GOSHEN COUNTY – Earlier this summer, on July 30, during a series of hot temperatures, dry lightning and wind gusts a wildfire raged out of control on the Goshen/Platte County line. As the fire scorched on through hundreds of acres, many people in the community began to panic. Emergency personnel was seen rushing from one location to another as donations were collected for local area firemen.

When we think about fire, and the dangers associated with the unmeasurable devastation, our first instinct is to run away from it. However, a group of local youngsters did the exact opposite when portions of the community were threatened in July.

Natalie Johnson graduated from Southeast High School only a few years ago but being young hasn’t prevented her from lending a hand in her local community through the Veteran Volunteer Fire Department.

“My brother (Lane) and I were both out there. We got paged out at 2:10 p.m. for mutual aid. We drove out there and made it there by 3 p.m. We definitely hauled some hinny,” Johnson explained. 

The Johnson siblings were on scene at the Pleasant Valley Fire from day one. 

“We got out there and it was crazy the first few minutes that we were there,” Johnson said. “We conveyed with Yoder’s command unit, Justin Burkart. We talked with him, and we were told to just do structure protection. We just protected a couple of structures off of (highway) 270 and then after it died down around that structure and we were able to get everything cooled off and give it a green card that it was good to go, that there was no active fire around it, and hopefully nothing would be able to catch the house on fire. 

As the fire quickly continued to engulf the communities of Guernsey and Hartville winds shifted directions putting some firefighters in danger.

“We got assigned to a different section of that fire at first,” Johnson recalled. “We tied in with Camp Guernsey and we were fighting fire along the road on highway 270 and we were told to brace for impact. I mean the wind picked up it started pushing towards us next thing we knew that fire was right on the highway and it’s throwing spot fires like crazy.”

The fire moved to the east side of the roadway, according to Johnson.

“We couldn’t catch up with any of the spot fires and that was just on the Pleasant Valley Fire. We had I think four trucks just out of the Veteran Fire Department that were over on the Haystack Fire just trying to fight it all at the same time. As we caught wind that all of those spot fires had crossed over and that fire was running toward the Haystacks, we had to call all of those guys and get them out of these because if we didn’t it would have cut off their escape route,” Johnson said. 

According to Johnson, within three minutes, the Pleasant Valley Fire had completely engulfed the firefighters escape route and merged with the Haystack Fire. 

“I think it was three minutes after we called them (firefighters), they pulled off of that fire and then they both finally collided,” Johnson said. “After that, it was pure chaos. The wind shifted it south so that fire pushed real hard against [highway] 26. Lance Petsch from Torrington was in charge of patrolling highway 26 and the next thing you know everybody is calling for help on 26. So, we all run over there. I mean there is fire everywhere on 26.”

Johnson explained her older brother Lane was beside her while they protected structures from the raging fire. 

“We were out there we got stopped by the Tallgrass Company, you know, the gas company. They told us, ‘Hey, there’s oil in one of those giant tanks next to Guresney,’ so we ran over there and took a look at that to see what it needed and luckily enough, they had a giant berm at least 200 feet away from the tanks so we just went around and patrol that to make sure the fire didn’t get anywhere near there,” Johnson said. 

Johnson explained the siblings provided structure protection throughout day one of the fire. 

“It was crazy. That was just the first night. My brother and I were out there from three in the afternoon to four in the morning. That was a long day,” Johnson said. “It was a very hectic night. We had a lot going on. Next thing we know, we get called off. The fire is still active and it’s in the Haystacks just burning timber like crazy. We got told to go home. We got two hours of sleep and we are back out on the fire by 7 a.m.”

The next day, the siblings fought the fire from 7 a.m. until around 9 p.m., according to Johnson.  

When asked how many hours the siblings spent on the two fires, Johnson struggled to determine the amount of time both she, her brother and countless other volunteer firefighters spent battling the blaze. 

“I want to say the first day was 20 hours and then every day after was about 14 hours,” Johnson explained when calculating the siblings’ time spent on the fire line. “We were out there about five days.”

With temperatures well above 100 degrees in Goshen County, firefighters had the extra added heat of burning timber every step of the way.

“It is very intense. When you think five miles an hour of wind, you think like a light breeze but with that combined with two-foot-tall grass you get about a six-foot flame,” Johnson explained. “Then when you have a 20-mph wind plus two-foot-tall grass you get 10 to 15-foot flames. With those types of conditions, you have to be so extremely cautious and the one thing that my brother and I always tell each other before we get on a truck together is we have to keep our heads on a swivel, no matter how hot it gets because it does. It gets hot so fast I mean you are dripping in sweat in the first five minutes of being like ten feet from a flame. You’re dealing with a lot.”

Johnson attributes the success of the containment of both the Pleasant Valley Fire and the Haystack Fire to trainings local departments have had and she is definitely grateful for the skills she has learned through her department.

“One of the biggest things that I have learned being on the fire department is to communicate,” Johnson said. “Your communication skills get so much better. Being able to just work with people in general, all of it.”

As first responders, firefighters are often some of the first emergency personnel to respond to a call and sometimes having a little bit of sympathy can go far, according to Johnson.

“Definitely the biggest one I have learned is making sure you know how to have sympathy and empathy for people,” Johnson said. 

Johnson expressed seeking a look of despair on a landowner’s face as his pasture went up in flames was difficult.

“Seeing all that was taken away from him and having nothing left to use for forage for his animals and his livestock, being able to sympathize with him and understand what he has gone through just in the last couple of days,” Johnson explained. “That is the biggest thing I have learned.”

If you’re interested in learning more about your local fire department, contact the Torrington Dispatch Center, according to Johnson.