VIDEO: In August, when Jason Phillips came to Colorado to fight the Cameron Peak Fire, he didn’t expect to be here nearly four months later fighting the lingering effects of COVID-19.
Phillips, who lives in Washington state, arrived in Fort Collins on Aug. 10 after months of already fighting wildfires in different parts of the country. At that time, what would become the state’s largest-ever wildfire covered about 15,000 acres. “We held our end of the bargain up, promised the operations sections chief that I wouldn’t go to Walmart, wouldn’t go out to eat – don’t do anything that would compromise the crew,” he said.
On Aug. 25, Phillips, a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, noticed he didn’t feel quite right at the tail-end of his overnight shift.
“By that afternoon, my life was turned upside down. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep [anything] down. My whole entire body was shaking so bad, I couldn’t hold a pencil to write my own name,” Phillips said.