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Gretchen Serwacki
English (Text Version) > Community > Interviews > Gretchen Serwacki
This interview took place on August 8, 2001, at the Sula Club House, in Sula, Montana, USA. Gretchen Serwacki generously donated her time and thoughts to ThinkQuest Team C0119184's Josh Schwartzman, and the team greatly thanks her.
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Quick Reading/Listening/Viewing Guide:
Text:
(Please note, that to understand some of the information, you may have to read earlier parts of the interview. Also, the description here is only part of what is contained in each section of the interview)
:: Introduction
:: The community and their response
:::: The community and their response, continued
:: Were they scared?
:: The Forest Service/fire management
:: The National Guard
:: Preparedness and evacuations
:: Fire at the doorstep
:: August 6, the day the fires exploded
:: Evacuations
:::: Where people were staying
:: People who lost their homes
:: Chronology of the fires, and ominous beginnings
:: It just curled up and died
:: The 78, and spontaneous combustion
:: A different kind of fire
:: The effects of the fires
:: Moving elsewhere?
:: Rehabilition of the people
:: The lasting effects
:::: The lasting effects, continued
:: Are you prepared?
:: The community will always be there
Video:
:: Were they scared? [0:50 min]
:: Chronology of the fires, and ominous beginnings [2:45 min]
:: The 78, and spontaneous combustion [2:43 min]
Audio:
The Whole Interview [34:28 min]
:: Introduction [0:43 min]
:: The community and their response [0:45 min]
:: The community and their response continued [1:19 min]
:: Were they scared? [0:59 min]
:: The Forest Service/fire management [2:42 min]
:: The National Guard [0:42 min]
:: Preparedness and evacuations [1:57 min]
:: Fire at the doorstep [1:13 min]
:: August 6, the day the fires exploded [1:49 min]
:: Evacuations [0:57 min]
:::: Where people were staying [2:08 min]
:: People who had their homes [0:43 min]
:: Chronology of the fires, and ominous beginnings [1:04 min]
:: It just curled up and died [1:30 min]
:: The 78, and spontaneous combustion [2:51 min]
:: A different kind of fire< [3:15 min]
:: The effects of the fires [1:58 min]
:: Moving elsewhere [0:42 min]
:: Rehabilition of the people [2:06 min]
:: The lasting effects [0:20 min]
:::: The lasting effects, continued [1:30 min]
:: Are you prepared? [1:57 min]
:: The community will always be there [1:26 min]
 Listen
[0:43 min]
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Introduction | top of the page
Josh: So, hi Gretchen
A picture of the entrance to Springer Memorial
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Gretchen: Hi Josh, how are you?
J: Good, how about you?
G: Good
J: I just wanted to get a little bit of background information on you. So, where you do live, (we're near Darby, south of Darby, in Sula, MT, right now)
G: Ok, my husband and I live about 13 miles up the East Fork Road, in a small veterans community called Springer Memorial Park, and we've lived there for three years this December.
J: What is the area surrounding the memorial park like?
G: It's Bitterroot National Forest, primarily.
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[0:45 min]
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The community and their response | top of the page
J: So, I guess I'll start off with some questions here.
G: Ok
J: The first thing is, what made the biggest impact on you from the fires last year?
G: I think, the biggest impact was just learning about the people we live with, about our neighbors, and how they respond to adversity. I have to say that people always come through when there's trouble and you need help, and there's always somebody out there that will drop what they're doing and come and give you assistance.
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[1:19 min]
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The community and their response continued | top of the page
J: Following that subject, how did the community respond to the fires? what happened in Sula?
G: Well, you need to understand that Sula is an unincorporated community- we don't have elected officials or anything like that. Everything that happens here is done on a volunteer basis, so people don't get paid, or if they get paid, it's not very much for the job they do. When everybody was evacuated, I think it was the frightening experience for everybody, because they really hadn't anticipated anything like this happening. The primary reason that the East Fork road was evacuated, was because there was fire all around. There really was no access for people, or egress for people to get out if fire at this end of the valley engulfed the East Fork Road. That was hard for people, because they really couldn't see the fire, but yet they were still threatened by it, and their homes were threatened by it.
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[0:50 min]
Listen
[0:59 min]
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Were they scared? | top of the page
J: Did the people feel scared, do you think?
G: Oh yes, I think they were very frightened. Especially, if you're 13 miles up the road, and all you can see is blood red sky, and a sun that is blood red in the sky, and all these dark clouds and everything. That's all you can see, you look around you, and there's green trees, and it's hot, and it's dry, but you don't see flames or anything, and then you drive down the road, and come around the corner there, and everything in the whole area is on fire.
J: What did it feel like to see everything burning?
G: It was pretty scary. Very frightening. It was like, "I'm glad I'm down in the middle of this field here, because at least I have a chance (laughs)."
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Listen
[2:42 min]
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The Forest Service/fire management | top of the page
J: Do you feel that the Forest Service did a good job in that, I know that they let some of it burn, but do you think they did a good job protecting homes?
G: You know, that's kind of a touchy subject (laughs). I think in some instances they did what they had to do because they had no choice. Springer and Bonanza are a little isolated area, and the same way with other groups of homes up and down the East Fork road. Initially, I think there was a feeling that they had limited resources, and they didn't have the resources to put towards saving these homes if they were threatened by fire. So therefore, the Sula volunteer fire department put a lot of effort into doing the best that they could to protect homes on the East Fork road. Obviously, by the time we were evacuated, the situation in the rest of the Sula fire district was pretty much catastrophic. Dixon Creek had burned, Laird Creek had burned, and the Maynard fire was racing south on [Highway] 93. Those homes up there were threatened and everything, and you had a little fire department that has to cover 90,000 square miles, and you have maybe 24 people on the department. You're trying to protect all these homes that are spread out over the place- it's pretty much an impossible thing to do. There were a few people, a few of the firemen in Springer, in that area up there, that started doing some work. They got a lot of their resources through the Forest Service- [fire] hoses and pumps and things like that to try and protect the homes up there as best they could. As time went on the area was going to continue to be threatened, then the Forest Service came in and put in a huge irrigation system.
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[0:42 min]
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The National Guard | top of the page
J: They brought in the National Guard, correct?
G: The National Guard came in they - they basically came in to help the Sheriff's department. They also have limited resources- they don't have enough deputies to put out at every roadblock that had to be put up. Primarily, the roadblocks were there to protect the people who live in the community- people who had to leave their homes, and leave their possessions. The roadblocks were there to make sure that there weren't unwanted people going in and helping themselves (laughs).
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Listen
[1:57 min]
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Preparedness and evacuations | top of the page
J: Were you prepared for evacuation, or what did Springer Memorial do to prepare for the fires?
G: I can't say that really a lot was done. My husband and I had started doing thinning of trees on the place that we have, and we were fortunate in that the people who lived there before us had already done a lot of work. There wasn't a lot of understory growth. There wasn't a lot of ladder fuel. There wasn't a lot of ground fuel. Our property is directly on the Bitterroot National Forest boundary, so..
J: So, your property was threated by the fire the entire year.
G: (Laughs) People, I think, were doing little things- they moved wood piles, because we get a lot of snow up there, and so you don't want to be tromping hundreds of feet through the snow to bring in wood in wintertime, so you kind of put your woodpile-
J: close to your house-
G: close to your house, which is not the thing you want to do (laughs).
J: Especially not for the fires.
G: (Laughs) A lot of the community up there- there are only about eight or nine people that live up there year-round. The rest of the dwellings that are in the park that we live are cabins, or places that people come to for summer home, and stuff like that. There were lots of things- the fire department went around and cleaned all the pine needles off roofs, and raked pine needles and stuff away from the base of the houses, and moved woodpiles, and did as much as they could to protect the dwelling up there.
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Listen
[1:13 min]
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Fire at the doorstep | top of the page
J: How close did the fires come to the Springer Memorial?
G: I would say, as the crow flies, it's probably a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile, or something in that area.
J: So, did you get to see afterwards, what it looked like, and how close they came?
G: Yes, and I'm glad I was down here and not up there, because I had gone into Hamilton that day, and when I came back, I stopped at the Sula store, and the gal in the store said, "Well, they rang the bell in Springer," which means that they evacuated everybody that was up there. They had developed a system that, when the fire department went around, and they were blowing their sirens, that meant, you will get out. That was so all the backhoes, and bulldozers, and anybody that they had working in that area [could get to work]. They [the people of Springer memorial] were evacuated, and they got to their safer area, I think it was, within 24 minutes, which is really quite remarkable. The people that were up there, said that was the scariest thing they had ever seen, is to see those flames coming over the top of the hill, right up above Springer and Bonanza.
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[1:49 min]
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August 6, the day the fires exploded | top of the page
J: Now, you got to watch the fires right when they blew up on August 6 [2000], what was that like, and was there a lot of commotion?
G: Yes, you can imagine, all the people that live up and down the road here, and in this area, all being told that, "You have to leave your homes, and come to the [Sula] Club House, and you will probably be evacuated somewhere from there." So, people were bringing their animals, they were bringing as many as their rigs as they possibly could. We had had a preliminary evacuation, I believe it was Thursday, which would have been the fourth, or the third [it was August 3], and we came down here, and I had already started putting stuff in our motorhome- putting clothes in, and putting food in. I sent out an email to everybody- "We're breaking down the computer- this is the last you're going to hear from us, (laughs) via email." Also, we were trying to stay in touch with our family, and our kids. We knew that something was going to happen, we knew it.
J: But, did you know it was going to be that big?
G: No, I don't think anybody expected anything like that. I think we all knew it was going to be a bad fire season, but we just never expected that 300,000 plus acres were going to burn, and we would be living with it for, really six weeks - two months, it seemed like. That was a long time.
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Listen
[0:57 min]
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Evacuations | top of the page
J: How long were you evacuated from your home?
G: Well, let's see. I left on the sixth [August 6], the afternoon of the sixth, and we were back September 8. So, (laughs), lived in the motorhome. And, you know, when things go wrong, everything goes wrong? Everything that could break in the motorhome, broke (laughs). The water heater went out, the furnace went out, so, like the first week, as soon as we could get of here the next morning, I took the motorhome into Hamilton, and had work done on it. I was in there for the week with two of our daughters, who live in Hamilton. Our other daughter came over from Conrad [Montana] and we came back up here [the Sula area] on Saturday. From then, I was here, because I had no place else to go.
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[2:08 min]
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Where people were staying | top of the page
J: Now, where were people staying?
G: They were staying here [at the Sula Club House]. But during the day, they were allowing them to go back to their homes. A lot of people were going to their homes and bringing stuff down here. My philosophy was, I can't take everything. I got our pictures, our important papers, I got our cat, and those things. I said, if I can't take it all, I'm not going to take any of it. So, I just left, and I said, the good Lord will take care of us (laughs). And He did. We had some things happen to our place- in fact, a FEMA inspector said that we had the most damage of anybody who didn't-
J: Lose their home-
G: Lose their home to fire. They were cutting trees down in the feller/buncher. I don't if you know what that is, but it's that big machine that comes along and grabs the tree and cuts it off, and moves it over. It went over our septic tank, and then on the weekend of Labor Day, when he had our rains, and we first experienced mudslides here in Sula, it caved it [the septic tank] in- all the water. We had to have that replaced, and we had other things in the house [that didn't work]- things just happened. But, we were lucky we had insurance, and it paid for most of all the damage that occurred. That was a blessing, because some people lost their homes, and didn't have insurance, or didn't have enough to take care of all the expenses that they incurred.
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[0:43 min]
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People who lost their homes | top of the page
J: Did you talk to people who had lost their homes?
G: Yes, I have talked with a couple ladies who used to belong to the women's club in Sula, and in fact, one of the ladies is a member, and in fact, her story is in this scrapbook that we're putting together. I know of at least three ladies that lost their homes, and was a very, very hard thing, because all of them, because it was such a sudden thing, lost a lot of things they couldn't get out of their homes-
J: couldn't replace
G: yeah.
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Watch
(It continues past this section)
[2:45 min]
Listen
[1:04 min]
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Chronology of the fires, and ominous beginnings | top of the page
J: I was wondering if we could go on the fires a little bit- maybe you could tell us about the chronology and how everything advanced from the beginning?
G: Well, it's kind of hard, I was up at another end [of the valley], and it's like being a little isolated up there, but with my husband being on the fire department, you hear things, and you know that when he comes home from a fire meeting that, and says, "Things are really dry." The first fire the forest had was the first part of June- I think it was like June first.
J: That's unusal, right?
G: That's unusual. That was up at Fish Lakes, which is on the East Fork road, and then you take off [the road], and it's back in the hills up there. Anyway, there was still snow on the ground, and that fire burned five acres.
J: Wow.
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[1:30 min]
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It just curled up and died | top of the page
G: And that's at a high elevation and, you just don't expect that. As the months of June and July went on, you could just tell we weren't getting any rain, and it was hot. I do a fair amount of walking, and I have a lot of area up there to walk in. As you'd walk, the ground was just crunchy under your feet, and you'd look up the vegetation, and everything was curling up and dying. The grasses were all turning brown, and it was just not a good scene. Then there was a fire up toward Painted Lakes, called the Little Blue, and that burned 5,000 acres or something like that- that was in the middle of June, and they had to evacuate 25 homes up there. There were, on the 28 of July, they had five fires burning in the Bitterroot Valley. Then on the 31 of July, we had a huge lightning storm come in- it was all dry lightning- and 78 fires started.
J: Wow.
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Watch
[2:43 min]
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[2:51 min]
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The 78, and spontaneous combustion | top of the page
G: And that's like, excuse me, (laughs), we didn't ask for this (laughs). So, I think, looking at the [calendar in the] scrapbook here, I put, July 1, Bitterroot National Forest reports a total of 107 fires. That's up to July 30, and they were able to put out most of them [by July 30], except for the five.
 Then, the 78 came, and they didn't get those put out (laughs). Those didn't get put out until way into September. As far as things happening up to when the whole valley pretty much exploded- at least in this end of the valley. The Sula volunteer fire department had started doing patrols, because the Bear Fire was going, and that was kind of threatening, and they were going up and down the road every day, and up and down Highway 93, and back in the hills, checking for spot fires. There were some health hazard alerts, because of smoke, that were being issued by the health department, and then they started doing these red flag days. They just said, hey, don't even breathe, because you might spontaneously combust (laughs). Everything was just so dry- it was awful. You really didn't even want to move. Anyway, the Maynard fire crossed Highway 93, and then the firestorm hit on the sixth [August], and that was when we were all evacuated. A large number of people that evening, after the highway [Highway 93] was fairly safe going south, were evacuated and went to Salmon [Idaho]. From there, they went on to other places. Then, on the ninth, they closed the forest, and Highway 93 was only open with the pilot cars. It took until the middle of August before 93 was open, so people could just drive up and down it, and we could go back and forth to town. But, the fires were still burning.
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Listen
[3:15 min]
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A different kind of fire | top of the page
J: What do you think the difference in the weather, the weather that the fires created, and just the fires compared to normal wildfires? I know you had talked to different firefighters from different areas who had lots of experience, who had never seen anything like this before- what did they say it was like?
G: We lived in Hamilton before we moved up here, and we've had a couple fires- we had a fire in Blodgett where we could stand in our backyard and watch the fire, and there was a fire on Ward Mountain, and there were fires across the valley in the Sapphires, but you were away from it. You could see them, but you felt very protected, and it didn't affect you outside of- there might have been a little smoke in the area. But here, it was like, there was just so much of it, I think to start with, nobody really knew where to go, how to attack, and it got so that the fires were bad, that you pretty much had to sit and wait. You couldn't send firefighters out in to areas where the smoke was so bad you couldn't see in front of you, you couldn't use helicopters, and you couldn't use planes- all the resources that normally would be put into effect. You couldn't use them because the smoke was so thick- you couldn't even see where you were going. My husband was staying up at our house in Springer, and he said there were times in the morning where he would get up, and he could hardly see across our road. I mean, it was just so thick. And of course, you're breathing that stuff all the time.
J: So it's not good for you anyway-
G: I know, yes, you wear a mask, or you put a mask on when you're outside, but it's a hard thing to remember to do, number one, and number two, I don't think there was any mask made that could protect you from all the smoke inhalation. A lot of people left because of that, because of their health, because they couldn't stand the smoke. I think it was very disorienting for people, to live in this gray fog, just hanging over you. You never saw the sun, (laughs), and I think it was like we had an early seasonal affective disorder (laughs), because it's like being in the winter time- short periods of sunlight, and everything, affects people, and I think that that played, to a large extent, in how people responded emotionally and psychologically.
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[1:58 min]
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The effects of the fires | top of the page
J: Do you think a lot of people that weren't directly affected by the fires were affected by their effects (smoke and etc.)?
G: Yes, that's right. There's nothing worse than not feeling like you're in control. That was a hard thing for these folks. It was a hard thing for me, because I went up to our house a couple of times, after they said, "Well, you can go to your house," and I went up there, and I went, "Well, what am I doing here? I can't do anything." I got the lawnmower out one day and cut the grass, because o the sprinkler system, even when you're in a fire, things still grow if you give them water (laughs), and our grass was getting a lot of water, so I got the lawnmower out one day and I cut the grass. It was like, I went in my house one day, and pulled all the old, rotten meat [out of the refrigerator] because we had no power. We had no gas, therefore we couldn't keep the generator running, because we couldn't get gas up there, so what gas we had went towards the Sula Fire Department. They have a tank up there, but that was all gone, and so then you have rotten meat to get rid of, and-
J: It just affects everything.
G: It does, it does. The hummingbirds left, and it was a sad scene all over. I'm just thankful that our house didn't burn. I think even if I emotionally thought I was prepared, I wouldn't have been.
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[0:42 min]
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Moving elsewhere? | top of the page
J: Would you have moved elsewhere if the fire would have completely swept through your area, or do you think you would have rebuilt your home, and started over?
G: Well, we had a house in Hamilton for sale at the time. Somebody said to us, "Oh, it's a good thing you haven't sold your house- if your house burns, then you can move back to Hamilton." I said, "That isn't even on the agenda." I just wouldn't even think about going back to Hamilton. We left Hamilton, and this is our home now, so, if we would've had to, we would've lived in the motorhome, until we had something constructed to take its place. I wouldn't go someplace else.
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[2:06 min]
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Rehabilition of the people | top of the page
J: I was going to see if we could talk a little bit about after the fires, and rehabilitation. What did the community do after all the fires were put out, to help people- didn't the Salvation Army come in?
G: The Salvation Army was here doing most of the evacuation period. They set up a, I guess you could say, a kitchen, at the Fallen Goose, which is down the road here a ways. They had volunteers that came in and cooked, and also volunteers that went out every day into the field- they went up to Springer- they went everywhere that there were people, and had cold water, ice, pops, snacks. There was a man, from, I think it was Polson or Ronan, who donated, I don't know how many hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, that they would bring down, and take out, and share with everybody, and we would have them here for dinner. The Salvation Army would bring in meals every night, and so that way people who were still in their homes would come down- we could get together- we could cry on each other's shoulders- we could pat each other on the back- we could say, "This, too, shall pass," and it did. It took a long time, though. When you think about catastrophes, or disasters, you think about floods, that come in and they're gone, and they leave behind devastation. You think about hurricanes, they're here, and then they're gone, and they leave devastation, and tornadoes, and they're here and they're gone, and earthquake[s], and everything leaves behind it the aftermath. It just took so long, for this to leave.
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[0:20 min]
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The lasting effects | top of the page
J: It's still a year later, and how is it affecting you now?
G: Affecting me, not really. It's not affecting me too much. It's affecting a lot of other people because they had to experience mudslides and floods, and everything.
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[1:30 min]
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The lasting effects continued | top of the page
J: What has happened lately?
G: Well, we've had some heavy rains, which were not really expected, and they unfortunately fell on areas that were severely burned last year, that had really no protection against that quantity of water. People were flooded out, and mudslides- the Rocky Knob, which is a restaurant down the road here- got flooded out, and mudslides two days in a row. They had no sooner cleaned up one mess, and then the next one came. I believe that they were up and running again and open for business in just a couple days. It was another one of those community efforts, where everybody pitched in- people did sandbags, and haybales, and all kinds of stuff.
J: So, everybody sort of cared for everybody else-
G: That's right, just like we did during the fires. According to what information we get from the Department of Natural Resources, they say that in those areas that were severely burned, we can anticipate that those people may be experiencing that type of thing over the next couple of years. That's something to look forward to (laughs).
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[1:57 min]
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Are you prepared? | top of the page
J: So, do you think you could live through something like this again- are you more prepared now- or do you think it would be hard on you to able to go through this?
G: Oh no, I think I'm better prepared, now, than I was last year. I thought I did pretty good last year, but afterwards, it was a hard thing. A lot of times people whose house doesn't burn, I think, end up feeling, like, "Well why did mine not burn and theirs did?" It's like you carry this little bit of guilt around for a while. Then the frustration of dealing with insurance companies, or dealing with government agencies, trying to get reimbursement, or trying to find out what kind of resources you can access to recover from this type of thing. Unfortunately, I don't think there's ever enough. A lot of times, people that really need the help aren't identified, or refuse to ask for the help, and I think that's the hard thing to see. In this area, people are very, very independent, and it's a good thing, because that's what has made this area survive- the spirit the people have here. Really and truly, even with television, and radio, and highways, and cars, and everything, we're still isolated from what goes on.
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[1:26 min]
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The community will always be there | top of the page
J: Do you think else like this could have brought the community together- any other thing that could have brought them together like this did, when everybody came in and helped everybody else out? Do you think it was sort of a unique experience?
G: Well, I think from the fact that it was a catastrophe, a disaster, I think any time something like that would happen, these people would respond. This community comes together all the time. This clubhouse was built because the community came together, and put it up. They had a clubhouse, it was damaged during heavy snows, and they decided to built a new clubhouse. They burned the old one down, and this is all community. Volunteer- the logs, the roof, the windows, you name it, it was all either donated, or constructed through volunteer work. That is something I think, unique, it's a wonderful experience living here.
J: I think that's all the questions I have for now, so thank you!
G: You're welcome.
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