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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Tech. Sgt. Damon Foss explains working on a HH-60G Pavehawk rescue helicopter.
Our Heroes
Local air guardsmen rescue family from burning home
By Daniel Hindin
In emergency situations, it always helps if your neighbors are highly trained in military-rescue techniques.
On Labor Day, Sept. 4, at approximately 11:15 p.m., James Knopf's Moffet Field home caught on fire. Luckily for Knopf and his two children, their neighbors are part of an elite division of Air Force Pararescuemen, also known as PJs.
Knopf, a technical sergeant of the 129th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard, was doing one last load of laundry in the dryer, after his Labor Day celebrations, before going to bed. His wife, Tessie, was still at her nursing job and their children, 13-year-old Lea and 7-year-old Michael, were already asleep in their rooms.
According to the Rescue Wing's Public Affairs Office, an old 220-volt dryer cord may have shorted, causing clothing sitting nearby to catch fire.
Knopf woke to his children's cries for help. He immediately opened his bedroom door and was blasted with fire and smoke flashing up the stairwell. Staggering back, he yelled for his children to get down on the floor. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.
Lisa Foss noticed an orange glow outside her window while lying in bed. She quickly woke her husband PJ Damon Foss and told him of a possible fire outside. After confirming there was a fire, Foss jumped out of bed and grabbed a cordless phone as he exited his home. He dialed 911 as he ran toward the burning house.
Foss heard banging on the windows upstairs at the back of the house and saw Lea at the window. He hopped the fence from his backyard into the Knopf's backyard.
Meanwhile, Master Sergeant Mel Hinshaw, First Lieutenant Robert Sage and Sergeant Rick Smith were roused by their wives and families. "I grabbed my shorts and ran out the door real quick," Hinshaw said.
Smith found another neighbor, Jessica Snarr, attempting to extinguish the fire, which was escaping from the home's front door.
Smith and Snarr emptied the fire extinguisher into the blaze while Hinshaw joined in with a garden hose.
Still in the backyard, Foss saw smoke and flames coming from the window where Lea was. He yelled for her to jump out the window. But Lea first backed away from the window to find her brother. Shortly after, she returned to the window without Michael and jumped. Foss caught her, breaking her fall. The force of the fall actually knocked Foss to the ground of the concrete patio.
Hinshaw, still fighting the fire with a garden hose, handed it off to Smith and ran back to his house to grab his medical kit and a flashlight. Foss broke the glass door in the back of the house with an old beer keg, gaining entry. He grabbed a second water hose and soaked himself in order to enter the house with a little added protection from the fire. But the smoke and heat were too intense, and he turned back.
Smith was able to somewhat control the flames at the front door. Foss and Sage entered the house looking for Michael.
Hinshaw remained shoeless outside with the garden hose. "Always wear shoes to a fire," Hinshaw later advised.
Smith and Sage made it to the top of the stairs, but the smoke and heat forced them back down once again. Hinshaw handed them a flashlight when they came back down, and they attempted to reach the upstairs bedrooms again. They managed to search the first bedroom on the right but found no one and were forced to exit yet again.
They returned to Hinshaw, still with the garden hose. Together they wet a rag and a shirt to put over their faces as protection from the smoke and re-entered the house. They made it to the second room on the right and found Michael trapped between the bed and the back wall. Sage and Smith pried him free and Smith carried him downstairs and out the door where they laid him on the grass.
Foss and Hinshaw assessed Michael's condition and began advanced life support. They ventilated him with oxygen until the paramedics arrived on the scene and took control. The Moffet Fire Department arrived soon after and finished stabilizing the situation.
The Wing's Public Affairs Office says that neighbors still weren't sure whether Knopf was home because his car was parked away from his house. Firefighters entered the house and found Knopf unconscious in his bedroom and carried him outside.
Officials from the Rescue Wing said both Knopf and his children were hospitalized. Knopf suffered from second degree burns and smoke inhalation, and was released from the hospital six days later on Sept. 10. The children also suffered burns and smoke inhalation and underwent skin grafts. They remain hospitalized.
The Public Affairs Office reports that the family lost almost all of their furniture, clothing and most other possessions. Each of the children has undergone multiple surgeries with more expected.
Best of the Best
The quick action by the PJs can be attributed to the rigorous two-year training process that each member must go through. "We are the Air Force version of special-ops," says Hinshaw. "We're like the Navy SEALs."
Trainees go through a three-week prep course, a two-month physical portion, more than a month of SCUBA school, three weeks of parachute training, three days of Air Force water survival school, three weeks of air crew survival school and a couple days of helicopter egress school.
Recruits are then sent to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., or Fort Bragg in North Carolina for 10 months of air crew training for the four-engine MC-130P Combat Shadow rescue tanker/transport aircraft, helicopter crew member training for the HH-60G Pavehawk rescue helicopter, field operations, tactical training, mountain climbing and medical training.
If they successfully complete the training, they are awarded their beret and assigned to units for six months of familiarization training. Only then can they make any official actions on their own.
"I took the test to enter the school with 60 other people," said Hinshaw. "Of those 60 only five were allowed to enter. Then I started the school with 65 people, and only six people graduated. A vast majority of people can't pass the test. Even if they do get to the school, they usually can't deal with the first part of torturing. They torture you until the weak people quit."
Together, the unit's 840 personnel rescue people from snowy mountains, shipwrecks and flooded rivers. Since its designation as a rescue unit in 1975, they have saved almost 300 lives. They participated in state and federal efforts in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1991 Oakland Hills fire. Some members were deployed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during Desert Shield/Storm and the aftermath.
Checks or money orders for the Knopf family can be sent to 129th Rescue Wing ANG, Attn: Maj. Sobrino, P.O. Box 103, Moffet Federal Airfield, CA 94035. Checks or money orders should be made payable to "129th Rescue Member Foundation, c/o the Knopf Family." For more information, contact 129th Rescue Wing Family Services Coordinator Pam McGregor at pmcgre1992@aol.com.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
