It was complete chaos. Some firefighters on the front line called it a war zone. Others say it was surreal. All of them have a hard time describing exactly what went down as the Almeda fire ripped through the Rogue Valley.
Many of the rules and regulations the Medford Fire Department lives by every single day went out the window on September 8th. If you ask some of the firefighters on duty the day of the Almeda Fire, they had a feeling something bad was coming.
“I woke up that morning and shut off a fan I had in my room, the hum, the noise continued and I’m like, ‘what in the world,’ and I looked outside and it was crystal clear to me what could potentially be in store for us,” said Medford Fire Battalion Chief Jason John, known as “JJ” to his crews.
John has been in the fire service since since 1994 and was hired on with Medford in 2001. He wasn't the only one who knew they could potentially be in for a wild ride that day.