Father, son ready to fight wildfire side by side

As more than 800 firefighters continue to battle the Carpenter One wildfire in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, other crew members are biding their time at Petrack Park waiting for their opportunity to traverse the rugged terrain.

Fire crews from all over the Southwest have converged on Pahrump to assist local agencies in the fight.

Petrack Park and the Bob Ruud Community Center were briefly transformed into a small village as supplies and provisions were collected and distributed among personnel.

Brett Bower from Taos, N.M., arrived in town early last week.

The veteran firefighter says he’s ready to do battle after recently returning from Arizona where 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died battling the Yarnell Hill fire that started last month.

While playing cards at a picnic table at Petrack Park, Bower talked about an experience he never thought he’d have in 29 years of firefighting — having his 18-year-old son by his side.

“It’s his first year of fighting fires and after what happened in Arizona, it’s a little more sensitive, but he is really well trained and a pretty smart kid and that took a lot of fears away for me. This is only his second fire. The first time, the fire was basically out so he got a great chance to learn about mopping up and securing the fire line,” he said.

When queried about how his wife is handling the fact that both husband and son are in harm’s way, Bower said she is taking it all in stride — because she is a firefighter, too.

“She’s an ex-Hotshot herself. That’s exactly how we met. We were both on a Hotshot crew back around 29 years ago. We are a true family of firefighters. Right now she is back home in Taos. She retired from firefighting a few years ago,” he said.

Bower’s son, Shane, said that he never really had an urge to follow in his father’s footsteps in terms of a career as he was growing up in New Mexico.

He admitted he didn’t really like his father’s line of work.

“Ever since I was a child, I actually grew to resent it because he wasn’t really there. He was making money for us but he wasn’t there. My dad actually asked me when I was 15 if I wanted to start learning to fight fires. It still didn’t really appeal to me, but after a few years it really started to grow on me and I really liked the idea of being able to spend more time with my dad and protecting people and homes. I also love protecting nature because I love the outdoors,” he said.

The younger Bower said he is anxious to get to the fire and put his skills to work alongside his father.

“I’m hoping to get up there. I really want to see the flames. I actually haven’t been on a fire where there was a front. The only one that I have been on was a complete mop-up, which is just digging up the sub-surface fires and putting out the smoldering remains. It’s still a tough job in itself, but it’s not actually fighting the fire. I want to be part of the excitement and danger of it all,” he said.

Shane is a college student, which allows him the opportunity to accompany his father while he’s on summer break.

“I can continue fighting fires in the summer and get back to my college education for the fall and winter. I want to get my major in art. I also plan on joining a program where I can get an educational degree and travel around the world for two years and teach art. They will forgive all of my student loans and they pay me,” he said.

Shane said he has additional plans once he is finished with college.

“I am looking into architecture. Like I said, I love nature and I want to figure out a way to make architecture where it’s not so destructive to nature and where the two can remain harmonious together,” he said.

The Carpenter One fire is about 15 percent contained. A Type I response was ordered this past weekend and fire managers moved much of the operations facilities set up in Pahrump over to the Las Vegas side of the blaze.

No homes have been lost and no injuries yet reported.

So far the fire has cost about $5 million to fight.