SERVPRO of San Diego City SW Restores Buildings from Fire Damage

Salute to Our Firefighters

SERVPRO^® of San Diego City SW is a local company. We live here.

Fires that started on federal forested areas have spread to populated areas, destroying structures and wildlife as well as taking lives.

In all our discussions about fire safety, we have stressed the importance of leaving the scene. First responders and federal/ state/ and local officials also stress that the only way to be safe is to leave the fire.

Firefighters, however, always go toward the fires. Firefighters work to save land and lives while their own homes and loved ones are in danger. Firefighters put themselves in danger every time they go to a fire, whether the fire is in a forest or in a basement.

We thank them. 

Firefighters who Earned Places in History

Deanne Shulman

Deanne Shulman was the first woman smokejumper in 1980. She passed all the tests in 1979, but the department rejected Shulman for being five pounds under the minimum weight. Despite this limitation, she was able to do the work with 45 pounds of equipment on her back. Other women soon joined her.

Stuart Roosa

Roosa was a one-person action/adventure squad. He worked in California and Oregon as a smokejumper, the U.S. Air Force as a test pilot, and then an astronaut for NASA. In 1971, Roosa carried several different types of tree seeds in a mission to the moon. The seeds survived the journey there and back. NASA had the trees planted near the Kennedy Space Center. Saplings from those trees (Moon Trees) now grow near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Gary Dahlen

Gary Dahlen piloted helicopters for smokejumpers. In 2014, the King Fire in Arizona trapped 12 firefighters. Dahlen, from a firebase in California, flew to the area. He saw the fire shelters on the ground and realized he would not have enough water to suppress the fires enough to get to the firefighters. He scouted an escape route, radioed the captain with a description of where to run, and met the firefighters at the clearing. Without Dahlen’s help, the firefighters would not have found a way out.

Jason Durbin

Durbin was a Chicago firefighter working a second job as an ambulance driver in 2009. When he saw a building on fire, he ran in (without special equipment) to the fire on the 28^th floor. The fire department was on its way, but one woman was trapped in the smoke. Durbin found her when he ran into her and brought her downstairs to safety.

Currently

There are firefighters from all over the United States fighting the fires in California, Washington, and Oregon. There are also firefighters from Australia, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand.