BIG CREEK, CA (KFSN) -- Troy Chaput didn't always want to be a firefighter. His passion was in cars, but growing up with his dad being a firefighter it did have an influence.
"I always remember asking him, 'Hey Dad, did you catch a fire last night?' And you could always tell if he was tired or I could get in his truck and I'd smell the smoke still."
Those memories eventually led him to become a firefighter. He now serves as a captain for the Fresno Fire Department.
Chaput was preparing to be deployed to southern California on the night of September 4, 2020, to relieve crews mopping up wildland fires. Plans quickly changed.
"I get a call just as I'm waking up from the Emergency Operations Center, which tells me there's a new start in Big Creek and that we need to respond directly to Big Creek."
That new start is the Creek Fire. The incident burned from September 4, 2020 to December 24, quickly becoming one of the largest wildfires in California history. It currently sits at the 6th largest wildfire.
"I've never been in a war zone, but it felt like I was there."Fresno Fire Captain Troy Chaput
Chaput and his crew were assigned the town of Big Creek at the end of Point Road. The road ends at a Forestry Service helipad and granite cliff.
The crew arrived at around 10 a.m. to find the fire burning in the Big Creek drainage. The rough, difficult terrain made fighting the fire by hand impossible.
"We were stuck back there and we were on our own, and we had property and life to protect."Fresno Fire Captain Troy Chaput
Their only option was to sit, wait and let the fire come to them, protecting the structures and homes of Big Creek.
"From all the Intel that we gathered, it was going to come up to us and it was going to wrap around to the north side and burn across there," Chaput recalls. The south side of the road was mostly granite with very little vegetation to burn. "But it did end up burning a little bit more with more intensity than they thought on that southern side."
What happened next proved how erratic the Creek Fire came to be known.
Once the fire reached Chaput and his crew, it wrapped around both sides of the road, creating an intense column of heat, burning homes in the middle of the road on both sides.
"I've never been in a war zone, but it felt like I was there." Propane tanks were exploding. Houses were fully engulfed in flames. But worst of all, power lines had fallen across the road, trapping Chaput and his team at the end of road. "There was no way we could evacuate that area. We were stuck back there and we were on our own, and we had property and life to protect."
In this story that's only on Action News, learn how Chaput and his crew are responsible for saving the town of Big Creek and how it feels to return to Big Creek for the first time since the Creek Fire.
To learn more about the Creek Fire, WATCH the Emmy award-winning ABC30 original documentary Mountain Strong: Surviving the Creek Fire
