it’s what we should do
the question I have for you today is do
fire and water do they give to us or did
they take from us my name is Kevin Jones
and I’m an engineer with Santa Barbara
County Fire Department I’ve been with
County Fire for 12 years my current
assignment is in Wes colita at station
eleven on Stork Road
although I was the last-minute addition
to the Ted docks I put some serious
thought into it and come up with the
best message that I can think to deliver
in the time I had but please excuse me
if I have to refer to my notes my job
has a way of tainting the way I look at
life I’ve seen the worst imaginable ways
carry that with me every day as I go
about my life on duty or off I look at
everything as worst-case potential my
wife doesn’t always like it but I always
ask that she’d not drive highway 154 but
take highway 101 instead I’ve been on
some of the most horrific car accidents
of my career on that undivided Highway
she knows that I ask because I care
about her life and the lives of my
as firefighters work air with us
constant reminders of the tragedies that
we’ve witnessed and we don’t take them
lightly mankind has become accustomed to
rely on fire man’s earliest invention
fire occurs in your furnace or your
fireplace keeps you warm fire cooks your
food gives you hot showers but but fire
also ravages after years of drought
combined with one of the wettest winters
on record the optimal fuel bed was
created on December 4th the Thomas fire
broke at 626 p.m. in Santa Paula by the
end of the first day that burned 63
thousand acres a time in which most
fires only burned a few thousand at its
peak it was burning at a rate of one
acre per second an entire football field
every second by the time it was
contained it had burned 282 thousand
acres destroyed over a thousand homes
and claimed two lives one of those lives
was Cal Fire engineer Cory Iverson Cory
likely enjoyed his job made enough money
to afford the necessities in life and
still spend some time with his family
but now he’s gone and he leaves behind
his pregnant wife and his two-year-old
little girl if we asked his wife Ashley
I would wager to bet that she says fire
took more from her family than it ever
see that’s the problem with fire it has
no mercy
it does not care who you are whether you
were trying to escape the fire or run in
to put it out
it destroys far more than it creates I’m
always concerned that fire will take
from me and my family whether it be at a
campfire or a structure fire in Goleta
the minute you let down your guard fire
will hurt you
should we live in fear no that’s not
what I’m suggesting we should live with
our eyes open we should know that
nothing in the path of that wildfire is
important as our lives
yours and mine both is water any
different water sustains life grows
crops keeps us alive well if that’s the
case why does Santa Barbara County fire
pull more people to safety from the
ocean than from structure fires water is
so unassuming we pay lots of money to
live or vacation in on or near water but
make no mistake water kills we all
witness this firsthand on January 9th
I was part of a regional task force that
was mobilized in preparation for the
storm when the rain came down at 3:45
a.m. we left our staging area at oral
warrant Showgrounds knowing we were
going to be needed
it was just unclear where by the time we
got on the 101 headed south county fire
engines ahead of us in route to the
explosion on East Mountain Drive were
reporting roads and access blocked by
mud and debris flow and that they were
actively engaging in rescue efforts
based on the locations given it was
clear we had a large scale problem the
first 12 hours of that day are blur and
I’m kind of happy about that as I saw
some things I don’t want to see again
the memories I want to keep are the
faces of those we help to safety
everywhere we went that day hot springs
all of Mill Santa Isabel San Leandro
to bromelain total devastation I’m very
proud of the efforts that my co-workers
and I put in to make a difference on
that day and subsequent weeks I
witnessed a careers worth of death and
destruction in one day
the Thomas fires burn scar is massive
extending from Santa Barbara to Ventura
this was only the first rain of the
season and water took the lives of 23
people that night water that God
intended to replenish the earth please
leave here today with a new respect for
mother nature I can’t think of a good
reason those people had to die that day
all I know is the destructive power of
fire and water is greater than any on earth thank you