American Legion recognizes fire chief

The American Legion of Montana recognized the fire chief of the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District for his firefighting efforts in Paradise.

Steve Rogue, commander of American Legion Post 152 in Thompson Falls, presented James Russell with the American Legion Montana Firefighter of the Year Award at Fred Young Park during the Independence Day celebration. Legion District Commander Bob Lehman of Post 137 at Kalispell read the citation that accompanied the award. Lehman said that Russell was one of six nominations for the award.

Russell was cited for his role in the "River Road East Fire" at Paradise last August. Russell's "leadership was instrumental in fighting the fire, which grew from a spark near the railroad south of town to over 17,000 acres in a very short time," according to the citation, written by Ken Matthiesen, past commander of Post 52. It was Matthiesen and Craig Fowler, trustees at the fire district, who recommended Russell to the State American Legion headquarters for the award.

"Chief Russell exemplifies the qualities and characteristics of what a firefighter was meant to be," said Lehman. "Chief Russell has always understood the meaning of service and sacrifice and the importance of community and brotherhood," he added at the ceremony, where nearly 100 people gathered.

The 40-year-old Russell was surprised when he recently found out about the award, but was pleased that the Legion took the time to nominate him. "I am just doing the same job that many other fire chiefs are doing everyday in Montana," said Russell. "I don't do this for recognition. In fact, I don't deserve any. All the volunteer firefighters and the agency firefighters deserve all the credit for the deeds during the initial hours of that fire," said Russell, who also said that he was just a small part of the operation and credited the Forest Service and other firefighting crews for stopping the fire. Matthiesen disagreed and in the citation stated that Russell deserved the recognition.

"He's gifted for leadership. If it hadn't been for the leadership of this man, we could have lost the town of Paradise," said Plains Mayor Joel Banham at the ceremony. Banham said it was an honor to help recognize a Plains resident. "James is a great fire chief, we're blessed to have him," he said.

The chief was on the scene within five minutes from the time he received the page and had engines on scene within 10 minutes. The citation states that Russell continued his command and the implementation of resources in a professional manner until the Forest Service's Northern Rockies Team arrived at the scene. The incident commander credited Russell and his crew for saving the town of Paradise. "Fire losses could have been much greater primarily because of the chief's knowledge and unstinting dedication to his community," according to the citation.

Russell has been chief at the district for eight years and a part of the crew for nearly 15 years. "We began with structure protection around Lund's house off River Road East near where the fire originated and the wind was pushing the fire directly towards," said Russell, who added that they were able to suppress the fire around his structures. "He was appreciative and very helpful in defending his property," said Russell.

"He dispatched Engine 91 and Tender 194 to that location (about 5 miles from the fire hall) and then immediately called for mutual aid through the county dispatch center," the citation states. "Chief Russell realized the imminent danger to the town of Paradise and directed responding firefighters to watch for and extinguish spot fires. He called for firefighting aircraft and also directed responding firefighters to protect homes and businesses that were threatened. He coordinated with the Sanders County Emergency Disaster office to facilitate the safe evacuation of Paradise," it states.

Russell said that he had a fire engine to monitor spot fires near Tie Plant Road. "It had the intensity and also being on the leeward side of Pat's Knob it would only take one significant wind movement to push the column over and cause hot fallout to reach the ground," said Russell. Because it was developing into a major fire and would involve extensive evacuations, he called for the county sheriff and the county emergency manager to come to Paradise to help. He also dispatched crews to attack the spot fires at the railroad yard to keep the fire away from the butane cars before getting them moved to a safe distance.

According to the citation, "The fire jumped from the west side of the river to the east side as more mutual aid engines and firefighters began arriving. Russell positioned engines and crews to cover the most vulnerable areas like the large field next to the BNSF tracks. Spot fires did get within feet of the five butane filled railroad cars on a siding. Calmly, Chief Russell kept everyone organized and on the fire lines. The east flank burned down towards the town and firefighters worked frantically to keep the flames out of the town and away from the historic Paradise School. The shifting winds drove the fire south and west towards St. Regis and east onto the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes Reservation."

Russell and his firefighters remained on the fire for 32 hours straight with crews working 72 hours for the first four days until the Northern Rockies Team 1 was able to relieve them. "We then transitioned two engines and me to be assigned to the fire as ordered resources. We were then working for the structure protection group formally," said Russell, who had 68 firefighters and 32 fire engines and water tenders on the fire from Sanders, Mineral, and Lake Counties, though some were not directly accountable to Russell.

"I worked with the U.S. Forest Service incident commander and managed most of the county resources as their IC. This way we could split and maintain resource accountability," he said. "There were experienced firefighters utilizing the full breadth of their knowledge and experience," he added. "I cannot say enough about the U.S. Forest Service firefighters and overhead that responded and managed the River Road East Fire. They did an amazing job protecting the community and effectively controlling the fire," said Russell.

Also at the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District, Sonya Black was promoted to captain, Paul Harvey and Chris Schrock were promoted to lieutenant, and Ken Matthiesen retired after 13 years.