Petrolia Fire Department Carries Out Multiple Rescues During Sunday Storm [Videos and Photos]

As rain pounded down overnight and rivers began to swell on Sunday, December 21, volunteer firefighters across the Emerald Triangle braved worsening conditions to respond to storm-related emergencies. Members of the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department spent much of the day responding to storm-related emergencies across their area—clearing roads, recovering stranded vehicles, and helping people get out of rising water.

“We were all taken by surprise,” Petrolia Fire Chief Chris Gilda said. “I knew there was going to be a storm. I followed the weather…[But] I think we got a significant amount more rain than was forecast.”

Roughly between about 9:40 a.m. and 5 p.m. this last Sunday, firefighters responded to four separate incidents. The first call came mid-morning when maple trees fell across Lighthouse Road, blocking travel. Firefighters cleared the trees and reopened the road. During that incident, a volunteer firefighter driving to assist encountered floodwater deep enough to stall their vehicle. And their fellow firefighters helped get that vehicle out.

Later in the morning, Gilda checked Conklin Creek Road, which frequently floods when the Mattole River rises—especially during high tide. Drawing on decades of familiarity with the river and its cycles, he knew conditions could change quickly.

“Local knowledge is something that you gain, of course, over…almost a lifetime,” Gilda said. “I moved to Mattole in ’88 when I was seven, and have watched… many cycles of the river and the big flood years.”

After traveling up the road, Gilda thought about heading back home. But something made him continue.

“I was about to turn around and go back, and I got this feeling—just one of those feelings that you get—that I should keep going and see what it looks like,” he said.

After navigating a narrow, one-lane slide area, Gilda could see floodwater ahead—about 30 to 40 feet before the road disappeared beneath it. That’s when he noticed a backpack lying in the middle of the pavement. He stopped, picked it up, and saw a name written inside.

“That’s really weird,” he said. “I pick it up, look at it, and I read his name in there…And now I need to keep going, because I need to see what’s up with this person.”

Driving into the flooded section of road, Gilda soon spotted a man ahead of him, wading through waist-deep water toward a stranded side-by-side utility vehicle. The water was still rising.

Gilda positioned his vehicle behind the side-by-side. Concerned the utility vehicle could float away once they had emptied it of its contents, with the other man steering the side-by-side, he towed it backward out of the water and onto higher ground.

 Video by Petrolia Fire Department.

The man’s family met him nearby and helped get him home.

“The water had come up at about a foot in about that half an hour/40 minutes [it took to rescue the vehicle],” Gilda said.

The final rescue came later in the afternoon after a landowner reported seeing a Ford pickup stranded in floodwater near the same stretch of Conklin Creek Road. By then, rainfall had eased and the tide had begun to drop, but conditions remained hazardous and the roadway was still partially submerged.

Gilda, who had managed a short time at home, returned to the fire hall, and called in a crew. Firefighters assembled safety gear and responded in a four-wheel-drive Type 3 engine equipped with a front-mounted winch.

When firefighters reached the scene, they encountered the driver walking down the road with a cane. The man told firefighters he had climbed out of the truck earlier when the water was higher, and then waited on the bank until the water receded enough for him to walk out and get help. Firefighters brought him into the engine and positioned the apparatus to recover the vehicle.

Chief Gilda finds the cold flood waters…uh…invigorating. [Video from Petrolia Fire]

With the driver steering, firefighters attached the winch and slowly pulled the pickup backward through the flooded section of road to higher ground.

The rescues came just one day after Gilda spent Saturday in Shelter Cove signing documents to formally establish the Southern Humboldt Fire & Rescue Joint Powers Alliance, a collaboration among 13 volunteer fire departments aimed at improving coordination, training, and shared resources across rural Southern Humboldt. The signing marked the culmination of years of unpaid work and meetings—part of a weekend that, for Gilda and many volunteer firefighters, was spent almost entirely in unpaid service to their community.

Gilda pointed out that Petrolia Fire, like many rural volunteer departments, handles far more than fires.

“It’s not fighting fires,” Gilda said. “The industry term is ‘all risk.’ We do all risk… auto accidents and medical aids and water rescues and boat rescues—all of it, essentially.”

Much of that work happens quietly and without compensation. Gilda said the cost is often borne not just by firefighters, but by their families.

“One more thing that doesn’t get covered is that when I’m out on a call, my wife is a single parent,” he said. “Our boy doesn’t get to spend that time with their dad. So the families of volunteer firefighters are also giving their communities a lot.”

Petrolia’s response was one of many across the region. Volunteer fire departments throughout the Emerald Triangle handled storm-related and medical calls as rivers rose and roads flooded. Rural communities relied largely on unpaid firefighters with deep local knowledge of their communities.

That often unseen sacrifice is part of how rural communities get through emergencies like this.

Those who want to support the work of Petrolia’s volunteer firefighters can send a donation to:

PETROLIA FIRE
98 Sherman Street
P.O. Box 169
Petrolia, CA 95558-0169

If you want to support other local VFD’s, we’ll drop a list of addresses in the comment section.