Hurricane Helene swept through the South and up into Appalachia last week, killing hundreds.

Americans from across the country have rushed to the region, from private pilots flying relief flights of supplies before official responses could get moving to thousands of emergency workers moving in to help exhausted emergency departments across the impact area of the hurricane, the deadliest since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

One of Hoquiam’s own joined them this week: Derek Jensen of the Hoquiam Fire Department has mobilized alongside others from Washington, headed straight to devastated Asheville as a task force leader.

“I’m proud of him. I’m glad we can provide assistance throughout the state and across the country,” said Hoquiam Fire Chief Matt Miller in an interview. “We’re just little old Hoquiam on the far West Coast here, a small town with 21 firefighters, but we’ve got people crossing state lines to work and help. They’re willing to do it. They’re happy to do it. It makes you proud.”

Jensen mobilized with a team that used the Washington Department of Natural Resources as a conduit to assemble a group, Miller said. Notified Saturday, Jensen flew out Monday, arriving in Asheville to serve in any capacity he could.

“I called Derek because he just finished his task force leader task book this year,” Miller said. “I called him and said, ‘Would you be interested if I can make this happen.’”

At least 40 people died in the areas around Asheville alone, with more than 227 accounted dead across the region so far, according to the Associated Press. The hurricane brought a deluge, feet of rain in mere hours which wiped out roads and bridges, destroyed buildings, and cut access to the region with stretches of some highways entirely destroyed. Enough water fell from Helene to cover the entire state of North Carolina to a depth of 3.5 feet, according to the Associated Press.

“When he gets there, he’ll be assigned a team. They’re covering six counties in Western North Carolina supporting the residents,” Miller said. “Lots of bugs, bees, hazmat and poop water is what they were warned about.”

While Jensen’s specific tasking is unclear, having just arrived, Miller said he’s sure Jensen’ll be busy, with plenty of work to be done, including missions like searches, rescues, recoveries, building evaluations, neighborhood evaluations or infrastructure evaluations, and more.

“It’s probably once in a lifetime,” Miller said. “There was probably a lot of people across the state that were interested.”

While deploying firefighters clear across the country isn’t a common practice for Hoquiam, they have seen more in-state and out-of-state deployments for wildfires in recent years, Miller said.

“We’ll see how this goes and how it works. If Derek represents us well, which I’m sure he will — he’s been deployed across the state and Oregon and I’ve had nothing but excellent reviews,” Miller said. “Everything I’ve got back from everyone I’ve sent out so far is ‘this person did an excellent job, we’d love to have them back.’”

Jensen’s deployment will probably run for about 2-3 weeks, Miller said, working under the federal agencies tasked with managing the response.

Long range, long term

Jensen’s deployment to North Carolina comes amid a growing trend at Hoquiam and across the county of training firefighters to do more things in more places, Miller said.

“One of the things I did a year and a half, two years ago when I became chief was conduct an employee survey: what’s going right, what’s going wrong, what would you like to see us do?” Miller said. “I looked into options of what we could offer new employees or current employees. Diversity in the career is a common one.”

Hoquiam and other local departments have been pushing the tempo on training firefighters to do more in more specialized scenarios, Miller said, including working different positions on a major wildfire or other disaster, from working on an engine crew, to task force leaders like Jensen, to managing base camps, to other specialized skill sets such as technical rope rescues. All of that makes the firefighters better able to serve their community, Miller said, both in the case of a major disaster or simply in the day-to-day.

“I’m just proud of them. Reaching out and exploring other opportunities in the fire service, gaining experience and knowledge that will come back to help us in the city. More knowledgeable, higher trained, more experience coming back to the city can only help us in the city,” Miller said. “That all comes back to help us in general.”

Miller said he makes sure anyone deploying out has someone to fill their position in Hoquiam before he gives the nod to go. The department is also reimbursed by the state for their work, helping the department in a time of lean budgets.

“Our main concern is the city of Hoquiam. We always make sure our daily staffing is taken care of before we send anyone anywhere. All these deployments have been reimbursable. When we send specific assignments out with specific equipment, it’s a new revenue source for us,” Miller said. “We’re not going to reinvent the system and completely overrun our bank account, but it does bring in a bit of revenue. These reimbursements are helping us improve other equipment. We’re making money we’re able to reinvest back into the department.”

Hoquiam has seen more than a dozen deployments this year, Miller said. The option to go assist with these larger fires is something the department can offer to firefighters seeking more ways to help, Miller said, learning skills and positions that aren’t necessarily easy to come by.

“This year, Hoquiam has provided six different people to 14 different fires in Washington and Oregon, not including this,” Miller said. “This is a pretty big and active year for us. I’m trying to give my staff options for career advancement and variety.”

Miller said this is the furthest he’s aware of one of Hoquiam’s firefighters going for a response like this.

“As far as I know this is the first time the Hoquiam Fire Department has done this,” Miller said. “I’m not aware of any other department in the county doing something like this. I’m sure it’s possible.”

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or michael.lockett@thedailyworld.com.