North Bay Woman

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | NORTH BAY WOMAN 31 At left; Jessie Taintor on a fi re truck during the October fi res in Sonoma County. – Photo by Noah Berger Photography; Danae Wellander. – Photo provided by Danae Wellaander; Nicole Scott. – Photo provided by the Novato Fire District; Above: Jessie Taintor and Danae Wellander. – Photos by Stuart Lirette "It was the most intense and surreal fi re situation I've worked in" – Jessie Taintor "Staying fi t and being ready for anything is what drew me in" – Danae Wellander fi res burned," fi refi ghter Nicole Scott recalls. "The fi re that jumped eight lanes of traffi c across 101 at Coffey Park was unreal to me. I'd never seen that before and it just blew my mind. All I could think was, "wow — there's noth- ing stopping this thing." Scott, 43, grew up in Napa and has been in the fi re service for 15 years. She now lives in Novato with her wife and their two young sons and works for the Novato Fire Protection District. Over the years, Scott's been called out on every kind of emergency imag- inable, from wildland fi res, to structure fi res, vehicle accidents and medical emergencies. She thought she'd seen it all until last October's tragedy. Her callout during those fi res took her to the Mendocino area where there was still active fi re. Her team focused on structure protection for some six days. "It was eye-opening," Scott says. "Fire destruction seems to be getting worse every year — just the strength of the fi res and how fast they are moving." Scott got her start in the fi re service after becoming an ER technician during which time she would often run calls with the fi re department. Firefi ghting was an exciting proposition for her and together with the option to become a paramedic, it combined her love of sports training and medical background. It's not an occupation for the risk averse but intense training and an indelible bond that with her co-workers supports Scott's confi dence on the front lines. "There's always a little bit of ev- erything going through your head but realistically, you don't have much time to think about it until afterward," Scott says. "It can be scary because you often can't see anything in a fi re, but I train and work with such experienced guys — I know there's always a team around me." Scott recently won the Employee of the Year Award at her station for her work developing a peer support program to assist fi refi ghters with behavioral health issues. "It's the kind of job where you tough it out and don't talk about it, fi refi ghters are used to helping, not ask- ing for help because of the stigma attached to doing so. I think it's fi nally catching up with people." Jessie Taintor, a 39-year- old fi refi ghter with the City of Santa Rosa, was called out with her team to a fully engulfed house in downtown Santa Rosa just as the fi res were taking stride, around 10 p.m. on Oct. 8. They were at that one fi re until almost 4 a.m., during which time Taintor had little idea of how massive the confl agration had become until they saw a fi erce glow along a nearby ridge. "By then we heard one of our personnel had lost his home, and people begun approaching me asking if they should evacuate," Taintor recalls. "It was the most intense and surreal fi re situation I've worked in. I've never seen anything like that in a city, it was unbelievable fi re behavior — you just don't expect it in the city that you live and work in." It's almost impossible to imagine what it's like to be inside a fi re involuntarily, let alone voluntarily, but from Taintor's perspective it's a matter of tactics. "You go into a fi re you're wearing all of your gear and breathing apparatus, you just focus on the task at hand, move forward, be aware of what's going on, your surroundings, know where your crew is and identify the objective — whether it's locating people, putting out the fi re — it's very tactical,

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