Howard Yune
Napa Valley Register, Calif.
NAPA COUNTY, Calif. — Three local volunteer firefighters who lost their homes to the record-setting August 2020 firestorm that stormed through rural upper Napa County have received recognition for their service — and donations to help them rebuild.
Brandon North, Rebecca Brown-Dehner and Mitchell Wilms on Wednesday were presented a total of $75,000 raised through the Summit Bank Foundation of Oakland. The firefighters received their awards of $25,000 per person in a ceremony at the Napa County Fire station in Yountville, according to Yountville Mayor John Dunbar.
All three were honored for their efforts battling the LNU Lightning Complex even as the blaze erupted on Aug. 17 and destroyed their homes, along with nearly 1,500 buildings and more than 360,000 acres, including a third of Napa County’s land area.
“Being a first responder takes a special kind of person who’s willing to learn emergency skills and risk personal safety to protect others,” Dunbar said in a statement the foundation released last week. “Our professional firefighters and law enforcement show a unique bravery and commitment to community service.”
Brown-Dehner and North, firefighters who are planning to marry, are receiving their awards as a wedding gift. The two plan to use the funds to put a down payment on a home and leave the mobile home park where they have stayed since the August 2020 fires destroyed both their families’ homes, the Summit Bank Foundation said in the news release.
Sudden wind shifts during the fires left the couple little time to salvage their belongings, and only 20 minutes’ notice for Brown-Dehner to inform her father of the blaze before flames overtook the family home.
“You can’t get more deserving than these good people, who gave even when it meant losing something so close to them,” Bill Wheeler, a foundation board member who owns Black Tie Transportation, said in the June 16 announcement.
Wilms, who graduated from the Pope Valley fire academy in the spring of 2020, volunteered for strike teams that fought the Apple and Lake fires in the Los Angeles area, according to the foundation. During his second strike-team mission, he received word that the LNU complex — which included the 300,000-plus-acre Hennessey Fire — was threatening heavily wooded northern Napa County. He was able to notify his family, who were able to flee with livestock and pets before the wildfire consumed the family home.
Since last year’s North Bay fires, Mitchell has lived with his family in his late grandfather’s former home, whose water and plumbing systems have sustained both fire damage and deterioration from age, according to the statement.
“In Napa County, we live with an elevated fire risk that is reality today,” Dunbar said of the honored firefighters. “We need people like Rebecca, Brandon, and Mitchell who are ready and willing to help protect us, even when they are experiencing their own crisis.”
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(c)2021 Napa Valley Register, Calif.