SEQUIM — Once in a career. That’s how often local firefighters say the need arises to pull someone from a fire.
For Clallam County Fire District 3 firefighters on “A” Shift, that instance was Feb. 13 on the 3000 block of Woodcock Road, where they pulled Gregg Vella from a fire at his home.
“It’s why you train, train, train,” firefighter/paramedic Mark Mullvain said.
“A” Shift met up with Vella again on March 1 at the district’s Station 34 to mark the rescue in a meet-and-greet.
“It was a team effort,” Mullvain said.
He said each element of the rescue was critical, including Vella’s 9-1-1 call to the Peninsula Communications dispatchers to the many firefighters and the Clallam County Sheriff’s deputy on scene.
“It all allowed us to get to him flawlessly,” Mullvain said.
Vella, 68, said the firefighters “went above and beyond.”
Said Vella, “They were there lickety-split. It was great!”
On the scene
Firefighters responded to Vella’s 9-1-1 call at 10:51 p.m. that Sunday night off Woodcock Road.
Ninety seconds passed from the first vehicle on scene at the fire to Vella being out of his home, Mullvain said.
A Chicago native, Vella called 9-1-1 after he smelled and spotted a fire on his porch, and said “as soon as I saw (the fire), I was on the ground.”
“The room filled with smoke from the top to the bottom,” he said.
Assistant Fire Chief Dan Orr said the fire blocked Vella’s only exit.
Vella, who had a previous knee injury, was unable to climb out on his own.
Firefighters said his communication with dispatchers Mary Rife and Heather Conway and their calm demeanor and quick thinking helped convey to “A” Shift exactly where to go.
“The dispatchers did an awesome job and gave us such a good picture of where Greg was,” Capt. Kjel Skov said.
Firefighters said they went aggressively at the fire with the VES (vent, enter, search) maneuver.
They broke a bedroom window, and with the bottom of it sill about 5 feet off the ground, Mullvain was lifted into the room, followed by Skov. The firefighters helped Vella out the window with assistance from Capt. Joel McKeen and Deputy Steffen Estep.
Vella received smoke inhalation treatment and was observed overnight at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, he said.
The fire continued to burn into the attic and was deemed a complete loss, Skov said.
The American Red Cross provided Vella some funds to stay at the Sundowner Motel for the short-term as he looks to relocate to a trailer, he said. He had rented his former home for 15 years, Vella said.
Rarity
The firefighters’ quick action prevented the situation from being much worse, Orr said, as the home was full of belongings, and it wouldn’t have been much longer for the fire to reach Vella.
Mullvain said while these situations are rare, anyone on “A” Shift could’ve done what they did thanks to their training and expertise.
McKeen and others said it was the first time in their careers they’ve extracted a resident during a fire.
Capt. Chris Turner said he and other firefighters responded and helped extract a resident more than a decade ago from a burning trailer on Joslin Road.
Skov said these issues thankfully are few and far between because people are putting fire extinguishers in their homes and testing smoke detectors regularly.
“That’s a great thing,” he said.
For more about Clallam County Fire District 3, which covers eastern Clallam County and a small portion of East Jefferson County, visit ccfd3.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
