JUDD WEIL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — One year ago, five miles east of Hutchinson near 4th Ave., a smoldering fire, left unattended, was spread by the Kansas wind. That fire, now commonly called the Cottonwood Complex Fire, was responsible for burning 12,000 acres, killing one person, and destroying 36 homes, 92 outbuildings, and 110 vehicles.
Firefighters battled the fire for a week.
“That day we were under catastrophic fire conditions, winds were 30, 40 mile an hour sustained winds that day,” Doug Hanen, Hutchinson Fire Department Division Chief of Operations, said. ”On days like that you're sitting around, you're just waiting for the first one to come in, and you know that day is, if one gets going, it's going to be a major fire."
Hanen said Hutchinson Fire Department (HFD) knew this was going to be a major fire fairly early.
“As soon as the call came out, the smoke column was well developed and it was moving, I say probably when we first knew it was going to be a major fire was probably in the first 20 to 30 minutes when we went through the first wind shift,” Hanen said. “We went through three wind shift changes on that. It was initially southwest then it became west, then it eventually became northwest.
Hanen added the wind shifts made bringing the fire under control a task that required help from across south central Kansas.
HFD initially received the call at 12:37 p.m. The initial response was about 20 units, according to HFD Chief Steven Beer. The task force eventually grew to include units from McPherson, Rice, Harvey, and Sedgwick counties and the Kansas Forest Service.
HFD also had to activate their Task Force 5, their urban search and rescue group, to locate the one fatality that resulted from the fire.
HFD crews worked a constant rotation of 12-hour shifts from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for a week.
“I want to say the easy part is putting out the fire. The hard part is the mop up work after the main body of fire is put out,” Beer said. “It's the saw work, the trees that got to be cut, it's the stuff that's smoldering and burning for days that really were the legwork. The main body of fire, that was a heck of a firefight for a lot of these individuals, but all week it was a lot of tough work, physical work.”
Chief Beer commended what firefighters did that day.
“That's bad enough by having one fatality but there could easily have been many, many more and what these men and women did that day to save some of the lives and property, it's truly a testament of what they do day in and day out,” Beer said. “We did lose a brush truck in that fire and we did have two of our firefighters that were on that brush truck when the flames came over the back of the truck and the cab of the truck, and zero visibility and they were very fortunate to get out of that fire.”
The fire was intense enough to partially melt that truck.
The sudden wind changes during this wildfire made the fire look like its own storm, with the smoke resembling a thunderhead.
What Beer remembers most about the fire is how little was left.
“It's the people. Whether it's a structure fire or whether it's a wildfire, if there's any other type of disaster, a flood, even a tornado, usually you can find a picture or something,” Beer said. “Many of these people lost everything. Everything you own. Just think about that. Every picture you saved from the day, from your child, all the way up to any things that were handed down through generations from grandparents. Everything was gone for these individuals.”
The humanitarian efforts of the Reno County community over the past year are not unnoticed.
“I think we're so fortunate living in Reno County here where the United Way is, what they did stepping up and right away getting these people supplies, getting everything set up at the State Fairgrounds, and where people could come in if they needed a new bank card, a driver's license, medications,” Beer said. “The stuff we don't think about, they were trying to get these people back on their feet within the next day or two. I think that's just a tribute to Hutch in general and the citizens."
That support also helped the working firefighters, as they were provided with Chapstick, pallets of water, Gatorade, and other resources.
The effects of the Cottonwood Complex fire still continue to change the fire department a year later.
“I went to the City Council and I went to the county commissioners and requested some additional funding to give my firefighters the tools and equipment they need to do their job,” Beer said. “We were fortunate to be able to order some additional brush trucks, get us out of outdated gear, and get some better tools and equipment along with hose to battle these fires.”
Beer knows that his firefighters have to be ready every day for wildfires when conditions are dry.
“This is not a game with these wildfires, these brush fires, this is life and death, in our business here. I think we pride ourselves in Hutch with how far we have come in the wildland firefighting game through the knowledge and expertise that we have with the joint venture with the Kansas Forestry Service here in town.”
Beer called that partnership vital in mitigating future fires.
Hanen added on to what Beer said about the mental impact to the fire department from the fight they faced a year ago
"You don’t drive back through that area without reliving some of the things that you saw that day, like Chief [Beer] alluded to, there were some pretty heroic things that happened out there in the sun,” Hanen said. “People jumping into ponds to save their life and burying their heads in the sand and our guys going in and finding them and bringing them out. It’s what they do day in, day out. When you have a fire to this magnitude that does this much destruction in a very close proximity area with 36 homes, probably 90% of them were all within three roads of each other, that's something that doesn't leave your mind.”
While the stresses of the Cottonwood Complex fire were felt by the citizens whose property burned and that memory is still there today, the fire department is not immune to the mental trauma either.
“As a chief of the department, I do worry about these big calls like this, and being a young agency there is a long-term effect of some of this stuff,” Beer said. “The traumatic stress we see, we try to give people help when they need help if they need help and stuff like that. We try to take care of our people through our peer support programs and even going outside of the department too.”
Firefighters and first responders even have access to a program that gives people one-on-one counseling.
“We are not exempt from the realities of this world,” Beer said. “What my men and women see on a daily basis, and I want to repeat that, what my men and women see on a daily basis, the average citizen in Hutchinson has no clue and will never see that in their entire life and that does take a toll on an individual over the course of their career.”
While the investigation into the Cottonwood Complex fire is still ongoing, according to Chief Beer, criminal intent was ruled out immediately.
The Hutchinson Fire Department is also quick to thank all the additional agencies that helped them both before and after the flames were out.
“Since it’s a wildfire, the fire department gets plugged pretty quick, but there was some big-time groups that stepped up, the United Way, VOAD, those kinds of groups that helped all these families get back on their feet,” Hanen said. “This was a devastating fire.”
Other mutual aid departments helped that day, too.
“Reno County Sheriff’s Department, Reno County EMS, there’s so many supporting agencies that support us, that allow us to do what we do day in and day out,” Beer said. “The 911 center, huge players in the success of getting everything done, Reno County Emergency Management, Kansas Forestry Service, all great partners. We're all standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the command room over here, working like I said, shoulder to shoulder. That's how we mitigate these things, when all of these agencies are working together for the common goals.”
Chief Beer expressed pride in how well Reno County civil service agencies worked together, and credited their united efforts to keeping the citizens safe through the fire, even with as much damage as there turned out to be.
“With how devastating this one was, it could have been way worse, could have been 10 times worse,” Beer said.
Beer and Reno County Emergency Management staff have been asked to present to the Board of County Commissioners on their plans for the 2023 Fire Season on Tuesday.
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