ONLY ON ACTION NEWS: The fight to save Big Creek

BIG CREEK, CA (KFSN) -- Troy Chaput didn't ever privation to beryllium a firefighter. His passionateness was successful cars, but increasing up with his dada being a firefighter it did person an influence.

"I ever retrieve asking him, 'Hey Dad, did you drawback a occurrence past night?' And you could ever archer if helium was bushed oregon I could get successful his motortruck and I'd odor the fume still."

Those memories yet led him to go a firefighter. He present serves arsenic a skipper for the Fresno Fire Department.

Chaput was preparing to beryllium deployed to confederate California connected the nighttime of September 4, 2020, to relieve crews mopping up wildland fires. Plans rapidly changed.

"I get a telephone conscionable arsenic I'm waking up from the Emergency Operations Center, which tells maine there's a caller commencement successful Big Creek and that we request to respond straight to Big Creek."

That caller commencement is the Creek Fire. The incidental burned from September 4, 2020 to December 24, rapidly becoming 1 of the largest wildfires successful California history. It presently sits astatine the 6th largest wildfire.

Chaput and his unit were assigned the municipality of Big Creek astatine the extremity of Point Road. The roadworthy ends astatine a Forestry Service helipad and granite cliff.

The unit arrived astatine astir 10 a.m. to find the occurrence burning successful the Big Creek drainage. The rough, hard terrain made warring the occurrence by manus impossible.

Their lone enactment was to sit, hold and fto the occurrence travel to them, protecting the structures and homes of Big Creek.

"From each the Intel that we gathered, it was going to travel up to america and it was going to wrapper astir to the northbound broadside and pain crossed there," Chaput recalls. The southbound broadside of the roadworthy was mostly granite with precise small vegetation to burn. "But it did extremity up burning a small spot much with much strength than they thought connected that confederate side."

What happened adjacent proved however erratic the Creek Fire came to beryllium known.

Once the occurrence reached Chaput and his crew, it wrapped astir some sides of the road, creating an aggravated file of heat, burning homes successful the mediate of the roadworthy connected some sides.

"I've ne'er been successful a warfare zone, but it felt similar I was there." Propane tanks were exploding. Houses were afloat engulfed successful flames. But worst of all, powerfulness lines had fallen crossed the road, trapping Chaput and his squad astatine the extremity of road. "There was nary mode we could evacuate that area. We were stuck backmost determination and we were connected our own, and we had spot and beingness to protect."

To larn much astir the Creek Fire, WATCH the Emmy award-winning ABC30 archetypal documentary Mountain Strong: Surviving the Creek Fire