The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Our longest fire camp experience was near Prairie City, Oregon, a 21-day ordeal where our kitchen unit served 1,500 firefighters and support personnel.

My wife and I worked a couple of seasons for OK Cascade, a Bothell company owned by the Keener family well known to us.

The hourly pay was small, but we often got 50-60 hours of overtime a week.

We would get a call from the company and immediately leave for our camp location.

The workday started usually at 5 a.m. and ended between 10 and 12 p.m.

Our rest break was brief, and we often had to sleep out in the open on the hard ground. Our second night at the Prairie City fire we got a tent and a tarp to put under us.  We were issued throwaway cloth sleeping bags that barely held up over the course of the camp.

The camp workers had it almost as bad as the firefighters.

When OK Cascade folded up its operation, we helped to repair the grounds and load up everything.

Then it was a long drive home and we often had to pull off the road and take a nap. It took us two days to get home.

We went right to bed and the very next day we started the process of doing laundry and going through a stack of mail to pay the bills.

We were proceeding pretty well until the phone rang; it was OK Cascade to tell us to go to the seminary grounds just out of Kenmore, Washington to set up a camp there. The seminary grounds were about four miles from our home in Bothell.

The assignment there was to feed a group of scientists and their helpers while they tried to help bird life that got covered with gook from a nearby oil spill.

The best thing about it was we would be able to sleep in our own bed during the life of the camp.

They trucked in dozens of oil-slick birds, and the scientists were trying to find a way to clean them up.

This camp went on for about 10 days until we were told that the work group was driving to a secluded beach where about a dozen birds would be returned to the wild.

One enterprising worker estimated that it took about $70,000 a bird to rehabilitate them.

And it was explained that the process helped them understand how to do this in a way that saved birds. 

We were called to Spokane for a camp to feed gun club members in a tournament they held each year.

This was a cushy assignment because we were able to sleep in a motel and the hours were less demanding.

The head cook, who was from Twisp, had asked for us.  We had worked with him on several camps.

OK Cascade got a call to set up a camp at a fire location in California. Luckily, we missed that one. Some of the crew were flown to the location by a private air contractor, only to be dumped on a short runway in a small town when the pilot had problems with the plane.

We also missed the big fire in Yellowstone Park where the OK workers got trapped and were told they probably would not get out. At a critical moment, the wind shifted, and they all got out.

These fires can also be dicey for people who lend their support for the actual firefighters.

The biggest reward was to get thanks from the firefighters who felt they were well fed and taken care of.

The greatest thanks were always from those who were isolated in spike camps right in the middle of it all.

We prepared steaks and all the trimmings for them and put them in insulated containers that were airlifted by helicopter and delivered right to them.

They always came by and cheerfully told us how grateful they were for the steaks.