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Ok. Ok. Yes, it looks like. Ok. Um, ok. Um, I am here with, uh Christopher Ha. You can call me Chris. Ok, Chris. Ok. Uh, Chris. So, um, I'm gonna get started. Um, have you ever experienced a traumatic natural disaster event before the 2017 cups fire

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for a natural disaster? I had not, that was the first, that was, that was the first one. Ok. Ok. Um, uh, where were you living when the disaster occurred? And did you suffer any losses during the wildfire? Yeah. So I lived, my wife and I lived

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in Fountain Grove in Santa Rosa and we lost cats. Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that all for the best things happen for reasons. So, um, do you recall how you found out about the tub on the night of October 8th? Were you on duty that

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night? And what was your reaction or what were your thoughts? Uh, I was not on duty. I it's kind of a convoluted story but we are, we have two little dogs and our dogs all night were like super on edge. Um, and we had no idea

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that a fire was happening anywhere. We went to bed pretty early that night because I had, had a long work week. So about 2 30 in the morning. Um One of our dogs like, kind of like started berserk just totally barking. Uh So I got up,

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used the restroom, got her quiet and then I got a text message from my neighbor that lived directly across the street from me saying that, hey, somebody's pounding on our door. Do you have any idea? Like is anybody? And I thought, oh, shoot, that's like, obviously

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like our dogs are reacting to someone must have been like banging on the door. We just didn't hear it. So I opened up our bedroom door, our house was filled with smoke and I looked out the front window towards his house and I could see a

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red glow coming over with a pillow over the top of us and I was like, oh shit, there's a fire there. So that's how I found out that it was, it was very scary. Yeah. So the dog kind of saved their lives, man. Yeah. Yeah. But

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we got like, you know, in the aftermath of the fire, there was a lot of like, uh especially with my position on the helicopter. Um We do a lot of community events and speaking and some community group was like, I can't believe there was no notifications.

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I said, yeah, you reach to the choir. I also, I'm not, not that important, but at the end of the day I didn't get any notification either. Like I, and I, you would think I would probably know and I didn't even know it. So, yeah. Yeah.

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Um, so, um, what were your responsibilities or duties during the tough fire? So, immediately after we evacuated our house, we really didn't have anywhere to go here because obviously the whole, you know, the whole, the whole county was really under threat. So, we drove to my

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brother's apartment in Oakland. I dropped my wife off, actually took my brother's car back immediately. And then, so my job during the fire was I worked on the helicopter. Um And initially my job was to help kind of give the emergency operation center an idea of

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where what areas were impacted. Um And that only lasted really for the first day because they, the first day was chaos. Um And I only made it until about noon that day. We happened to be flying over the Santa Rosa area. And that's when I saw

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my house had burned out. So I actually got sent home the remainder of that day and one additional day. And then I came back and when I got back to work, the role of the helicopter was much less about dealing with the, there were so many

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firefighters here at that point, so many other resources, we actually primarily were then in charge of um assisting ground deputies with the looting that was occurring in evacuated areas. Um, can you tell me about this stress you experienced during the fire? Could you describe the thoughts,

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feelings and emotions that you experienced, um, during this time? Like, was there anything specific? I mean, initially it was like, you know, especially combined with losing my house and, um, and just the, you know, the flying during the fire and unfortunately I've gotten far too used

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to flying during fires because of all the ones we've had since then. But it was a little bit of scary flying at times just because of how bumpy and smoke everywhere. Um, so definitely that was difficult, um, kind of just everything going on. But what was

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kind of interesting was within a few days of the fire, you know, because obviously that event lasted for weeks. Within a few days of that. I went from feeling pretty down to where I actually felt. I hate to say this being able to go to work

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and get my mind off of personal stuff. I don't know, we're good. Um, I think coming to work was actually a, uh, it was a way to get my mind off of the personal trauma I was going through, but then there was actually a tremendous amount

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of pride because, uh, I think we really quickly could see how much the community valued what we were doing. And so, um, it was actually very prideful to come to work and to be able to make a difference. So yeah, thank you so much for everything

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and I was really cool that you were in a helicopter. I think that's awesome. Thank you so much. Helicopters are cool with a helicopter is cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Um, so, um at any point during the Tufts fire, were you involved or in charge of

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the evacuation operation? Not during the? Well, I take that back. Um Yes, the morning of we had to facilitate a lot of evacuations in the Bennett Valley area. So we got a pretty, we were able to make it into the Anna State Park, Kenwood area and

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we could see the fire was impacting the park quite a bit and then we, um, we could tell that it was most likely going to crest over the park and then dump down into Bennett Valley. And so we started ordering evacuations there and, you know, they

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were so overwhelmed at that point that I don't think that was on their radar quite yet. So, yes. Ok. And then do you know anything about the for inmates? Like did any of the, because I know that Chris mentioned, I'm sorry, I mentioned something about, um,

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the north, north North County and they had to be evacuated. I have no idea. We're too big of an apartment like that stuff occurs and I'm, I got you. Ok. Ok. Um, how, uh, who was the most helpful to you during this time? And how were

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they helpful? Uh, probably my pilot at the time, Paul Bradley, um, you know, we, we had multiple pilots but him and I were assigned together that morning and we worked together for a very long time and a very long time after that. But I know that

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day, you know, you really rely, you know, it's cliche to say, but like you're partners and so you, I rely on is flying. He relies on my ability to effectively communicate to the guys on the ground. And so, and he was sitting next to me when

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I saw my house down. So he was definitely a support for me and the most helpful by far of anybody I was dealing with. How are you managing this experience? Just living my life? I don't think about it much. I, you know, things we had very,

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you know, it's, I hate to say it since then, I've had much more traumatic, scary things happen. And so honestly, yeah, it's just a blip on the radar. Um If you were to relive um this disaster, would you do anything differently if so, what would it

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be? No, nothing. Um Can you tell me about any strength that you have discovered through this experience go up? I don't know if I would actually describe it as a strength. I think it's just a necessity. I think I'm very good in the moment I can.

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And this is probably the biggest life event that happened to me while working. So I think in the moment I can very much compartmentalize but at some point or the other, you do have to deal with stuff. I think that people, you can only, you know,

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you can only put that bad thing in a box for so long until you need to deal with it. And I think when people don't deal with it, it's a lot of other bad things. So I think personally I saw that. Yeah, even with disaster happening,

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I can work through something. But trust me, it still needed to be dealt with. Just not right in that moment. And I think that was a strength that I saw is that because honestly, like in my career, you've got to have the ability to, to go

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with something in the moment, be a productive and effective, but then come back to it and probably deal with it on a more emotional level later. Ok. Um Was there any like certain story or anything that stuck out to you during this period of time? Yeah,

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we, uh we did a rescue the first, the first morning of the tubs fire and it was uh a husband and wife called 911. They were trapped, they were trying to evacuate from a big piece of property and they were trapped with their dog in their

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pickup truck. And basically, they said they were in a canyon and they couldn't get out So we were able to make it to where they were. I remember, I remember seeing their truck in the middle of this valley and there was no way for them to

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get out. So we ended up, we were able to land next to them and we loaded the husband and wife and their dog in the helicopter. And, you know, usually if we rescue someone, it's always like, ok, well, we rescue them here and then we'll just

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take them over here and drop them off like firefighters and we'll take him to the hospital or whatever and they didn't have any like physical issues. It was just the fact that they were trapped. So we're flying and they were on like the headsets, I gave

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them a head, one of them, a headset in the back. And I was like, where do you want to go? And they're like, I don't know. And so it was like, well, shit, we've got these two people and a dog in the back. We've got tons

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of other stuff we need to do. So we literally just flew to the airport to our hangar landed. I got them out and I was like, all right and like, let them out to the street. They like gave me a hug and I said, see you.

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And that was, it, it was just so surreal. Like there was so much going on that. It was like, I literally saved these people from getting burned. And the only thing I could do for them was literally just give them a ride to the helicopter and

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have them figure out how to get a ride from there and we were gone. Never saw them again. Have no idea who they are. So, it just kind of, that was surreal. Like that stuck out to me like you're in such a disaster that like I'm

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just picking up random people and then, yeah. Yeah, that's, uh that's definitely something to remember. Yeah. And thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, of course. Um And then, uh is there something else you think I should know or something you want to

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tell me to better understand the challenges that you faced during the wild? I think, I mean, especially since you've lived in this area, I think, I mean, I think that for me personally, uh and I've been doing this job for a very long time. But I

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think for me personally, when natural disaster happen, I actually feel sometimes like I, I enjoy going to work because I think that even though I'm not, it almost makes me feel that I'm in control. Whereas I think with a lot of people when we have fires

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and now they are being evacuated from their homes, you're just kind of in that fight or flight mode where, ok, I've got to flee this terrible thing and even though it's not true, but mentally it almost like when I'm in the position that I'm in, when

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these disasters happen, it actually gives you a sense of empowerment. It's like, well, I know, I know where the fire is going and I know what we need to do next or so, in a weird sense, it's like I actually enjoy working during these natural disasters

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because it makes me feel that I'm in control, even though I'm not, I convinced myself that I am. Yeah. Ok. Ok. Um, ok. Well, I think that's it, it was, uh, it was a little, uh, sorry. Is there anything else? I think that would you like

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to see some picture? Yeah. Sure. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and stop.