Seattle firefighter Jake Desmarteau, based at Station 36 near Harbor Island is just back from a deployment to the Chelan Complex where his strike team of four fought the fires there. His team was some of the 20 Seattle Firefighters that were dispatched in Central and Eastern Washington to assist in firefighting operations. 16 of the firefighters have received wildland fire training and have their Incident Qualification Card or “red cards.”

His team was on a Type 1 engine, (intended for structural firefighting), based in Chelan Falls.

"We arrived under the cover of darkness on Aug. 16, " Despenau said," and that was the day that the fires in Chelan got a head of steam and got as one described 'out of control' and pushed in on the City of Chelan as it was potentially going to overtake it. They lost a lot of warehouses and things. Which is why I think they deployed Type 1 engines just to put the fires that were in those structures out."

"When we arrived we were told we would deploy and help extinguish them and then our plans changed and were told to stay at camp. Camp was at the bottom of the hill and as we looked from camp up the hill at the night skyline, all we could see was an orange glow of embers and fire burning, backing down the hill, towards our camp. Not knowing what's between that and our camp it seemed a little scary."

They had no close calls but had to be extremely aware of falling debris down hillsides and air drops from planes and helicopters ferrying water to the fires.

The last time Desmarteau fought a wild fire was 20 years ago, he said. He's 43 now. Still he worked up to 12 hour days on site getting up at 5am, getting a briefing, preparing their gear and pack and then heading out for a full day of work.

SFD teaches Wildland firefighting and those deployed take a class to get certified plus an annual refresher class to maintain certification.

Fighting a fire in land of that type is "mostly defense, not offense," explained Desmarteau. If a house or structure is on fire, it's not our intent to go inside unless there's life threatening circumstance, in a rescue. So from beginning to end it's a defensive stance where we try to keep the house protected by digging lines, foam or water application.

Since fires are by nature unpredictable, he believes his team was responsible for most likely saving some homes in the area. "They are not burned yet while we were on watch. Would they have burned? No one really knows so I'd like to say that yes we did save them."