Red, white and blew

Sudden storm brings Forest Grove firefighters to giant flag’s rescue as high winds whip it around

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jun 10, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (9 Reader comments)

Chase Allgood / News-Times

Thirteen firefighters rescued Forest Grove’s new commemorative flag from its pole during a sudden windstorm Thursday.

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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.”

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