For Wildland Firefighter
2200 words
November 6, 2002
Saved to HTML with M$ Word so if it looks strange, I'm sorry.
By Krs Evans and Robin Bible
Crippled, but not dead.
I am typing from my hospital
bed, on Roxycodone. Any wanderings or misspellings can be blamed on pain and
drugs. Had I not been putting out an arson fire and gotten my ass
kicked by a tree, I'd be back in California happily going to school, hiking and
snowboarding. Instead, I'm fighting for my legs in rehab. All because someone
was bored and had a match.
On October 31, 2001, Krs (pronounced "Chris") Evans, 31, a firefighter from Quincy, California, was critically injured when a tree fell on him while he was helping build line on the 80-acre Poplar Log Fire in Clay County, Kentucky.
The Plumas Hotshots were among the 650 firefighters who were ordered to help fight a rash of 35 arson-caused fires that was ravaging Eastern Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest last fall.
When I got here and we went on the first fire, I
said to myself "It's just leaves". Nothing like the rippers we have
at home. Sure, fire is fire, and it can still get us, but it was easy to step
over the flame front most of the time.
Krs was in the lead, using a
chain saw to build line. Suddenly a dead, 70-foot black locust tree, smoldering
at its base, fell. Crewmembers saw it toppling and yelled. Krs was
wearing earplugs to mute the roar of the saw. He didn't hear the warning.
Standing just 67 feet away from the locust, he never saw it falling.
So, the tree hit me in the head, putting me to my knees. Along the way, it broke my left clavicle and scapula, greatly weakening my left arm. ... It shattered 4 vertebrae, and went on to break all but 3 of my ribs, collapsed my left lung, lacerated my spleen, shattered some of my teeth, and almost broke my legs.
I
have no memory of the 'accident', but after talking to Brett Loomis, the lead
sawyer, who came to visit me here in rehab, I realized I remember up till about
2 minutes before the tree got me. It hit me, broke over my head, and in the
words of (fellow hotshot) Steve Tolen, "Your helmet looks like someone
took a sledgehammer to it." Bullard, who makes the helmets is here in
Kentucky, came and took a look at it, were frankly surprised that it held up,
and built me a new custom helmet. Hopefully someday I'll be walking around
under it. I also get to tour the factory when I'm better. Anyway the old
helmet's here in my room, as a reminder of how crippled in the mind I could
have been. I have full mental function because of that helmet.
Hotshot
Ryan Bauer was there when the tree came down on Krs. “I saw the tree’s first
movement along with the others and we all called it out. When I got there, Krs’
legs had collapsed first, then once he hit the ground he slumped forward,
ending up with his body wedged under a small tree. Krs was taking deep wheezing
breaths, really slow, but at least we knew he was fighting to stay alive.”
“We
waited until we got all of the EMT's there to move him and get his airway
opened better. We cleared out the area to his left with tools, cut his gear
off, and rolled him onto his back. Once we rolled Krs over he started to talk,
at first saying "help" and "help me", but as his
consciousness increased he started talking more and more.”
“We wanted to cut a helispot right there, but
the terrain was too rough. After what seemed like forever we decided to carry
Krs to the skid road. The hike to the
skid road took probably 20 or 30 minutes and it was rough. The Forest Service
Paramedic and I were carrying the tail end of the backboard and couldn't see
the ground much less our own feet.”
Krs
was taken down the mountain by a 4-wheeled drive vehicle to a waiting
ambulance, which transported him to the local elementary school where the
medivac helicopter was waiting to fly him to the University of Kentucky Medical
Center in Lexington. Krs’ injuries included spinal cord and spleen injuries,
broken clavicle, ribs and back, and a partially collapsed lung.
Back
in California, Krs’ parents received the news that their son had been
critically injured. As Patricia Evans prepared to fly to Lexington early that
morning, she received a call from an intensive care nurse. The nurse’s tone was
urgent. “Are you coming?” she demanded. “He may not last the day.”
So
once I got to the hospital at UK, they stabilized me and put me in intensive
care where they had to put me into a coma for the first 2 weeks because I was
fighting the respirator, tearing out IV's, stuff like that. I got pneumonia in
one lung, just about the time they got that cleared up, guess what... It moved
into the other lung. Seriously, they didn't think I was gonna make it.
Apparently I'm lucky to have been taken to UK because they have he highest
rated hospital in the states. Also, Dr. Blades, who put my spine back together,
is one of the leaders in neurosurgery.
The
operation to repair the vertebrae took 6 hours, and they were afraid I wouldn't
make it (die) again because I had to be on my stomach for it. My lungs were
still having trouble at that time. Turns out that position helped as a bunch of
bad stuff came out my chest drain.
In early December, as soon as
he could sit up, Evans opened his laptop computer and began relating to the
world through his personal Web site his experiences.
My semi-charmed kind of life may be over. As I
lay here in my bed I wonder if I will ever snowboard, go gold panning, or
sportfalling again. At this point, I can't even get into my own house or sleep
in my own bed. My sphere of influence has been greatly reduced in the last few
months. Where before I could do anything, now if it's not within arms reach, I
need help. At this point I need someone else to fetch for me, put me in and out
of bed, and help me clean myself. Am I going to be this way for the rest of my
life? I certainly hope not! I'm doing everything I can to get out of this bed,
regain the 50 (pounds) lost in the ICU pounds, and get my legs back under me.
One person is responsible for me being in this
condition. The rest of the people in Kentucky have, in my mind, made up for the
actions of that one in the kindness and help I have received. I am alive now
because of many of the people there. Not just the medics, doctors, nurses and
therapists, but also the people of the Daniel Boone NF who have given me a
great deal of love and support. I feel there is no way I would have been able
to recover as much as I have without the support of the Forest Service and the
people of Southeastern Kentucky.
More than a quarter million
people from at least a dozen countries have checked out his personal website at
http:// www.krstofer.org/top.htm.
In late January, Krs left
Kentucky to spend a few weeks at a Rehab Center in Colorado. On March 11, Krs
left Denver's Craig Hospital, returning for the first time in five months to
his parents' home in northern California. His firefighting buddies have worked
on the house, putting in ramps, extending the concrete floor of the garage and
otherwise making it more wheelchair-friendly. But it's been tough, moving from
the rehabilitation world, where most things are designed for people with
physical limitations, to the real world, where very little is.
Before his accident, Krs was a
6-foot, 215-pound Air Force veteran, living what he called a "semi-charmed
life." He fought wildfires to pay for winter college courses, working
toward a degree in Engineering.
I guess someday I'll forget
how I laughed at short people when they couldn't reach. I'll forget how easy it
was to do everything. What it was like to stand up. The feeling of being the
only one out in the woods, watching the animals and being one with my
environment. What it was like to ride a snowboard ... Life as I have known it
for the past 30 years is over. Guess I just have to invent new things to do. I
really liked my previous life though. I had a lot of fun, now I just have a set
of wheels and the rubber stamp of 'handicapped'.
The doctors haven't told Krs
he won't walk again. They haven't told him he will. Everyone is different, they
say. His spinal cord is stretched, not severed. Maybe it will heal in a couple
of years, maybe not.
Krs is back in college now at
Feather River College, a community college in his hometown.
He wakes up in pain every
morning, but he's trying to cut down on the handful of drugs he downs each day.
Getting dressed -- especially putting on pants without standing -- is a major
effort. Getting out of bed and into the chair is a multi-step production. He
still has no control of his body below his chest
Although the list of things I
can't do stares me in the face every moment, I have not lost track of the list
of things I can do, and am trying to add things to it every day. I don't dwell
too much on what I can't do, but I do wish the spine will heal sometime in the
future so I can eventually go back to the life of a hero. Hey -- Don't feel bad
for me OK? I don't feel bad for me, I deal with it. I spend all of my time
trying to figure out how to kick it's ass. I'm gonna kick it's ass, and then
happily continue doing all the things I listed above.
Sidebar: Kentucky’s Wildland
Arson Problem
Arsonists
are responsible for starting over 55 percent of the wildfires in Kentucky.
Individuals charged with arson involving structures receive a minimum $5000
fine and/or a minimum of seven years in prison. Often, restitution for damage
or injuries is a possibility. So far, two persons have been arrested and
charged with arson, although these cases are not related to the Poplar Log Fire
that Krs was injured on. The person or persons responsible for Krs’ injuries
have never been caught.
“Wildland Arson in Kentucky has reached
epidemic proportions,” according to Governor Paul Patton. “Devastating fires
these past few years have cost Kentuckians millions of dollars in suppression
costs, impacted the economic value of our forestlands and has seriously
affected our quality of life.”
To address this problem,
Governor Patton convened a special conference entitled the Governor’s Summit
on Wildland Fire and Arson - “Putting Our Communities At Risk,” which was
held at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg October 9 and 10, near the
epicenter of last fall’s fires. The goal of this conference was to bring all
parties together who can take an active role in their communities and empower them
to put a stop to wildland arson.
Krs and his mother Patricia were special guests at the conference. Both gave moving remarks at the conference that were rewarding with standing ovations. “Who I am is a mother trying to help my son adjust to a different way of life," said Patricia Evans, who spoke before Krs. "Why I am here is that what happened to my son is not acceptable."
“It was difficult coming back
to Kentucky,” Krs remarked. But he visited old friends at Lexington's Cardinal
Hill Hospital, where he began rehabilitation, and even tried to get back to the
spot on the fire where he was injured. His wheelchair couldn't make it into the
woods.
Both Krs and Patricia recorded
anti-arson public service announcements while at the conference. Patricia Evans
told the conference-goers she would do anything and go anywhere to help their
efforts to stop arson.
Krs wants to help stamp out
wildland arson. Daniel Boone National Forest officials are working on his idea
for an anti-arson poster, featuring photographs of him before and after he was
hurt. But he rejected the first prototype. The "after" picture, he
said, didn't make him look bad enough. And he wants whoever set the fire, or
whoever might be thinking of setting another one, to know what his life is like
now.
I can see why someone would light a fire- it's
fun to watch, but what happens when it gets away, destroys the woods, and at
worst kills people. I truly hope whoever lit that fire knows what he / she did
to me. I just want them to think about me sometimes and wonder what my life is
like now.
###