Trial by Fire: Jeremiah Maghan relies on family to get through fire season
By Brent Lawrence, a Public Affairs Officer with the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Jeremiah Maghan went from the Land Down Under to having his own world turned upside down in the last 14 months. It was his family — both his immediate family and his extended firefighting family — that helped him through it all.
Normally, Jeremiah works as the Fire Management Officer for the Willamette Valley Fire Zone, which covers the lush, highly populated valley dotted with vineyards, farms and towns in Oregon. He’s responsible for Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Tualatin River NWR Complex, and Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery.
Just before Christmas 2019 he got a call to help with the massive Australian bushfires. He joined a team of firefighters who provided support to the Australian fire authority as bushfires swept across every Australian state. The fires scorched more than 46 million acres, which is larger than the entire state of Washington. Thirty-three people, including nine firefighters, perished in the blazes.
“The country fire authority down there is basically their version of a rural fire department. They are pretty much all volunteer. About 40 firefighters flew down together. We did some training and they went over their system, hazards and things that we could expect. Then we ended up spending most our time in Swifts Creek in Victoria,” Jeremiah said. Victoria State is in the southeastern part of the country, home to Melbourne and also highly populated. “It was there we began to work with Forest Fire Management of Victoria, which is a wildland fire agency more in line with our wildland fire agencies.”
While fighting fires may seem pretty universal, there were a lot of differences in potential hazards and terminology. Jeremiah worked primarily as a sawyer, with his main job to open roads to access burned areas, and to identify and remove hazard trees. A hazard tree is any tree or part of a tree that is at risk of falling for any reason, including fire or wind damage, soil erosion or age.
The preferred method of taking down hazard trees was with heavy equipment. However, if the trees were too big, inaccessible or the equipment was not available, the crew would fell the trees with chainsaws. If they could not safely take down a tree, they would block off the area from entry.
“Hazard trees were a huge issue, and they lost one of their long-term firefighters due to a snag fall while we were there,” Jeremiah said. Snags are dead, standing trees without leaves or needles in the crowns. They often burn through more quickly than green trees, falling with little or no warning.
“My main focus was getting in early, and getting hazard trees down quickly and safely before other resources would get in there. You just try to bring the hazard tree down safely so that there’s nobody there when it does come down. Overall it was really similar to wildland firefighting here, but the terminology is a little bit different so you had to make sure you could understand what they’re talking about.”
One of the differences was the type of wildlife, specifically kangaroos, koalas and wombats. Reports say nearly 3 billion animals were affected by the bushfires. News reports at the time showed some of the horrific scenes of burned wildlife being save by firefighters and the public.
Jeremiah was one of those firefighters getting hands-on with wildlife.
“I actually helped when they were bandaging up a kangaroo,” Jeremiah said. “The police came and got another one that we had found that was injured. It was pretty amazing to be able to help the people and the wildlife down there.”
While the terminology and types of wildlife were unique to Australia, some things didn’t change despite the 8,100 miles and Pacific Ocean that separated Jeremiah from his family in Oregon. The overarching connection that helped Jeremiah was a feeling of family.
It started at home with his wife, Lindsay, and children — Schade, Kellon, Brogan, and Alex.
“It was almost Christmas when I got the call about going,” Jeremiah said. “We were supposed to be going up to my mom’s for Christmas. My wife and I had a conversation, and she was very supportive. She said, ‘This is a big deal, and it’s good for you to go down there and help these people.’ We have four kids, two dogs and a lizard, plus she’s also working full time and going to school to get her second master’s degree. I left in the middle of all of it, so for her to handle all of that was huge.”
But Jeremiah’s other family — his firefighting family — stepped up to help.
“One of the guys from a partner agency, he and his wife stopped by to say hi to my wife,” Jeremiah said. “They asked my wife, ‘Do you need anything? What can we do? Give us a call if you need anything.’ I really appreciate that. Those are the kind of relationships that are important in the fire world.”
After Jeremiah returned to Oregon, he didn’t have much down time as a record wildfire season hit Oregon, Washington and California. A series of massive wildfires hit in August and September, burning 10.2 million acres in the West and killing at least 37 people.
While fires raged around the state and close to home, Jeremiah got the call to serve again. Once again, his extended family stepped up.
“I had to leave quickly for one of the fires here. While I was out, one of the guys I met from Australia messaged my wife. He says, ‘I know I’m in Australia, but I just want you to know we’re here for you if you need anything.’ I really appreciate those relationships that you build. It’s a pretty amazing tight-knit community,” Jeremiah said.
Jeremiah noted the importance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of his family. He joined the Service in 2015 as a Prescribed Fire Specialist in the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
“It’s been a good run,” said Jeremiah, who started working on fire crews when he was just 16 years old. “I love it here. I’ve worked a lot of places, and with the support from our local complex and up to the regional office and even the national office, it’s a great place to work. There’s lots of support and open minds for new ideas. Here people just seem to support each other so much, and just be good to each other.”
