A firefighter from Okanogan County was burned over the weekend while battling the Grass Valley Fire near the Grand Coulee Dam. Brett Read suffered second-degree burns during attempts to flee the fire after it made a drastic shift in direction Saturday.
Read, 38, has been recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle since Saturday. He answered questions about the weekend's incident on Friday from the hospital, flanked by family and friends.
“You never think you would be the one but it’s a chance everyone takes when we lace our boots up every day, but if we don’t lace our boots up, who’s fighting them," Read said.
Officials said Sunday that the fire's behavior unexpectedly intensified and Read was separated from the engine he was working on and was burned in the process.
Even when Read detailed the frightening series of events that led to his injuries, he remained stoic.
"We engaged the fire, everything's going okay and we decided to disengage because it was intensifying. Wind shifts, so we're backing out of the fire, disengaging and that's when the fire switched, it stood up and it made a huge run. Well, when it did that it overtook the truck," he said.
Read and his wife took a moment to thank the nearby firefighters that sprayed the flames and helped get him to safety.
Before answering any questions, Read took a moment to thank everyone for supporting him and his family since the incident.
"I want to say thank you to everybody out there. Thanks for the support, thanks for the help, the encouragement, the phone calls, the cards," Read said. "Keep it coming, that's what gets me through."
Read has been a volunteer firefighter for seven years and lives in the Omak area. He noted that his care plan is still very day to day, but he has not required any surgery yet.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for Read. He also asked people to consider donating to their local fire districts.
