60-foot American flag when winds are whipping at speeds rivaling a TriMet bus.
“It was insane, it was absolutely insane,” said Dave Nemeyer, spokesman for Forest Grove Fire & Rescue.
Nemeyer, along with more than a dozen volunteer and staff firefighters had to shut down Pacific Avenue while they retracted the giant flag to bring it in from the storm.
The firefighters were trying to quickly reel the flag in so they could respond to the rapid influx of 9-1-1 calls coming in during the storm.
“We knew in cases of high winds it was our responsibility in getting that down,” Nemeyer said.
The city’s firefighters were observing a test burn near the intersection of Highway 47 and Pacific Avenue when the high winds started sweeping in.
Chief Michael Kinkade sensed trouble and ordered the firefighters to extinguish the house fire and head back to town.
On the way, fire crews hoped they could make short work of getting the flag down. But the flag wasn’t interested in cooperating.
“Guys are grabbing onto it — it was blowing helmets off,” Nemeyer said.
“I was a Cub Scout … I remember how to fold the flag up,” Nemeyer said. “And that wasn’t it. It wasn’t the prettiest way to accomplish it, but it was better than having it blown halfway to Banks.” Critics of the city’s decision to put up the massive flag without much public input have questioned whether the city got what it bargained for when it accepted the donation of the flag and accompanying 120-foot flag pole earlier this year from a local family.
They say the flag is too large. Some have questioned whether the flag would be troublesome in a storm.
John Hock said he wanted to know how much the flag is costing the city.
“It’s costing us something if it’s taking 13 firemen to take the flag down and put it up,” Hock said at Monday night’s city council meeting.
But Chief Kinkade said the struggle with the flag only lasted a few minutes and didn’t cost the city anything.
“Most of them were volunteers,” Kinkade said. “We were actually right there within a block or two of the flag.”
Kinkade said that the extra responsibility of raising and lowering the flag is an honor for the fire department, not a burden.
“We're proud to raise it,” Kinkade said.
Members of the Coon family, longtime residents of Forest Grove who donated the flag, have a smaller flag on order to ameliorate both concerns.
But Mayor Richard Kidd isn’t sure when the new flag will arrive. As for the firefighters’ attempts to rescue the flag, Kidd said it was a good opportunity.
“It’s a good exercise for them,” Kidd said.
Kinkade agreed. He said he should have lowered the flag sooner when he heard radio traffic from eastern Washington County indicating that the storm surge was a serious event.
“That was completely my fault,” Kinkade said. “I had planned out what we were going to do when the storm hit, but I forgot about the flag. That's why it took so many firefighters.”
BUSY DAY
Just minutes before the storm hit, firefighters were still working on a test burn near Jennings McCall.
Kinkade said the “live fire” burn was part of a multiple-year-long effort to improve the safety of practice burns throughout Oregon.
“As recently as the last two months there have been injuries and burns down in southern Oregon in live fire burns in acquired structures,” Kinkade said.
While any injury on the job can be devastating, Kinkade said, there’s no excuse for a training incident.
Firefighters from Illinois and Idaho were on hand to help in the training excersize.
That’s partly why firefighters were out in full force and also what contributed to the workload last week.
Forest Grove Fire & Rescue got eight calls for service during the storm, they usually get about that many a day.
“How often do we have an event like we had that day?” Kinkade asked. “Along with a live fire training and everything else that was going on simultaneously.”
Editor's note: an earlier version of this story misstated the number of calls Forest Grove firefighters respond to. They field about eight calls a day.