Petaluma native leads Creek fire rescue

When longtime Petaluma resident Maria Hall flipped on the television early last week, she saw something she didn’t expect: her son, David.

She had the channel tuned to the news, which was blanketed in wall-to-wall coverage of the Creek fire in Fresno County. A reporter was interviewing her son, Colonel David Hall with the California Army National Brigade, about his hand in overseeing the rescue of hikers and campers stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

“When I saw the TV interview, I felt such tremendous pride,” Maria Hall said. “He had been so busy he hadn’t had the time to tell us!”

Director of Aviation Safety and Commander of the 40th Combat Aviation Brigade Col. Hall, a Casa Grande High School graduate, led a series of difficult air rescues last weekend that made national headlines. Ultimately, 396 people were plucked from about a half-dozen areas threatened by the exploding Creek fire.

As of Tuesday evening, the wildfire has burned 220,025 acres since it sparked Sept. 4 near popular camping spots along Shaver Lake. It is currently about 18% contained.

Like many fire-weary Sonoma County residents, Maria Hall anxiously learned of the details of the rescues her son managed. Late Saturday and early Sunday Sept. 5-6, 242 people were rescued from Mammoth Pool Reservoir in a dramatic and harrowing nighttime mission. Another 154 were rescued from four different areas east of the fire early Tuesday morning, with crews seizing on a window of cleared smoke conditions.

Col. Hall said he first heard of the stranded campers while scrolling Facebook.

“I saw online that people were trapped at Mammoth Pool, so I immediately called our operations center,” he said. “We’re not the first responders, so we usually get called in, but when I saw that I dropped everything I was doing because I knew it had the potential to turn into a mass casualty event.”

He describes that first day of rescues as a blur. As it became clear that there were hundreds trapped in potentially dangerous areas near the fast-growing fire, the days began to blend together. Crews worked nonstop, he said, to monitor smoky skies that at times were so dangerous that aircraft was unable to lift off.

“The mission was pretty harrowing for a couple of reasons,” Col. Hall said. “On that first night in particular, there was this smoke and fire, and it was pretty treacherous because they had to fly into the fire, so to speak. Usually, if you’re dropping water, there’s some green to one side of you, but this rescue required them to fly right into the smoke.”

Upon hearing the details of her son’s involvement, Maria Hall, who has lived in Petaluma with her husband since 1976, said she always knew he would find a way to devote his life to helping others.

“It’s his personality,” she said. “He has always wanted to help, and to make a difference in this world. He goes the extra mile, and he’s always been like that.”

It was during his time playing football at Casa Grande that Hall developed an interest in entering the armed services, watching an Army–Navy football game. He began to ask his dad, Ken Hall, questions about his military service, and looking into college options.

Following graduation in 1991, Hall went on to West Point Military Academy in New York for four years.

“I didn’t really think about aviation at the time until I hopped into an airplane and thought it was pretty cool,” Col. Hall said. “And, the rest is history.”

He has served over 25 years between active duty and National Guard posts, most recently joining the Fresno-based 40th Combat Aviation Brigade as Commander in February 2019.

Despite his years of experience overseeing countless missions, last weekend’s rescue of hikers and campers threatened by the growing Creek fire is in a category of its own. Not only because of the dangerous conditions and the heroism of the crews, but because of the almost poetic coincidence that brought his journey from Petaluma to the National Guard in full circle.

Among the group rescued early Tuesday morning were two Petaluma residents, and another from Santa Rosa.

Recent college graduate and Petaluma native Ryland Sepic was attempting to hike the John Muir Trail with his close friend, when the fire drove them to a hiker’s resort on the edge of Lake Edison.

After a weekend spent trapped at the Vermilion Valley Resort, surrounded by other backpackers forced off the trail, Sepic and his friend learned they would be airlifted out to safety. All they had to do was wait.

“What I’ve been trying to convey to people back home is there wasn’t a moment when things went to panic,” Sepic said of his time at the resort. “You’re sitting there with ash raining on your head, but you can’t go out and fight the fire yourself or get on a trail and leave, so we all decided to stay calm and let others do their jobs.”

The news of the air evacuation was likely a welcome surprise to Sepic’s Dad, Petaluma resident Leven Kraushaar, who upon hearing his son was among the group of stranded hikers had jumped in his car and drove down to Fresno to await further information.

Sepic was among a larger group evacuated in a Chinook helicopter early Tuesday morning, while earlier trips from Lemoore Search and Rescue Black Hawks picked up a smaller group of hikers.

“If anything, the experience made be feel a little bit better about wildfires,” Sepic said. “We did everything right to get ourselves out of danger and emergency personnel supported us. It was crazy, but definitely won’t be my last backpacking trip.”

As evacuees like Sepic settled back into their homes and washed the smell of smoke from their clothes, Col. Hall had another crucial mission to oversee.

Upon his recommendation, several guardsmen involved in the rescue of hundreds at Mammoth Pool Reservoir were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross medals Monday afternoon near Sacramento.

(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)