By Jeff Dennis
Wildfires in several Western states have been burning out of control all summer and continue to make the national news. One firefighter battling these blazes is from Colleton County.
Colleton County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Scott O’Quinn recently traveled to Montana on August 6th, joining an eight-man firefighting crew from South Carolina. O’Quinn returned home on August 22nd.
The South Carolina Forestry Commission partners with the national incident management system to supply qualified candidates to fight Western fires. In return, should South Carolina ever have overwhelming wildfires, this same system could bring manpower to the Palmetto State. O’Quinn joined this effort, taking with him his 30 years of experience fighting fire with Colleton County Fire-Rescue.
“The system works pretty well, and the first step in the process is I have to take my annual leave time off from Colleton Fire,’ said O’Quinn. “The cooperative agreement is with the S.C. Forestry Commission, and not Colleton County. I do take pay during my two-weeks on the fire, but that comes from the U.S. Forest Service and I am listed as a casual hire. I take classes during the year so that if I get called out West during fire season, I am good to go.”
O’Quinn served his country as a U.S. Marine in the past, and says he is “well-suited for any challenge” because of his “Can Do” attitude.
A lightning strike is the suspected culprit for the Whitetail Creek Fire in Montana that O’Quinn was fighting. That lighting strike eventually spread to 340-acres, where O’Quinn spent his 14-day tour. O’Quinn went out West in 2018 near Craig, Colorado in order to fight the Pigeon Fire, that also started with a lightning strike.
“Despite nearing the end of fire season in Montana, our 8-man crew departed Columbia and spent the entire time on the Whitetail Creek Fire near Swan Lake,” said O’Quinn. “We were teamed up with a 20-man crew out of Florida, and also a 20-man team of inmates from the Deer Lodge area. One inmate became ill after arrival, and was diagnosed with Covid-19, and their entire crew was immediately sent back. Every man sleeps in his own tent at our camp, so catching Covid-19 while there was not really a concern. We had warm temps during the day and overnight temps around 40-degrees.”
“Our first day on the fire, was the most harrowing,” said O’Quinn. “They determined a tree was on fire due to a lightning strike, but the area was remote and steep. Loggers tried to cut a road to the site, but before Montana Forestry could reach it, heavy winds up to 40 or 50-miles per hour picked up and the fire blew up.
“Helicopters were operating directly on the fire, because the terrain was too steep for us to approach a fast-moving wildfire, so we used Pulaski hand tools to create fire breaks by hand ahead of the fire. “By our second week on the fire, it was much more contained and we even had a little rain that was very beneficial,” he said.
“After that it was time for mop up duty of hotspots and to assess what else could be done to help. I knew a few fellas on my crew from Horry County Fire Rescue, and we could joke about our muscles being sore after coming from the Lowcountry and humping gear across ridgelines and such. The elevation in Swan Valley is about 3500-feet and looking towards the higher elevations of 5,000-feet we could see glacier snow.
“We felt good about helping out, because we learned some firefighters form Montana had been called to California to fight bigger fires. Just like after past deployments, I’m glad to be back home in Walterboro now.”
