Firefighters back from hurricane country

Twenty-nine days and three hurricanes later, four Newport Beach

firefighters returned home safely Tuesday from a relief mission

through several states in the hurricane-ravaged South.

Capt. Ron Gutierrez, Capt. Chip Duncan, Fire Engineer Jim

Jeziorski and Firefighter Nic Lucas, dressed uniformly in dark blue

T-shirts, were greeted by fellow Newport firefighters at the baggage

carousel at John Wayne Airport.

Toting duffel bags and weary grins, the four men shared their

stories of the three women they won’t soon forget.

First Katrina, then Ophelia and finally Rita -- the devastation

left behind by the three storms came as a surprise even to these men,

who have made careers out of responding to emergencies.

“I was prepared, but what I experienced, I don’t know if I was

prepared for that,” Gutierrez said.

Initially sent to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency

in providing disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina,

the Newport firefighters later found themselves in the middle of an

entire region in need, as two more hurricanes pummeled the area.

Both teams spent most of their time in Jefferson County, Texas,

where Hurricane Rita left behind a powerful wake of destruction.

In places, it appeared that homes had been flattened by a sledge

hammer, Duncan said. Utility poles were snapped in half, and in one

spot, the sign from a Jack in the Box restaurant had “karate-chopped”

a Jeep Cherokee in half, Duncan said.

“Every other house had a tree in it,” Jeziorski said. Houston was

a ghost town, Gutierrez said.

While many civilians were trying to leave the disaster area, the

four Newport firefighters, along with countless others, volunteered

for the assignment. They answered the call from FEMA, which requested

teams of firefighters to volunteer to assist in recovery efforts in

areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Capt. Robert Masonis, a member of a FEMA rescue team, also

recently returned from the Gulf Coast, where he had been working

since August in Biloxi, Miss.

In early September, they departed from San Diego, bound first for

Atlanta, where they received training. Then, after Hurricane Ophelia

hit the North Carolina coast, some of the firefighters conducted a

preliminary assessment of damage in the area.

When the South was slammed with yet another powerful storm, the

teams were sent to Jefferson County, Texas, just hours after Rita

hit. There, they worked with FEMA to supply citizens with

necessities.

Rita’s damage to Texas resulted largely from powerful winds, much

different from the floodwater damage seen after Hurricane Katrina,

Duncan said.

At one point, some of the firefighters worked in a Texas shelter

where victims of Hurricane Katrina were being housed. The New Orleans

evacuees had some “bad stories” to tell, Gutierrez said.

“Those guys will be traumatized for a while,” he said.

Working under FEMA, the Newport firefighters had a choice of two

shirts to wear while working: a FEMA T-shirt or a Newport Fire

T-shirt. Depending on the situation, different shirts brought a mixed

reception from civilians, Gutierrez said.

“A lot of people were very upset with FEMA,” he said.

But for the most part, people in Texas were friendly toward the

firefighters, generously trying to give the firefighters food,

despite their own predicaments, Gutierrez said.

“They were amazing,” he said. “They were the friendliest people.”

In many areas, the teams of firefighters were not allowed to go in

until the area was secured by the National Guard. Guns were

everywhere, in the hands of both civilians and law enforcement

agencies, he said.

As far as housing, Gutierrez and Jeziorski were lucky -- they got

to stay in a hotel. But it was a different experience for Lucas and

Duncan, who stayed in rooms at the Ford Park event complex in

conditions Lucas described as “gnarly.”

“At first, when we got there, there ... [were] four port-a-potties

for a thousand people,” Lucas said.

Lucas and Duncan commuted back and forth 84 miles each way by car

from the event complex to the area where they were working.

Despite the rough conditions and long absence from home, each

firefighter said that the trip was a learning experience he’d be glad

to repeat.

“If something happens here, we’ll be real prepared because we got

a lot of info to take back,” Lucas said.

Gutierrez said he plans to take some vacation time to get

reacquainted with his family.

After serving nearly one month away from home, the firefighters

aren’t the only ones who are happy to be back.

Duncan’s two children -- Chad, 16, and Hillary, 13 -- greeted

their dad with hugs at the airport Tuesday.

“It was hard for everyone,” Chad said.

When Duncan inquired about the status of some household chores,

Chad and Hillary readily reassured their dad that, yes, in fact, the

yard work was all done.

* LAUREN VANE covers public safety and courts. She may be reached

at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at [email protected]

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