Kade Johnston, Crew Boss Trainee for the hot shot crew currently fighting the Willow Creek Fire south of Smoot, called into the Weekday Wake-up on Tuesday, August 26 to talk about keeping the fire from jumping the highway Saturday night, the current status of the fire and the plan of attack moving forward.

(0:00) It’s 8.03 this morning live on Swift 98 and the Spur. A chance to touch base with one of the (0:05) firefighters working on the Willow Creek fire this morning, Cade Johnstone. He’s the crew boss (0:10) trainee.
He’s one of the hotshot crews working on the Willow Creek fire. Cade, good morning. Thank (0:15) you so much for your time.
How are you today? Doing good, Duke. How are you doing? Hey, doing (0:19) well. Thank you for your time.
First off, tell us about yourself, where you’re from, and how long (0:23) have you been fighting wildfires? Yeah, so I’m based out of Southern California. The crew is (0:29) based out of Mentone in San Bernardino National Forest, and I’m going on my third year with (0:33) the Willow Creek Hotshots. Okay, and what got you into this? Why did you decide one day that you’re (0:38) like, I’m going to go fight wildfires? How did that work? I mean, my dad’s a firefighter.
He (0:44) works in Redlands over there in SoCal, and I wanted to become a firefighter at some point, (0:47) and being a hotshot, I saw what they do, the hard work, the camaraderie, all that kind of stuff. (0:53) That’s what made me want to do this job and got me into it, playing baseball. Camaraderie is the (0:57) main thing for me, and just hard work and being around fire.
Very cool. Well, we appreciate what (1:01) you guys are doing for the Willow Creek fire, and I’d like to go to Saturday night specifically. We (1:06) had one of our reporters up there, and during that time when it was burning right up next to (1:11) the highway at the top of the pass, and you guys were there trying to make it from, well, you did (1:16) a great job keeping it from jumping the highway.
So walk us through that, maybe Saturday night (1:20) specifically, and how you guys use the road as a fire break and how that works. Yeah, so driving up (1:26) on the fire, we came late in the afternoon, and we saw a trajectory going straight for Highway 89. (1:32) So our main objective was to hold that, so we put our troops in there.
We watched the fire, (1:37) see what it was doing, see where it was throwing spots, and our main objective was if you got a (1:41) 50-foot fuel break already, naturally made. So holding that was the main priority that day, (1:47) and with it burning up to the highway, we just watched, made sure that it didn’t spot over, (1:51) and if it did spot over, we attacked it, made sure that it wasn’t going to. And yeah, that was our (1:56) main priority for that day.
When you say you attack it, what does that mean? How does that work? (2:01) What’s that process? Yeah, so like we have guys looking on the green side of the Highway 89, (2:06) making sure that the spots aren’t taking, you know, making runs, anything like that, and we just, (2:11) you know, start burying any spots, you know, all the embers are getting thrown by the trees. That’s (2:14) the main fuel type out here. So making sure all those embers, you know, are put to bed and making (2:18) sure, you know, they’re all good for the next day.
Talking with Kay Johnstone this morning. He’s one (2:23) on the hotshot crew working at the Willow Creek Fire. So Saturday night was, for us that live here, (2:29) it was kind of an eye-opening night because we’re seeing pictures and images and videos of the (2:34) flames burning right up next to the highway like that.
The evacuation order goes into effect for (2:39) some people in that area, but it seemed like that was kind of a transition point, if I’m not (2:45) mistaken, between Saturday night and Sunday. And give us your thoughts on that. What happened (2:51) between all those amazing images we saw Saturday and then compare it to Sunday, (2:55) where it seemed like things were a lot more controllable? Yeah, so that day, you know, (3:00) the fire activity was picking up and right when we drove up, you know, it started torching and (3:03) running towards the highway.
So right when it hit the highway, you know, we were able to, (3:06) you know, control, you know, fight the fire up from the highway, do some burning operations to (3:10) put fire down on our own terms. And going on to the next day, you know, it doesn’t have any fuel (3:15) to burn. So with the weather coming in, you know, the rain, I think it’s a great turning point for (3:20) us, you know, be able to attack the fire direct and, you know, be able to put this thing to bed (3:23) pretty soon.
What’s the strategy now moving forward specifically when you guys are now (3:28) attacking the fire and put it to bed in your words, what specifically are you doing there? (3:34) Yeah, so we’re trying to go direct to the Black Sedge, you know, find the Black Sedge and cut (3:38) the fuel out before the fire is able to burn it. And that’s probably the best way we’re able to (3:42) fight fire and that’s our bread and butter over there in Southern California. So going direct, (3:47) kind of fuel out and make sure it’s not going to go anywhere.
And, you know, just finding points (3:51) of access to get to the fire because there are some areas that we can’t get access to, but the (3:55) locals out here, you know, they’re great. You know, see TV rides and making sure that we’re able to (3:59) fight the fire as efficient as possible. Okay, Johnstone, he’s a crew boss trainee with the (4:04) Hotshot crew working on the Willow Creek Firecade.
Thank you again for your time. Anything else you’d (4:08) like to mention here on the air while we got you in regards to the Willow Creek Fire? (4:13) Yeah, I really appreciate the community. You know, the community has been really helpful.
A lot of (4:18) people bringing in care packages, stuff like that, but that’s not, I mean, we enjoy that stuff, but (4:22) the people that, you know, brought us out there and UTVs get local knowledge, that’s probably the (4:27) best thing, our best asset right now is the community. So we appreciate the community out (4:31) here, especially coming from Southern California. Everyone’s so helpful and so nice.
So yeah, we (4:35) really appreciate that. All right, Kade, thank you for your time. Wish you guys the very, very best (4:40) and good luck.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good one, Duke.
That again is Kade Johnstone. (4:45) He’s the crew boss trainee on the Hotshot crew that’s currently working on the Willow Creek (4:49) Fire right now. It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on the SVI Radio Network.