Published: July 14, 2008 07:59 pm            

Edge gets in middle of California fires

By Mark Millican

markmillican@daltoncitizen.com



Traveling to California to battle yet one more blazing inferno was nothing new to Victa “Vicky” Edge. The chief ranger of the Georgia Forestry Commission for Gordon and Murray counties has made a career of traveling across the United States to fight fires and help victims of hurricanes and flooding.

“I’ve been going out west (to fight fires) since about 1993,” Edge said. “People think it’s just about fires, but we do ‘all-risk’ types of assignments.”

In her time with the Forestry Commission, Edge has been a part of security during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the G-8 Summit of major industrial countries in Sea Island in 2004. She has also been to a dozen major fires in western states in the last 15 years.

“We used to stay gone for 21 days,” she said, “but now we do it in two-week rotations. Studies have been done showing that two weeks away from home are enough — at 21 days people get too accident prone.”

Other areas where safety measures have been “strengthened” include making firefighters take off eight hours after working a maximum of 16 hours a day.

“It didn’t use to be like that,” noted Edge. “Fighting fires is dangerous, but a lot of the long hours are traveling to and from the fires. The fatigue and the wear and tear are worse on the body than the danger. Most accidents happen while people are driving in unfamiliar territory and through smoke, and trees and ‘snags’ falling on them. We’ve had a lot of firefighters killed that way.”

About three weeks ago Edge flew to California, rented a car and drove two hours to the fire site in California's Lassen National Forest, then climbed into an SUV to get to her assignment. She was part of a “Type 1” team, which includes the most qualified and experienced firefighters. A Type 2 squad might provide security at an event, and Type 3 teams might tackle a fire like the recent one at pristine Cumberland Island on Georgia’s coast.

Troy Floyd, the district ranger for Northwest Georgia, just returned from helping manage that blaze.

“It’s 100 percent contained, with just some mop-up operations going on,” he reported. “This fire was a natural process, started by lightning. It gets rid of some species, and allows others to grow.”

The 26-year veteran firefighter said the isolated Cumberland fire burned 2,540 acres.

In California, low humidity, high winds and evergreen trees provide the conditions for a perfect fire. News from the Golden State in the last two weeks indicated there were at one time 1,000 fires, which have been whittled down to around 300 or 400.

“Why do we do it?” Edge laughed. “We get asked that a lot. Why do we sleep on the ground and maybe get three showers in two weeks? Why do we eat sandwiches at every meal so much you want to gag when you’d like to have a greasy hamburger? Where else can you go and see new territory and get paid for it?

“We’re a lot like firemen, we have a need or want to go and help people. At the end of two weeks you feel like ‘I did something’ and you also make a lot of friends from all over the country.”

Edge will be taking a sabbatical soon. She and her husband of 28 years, Tommy, have a son who is getting married in August and another who just graduated from Northwest Whitfield High.

“I will take myself out of rotation to be a college mom and new mother-in-law,” she said.

        

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