The Park Fire has become one of California’s largest recorded wildfires, burning over 370,000 acres so far in rural Butte and Tehama counties. The fire is about 12% contained and has destroyed over 100 structures as of Monday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.
One structure in the line of fire was the transmission tower for CapRadio’s partner North State Public Radio. The KCHO transmitter is located in the town of Cohasset, which was heavily damaged by the fire.
Had the fire taken the tower down, it would have eliminated the service during a critical time. NSPR Studio Operations Technician Sara Downs and David Born, CapRadio’s director of broadcast infrastructure, watched as the flames approached the tower Thursday night, and spoke with CapRadio’s Kate Wolffe about their experience.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
On how they first heard news of the fire
Sarah Downs: I actually heard about [the fire] at work. I heard everyone's phone go off and I looked down at my phone and saw the notification of the fire and I thought “Oh, it's in Upper Park. That's not good,” — Upper Bidwell Park.
David Born: Sarah is the one that kind of alerted it to me and how close and how fast it was growing. The KCHO transmitter is the big heartbeat of Chico NSPR’s broadcast. We went up there earlier this year, and as we drove up that canyon, I remember thinking, “There's a lot of underbrush here that hasn't been cleared out in a long time.” It just felt like this tinder box that could go at any moment.
On the location of the transmission tower
Downs: The transmitter was located in one of the evacuation zones and I and I knew, “that's not good at all because that means no one can get up there to do anything to protect it,” and we were just kind of having to sit and wait and see what happened. Then we received an email from someone that shares the tower with us and he said, “Hey, looks like the fire might be about two miles away.” And so, you know all the alarm bells were going off.
Born: I got the same email, and he had sent us a link to this webcam, I had not seen it before. You could definitely see the fire and it was a few miles away. That's when we really started to think in our heads like, “Okay, what are the worst case scenarios? What are we gonna do if this happens or that happens?” You try to plan all these scenarios in your head.
The Park Fire burns near the NSPR transmission tower in Cohasset, Calif. on July 25, 2024.Screenshot via ALERT Wildfire
On watching the fire approach the tower
Downs: It was slow motion at first, and then it was just all the sudden it was there. It was right there on the tree line and you could see it just inching closer and closer. It was actually kind of terrifying and really hard to watch it at times.
Born: So we stayed in communication until past 10 p.m. [on Thursday] and we were all just kind of watching; the entire tech team was just watching along. It eventually got to the point where we realized we weren’t going to be of any use the next day at work if we didn't try to get some rest.
On returning to work the next day
Downs: I slept really hard and when I woke up [Friday] morning, I thought, “[I’ll] go to work and it’s just gonna be dead air, you know, what are we gonna do?” And I turned on the radio and there we were! It was cool and exciting and it gave me a little bit of a morale boost.
Born: I woke up [Friday] morning at about 5 a.m. and I checked my email and the engineer had told us that the fire had passed through. He told us the current status and that we were still on the air and I literally had to read it, like, four times because I did not believe that the transmission line coming from our building up to the tower [was] going to survive this. But here we are, we're still on the air. It's wonderful.
Downs: I mean, looking at the webcam [Friday] morning, you can see more trees, you can see the smoke kind of clearing out and seeing our little tower standing there makes me a little proud.
Flames from the Park Fire have moved away from the NSPR transmission tower in Cohasset, Calif. on July 29, 2024.Screenshot via ALERT Wildfire
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