It’s not yet known exactly what happened Saturday, when Dan Packer, a Pierce County fire chief, went missing — and is now presumed dead — in a California wildfire. But it’s clear Washington state lost someone who was respected throughout the state for his ability to bring people together.
“He’s an icon for the Washington state fire service,” said Brian Schaeffer, assistant chief for the Spokane Fire Department. “We all looked up to him.”
Packer, former head of the Washington Fire Chiefs Association and chief of East Pierce Fire & Rescue, went to Northern California on Friday to supervise a team fighting a fire in Klamath National Forest. On Saturday he went to survey the fire and develop a plan to fight it but never returned, said Davida Carnahan, spokeswoman for Klamath National Forest.
He was the second Washington firefighter to die in the past week. On Friday, 18-year-old Andrew Palmer, a recent graduate of Port Townsend High School, died in his first day on the fire line in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which adjoins Klamath National Forest. Palmer was reportedly hit by a tree.
Packer, 49, was perhaps best known for successfully merging a number of small fire departments into East Pierce Fire & Rescue. It wasn’t easy to convince small cities to give up their independent departments, but he convinced them it would lead to better service.
“He was always very forward-thinking,” said Jeff Jensen, a deputy chief in the Tacoma Fire Department and member of the Washington Fire Chiefs Association board.
“He always had service to citizens as his No. 1 issue, and I think that’s what’s allowed him to bring those organizations together.”
Schaeffer said Packer was equally effective bridging the gap between volunteer and career firefighters and between those who work in cities and those who fight wildfires.
“It’s not an anomaly, but it’s rare to find someone from the west side [of the state] that is involved with wildland firefighting,” Schaeffer said. “He’s fought fires all over the country, and he’s been doing it for a long time.”
“I hope we’re able to maintain the standards that he had,” he added. In the Spokane area, he said, all the fire chiefs are “just collectively devastated. I just can’t begin to explain it.”
According to a statement released Sunday by Gov. Christine Gregoire, Packer was overrun by the fire after an unexpected shift in the wind. However, Carnahan said that account had not been confirmed.
The intensity of the fire and limited visibility have hampered the ability to recover the body, Carnahan said, but “we believe that victim is probably Daniel Packer.”
West Coast 911 Firefighting News Source – Seattle Times
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