Grandson of Downey’s first fire chief faced evacuation of own home

Jeff Roe

DOWNEY — It’s one thing to face California’s wildfires as a firefighter. It’s an entirely different thing to return home and find yourself needing to evacuate.

But that is the exact situation that firefighter Jeff Roe found himself in this fire season.

Roe is a part of a bit of legacy of firefighting; his grandfather, Robert Gain, was the first fire chief of Downey. Roe left Downey and began his own career in the fall of 1996, when he was hired into Fresno Fire Department.

“It’s kind of been the family business for a lot of us, for quite some time,” said Roe.

When fire season kicked up this year, Roe found himself moving up and down the state for almost the entire month of August.

“I started off in early August going down to the Apple fire, and I was there for I think 10 or 12 days,” said Roe. “I went down there as an overhead position, as the line EMT, which although not generally actively fighting the fire I was there to care for firefighter injuries that would occur out on the line.”

After that shift ended, Roe says he came back and got one day off before being sent out to another series of fires.  His last assignment before coming home lasted 20 days.

Unfortunately, there was no rest waiting for him when he got there.

“I came home and had to immediately evacuate from my house the next day,” said Roe.

Roe says that his first concern was aiding some of his elderly neighbors in their evacuation processes.

“For the first three, four, five days, I was literally relaying all the information I could to try to help with their fears,” said Roe.

Unfortunately, Roe says that there’s really nothing anyone can do once a fire comes.

“You realize once your done and evacuated – even had you not evacuated – there’s really nothing you can do to stop that fire,” said Roe. “It’s gonna go where it wants, it’s gonna come through, and it’s gonna burn what it wants, and there’s nothing that’s gonna stop it.”

Roe’s wife works for the forest service and was busy on the fire at the time, leaving Roe to do the prep work himself.

It’s a sobering feeling when you find yourself on the other side of the blaze.

“There was definitely that worry,” said Roe. “It’s like, ‘Hey, is my house going to make it, is my neighborhood going to make it?’”

“Living up there and knowing what I know with my background in fighting fire, that was a constant thing was always keeping things relatively fire-ready.”

Roe said he had contacts among the boots on the ground who helped keep him as informed as possible. His own knowledge also helped settle the nerves.

“I was able to look at fire maps, and the information that was coming through, and kind of put that all together and realize ‘Okay, right now, we’re looking good,’ and pass on that information as well as kind of quell my own fears for the most part,” said Roe.

Fortunately, this story has a good ending; despite flames coming within 100 to 200 yards, Roe’s neighborhood remained intact.

“We were by far one of the luckiest ones up on that side of the fire,” said Roe. “There are entire neighborhoods up there that are just gone.”

Roe was likely set to return to his home shortly after interview, and he is likely long-since home, if not already deployed once again.

Still, this is likely an experience he won’t soon forget.

“It was definitely an interesting experience going through that,” said Roe. “You know, as you shut that door and get ready to drive away, you look back at your house and wonder ‘is this the last time I’m gonna see it.’”

“It was one of those, it’s like I know what’s going on, I know I’ve done the best I can, and now it’s out of my hands; all I can do is hope and pray.”