One of the 47 homes destroyed by the Hawk Fire belonged to a wildland firefighter of 31 years.
There were 11 additional homes that were damaged.
Tye Erwin, a firefighter for Battalion 22 of the Bridgeport Ranger District for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest for the U.S. Forest Service, was at work when the fire broke out on August 22.
He heard it from the dispatch center, and when he turned on the cameras, he saw how close it was getting to his home off Mohawk Lane on the east side of Peavine Mountain.
Erwin then told his boss he might need to go save his home.
"If this thing hits Peavine, the com site up there, I'm going to go home, and he said, 'Do what you need to do,’” said Erwin.
Once the flames got too close for comfort, Erwin raced home. Once he got in the neighborhood, he told his neighbors to get ready to leave at a moment's notice.
“I basically told them I'd be street fighting here in a few hours…"
"From my experience with the Poeville fire just a few years before, I knew this wasn't lining up well for us," the firefighter said.
However, Erwin decided to stay put and fight off the fire from his home.
He started hardening his home and getting it ready.
"I was confident that I had actually saved the house for a few minutes, and it turned out I was wrong," Erwin said.
The firefight got to a point where he knew it was a no-win situation.
“Things drastically changed with the fire behavior, and everything around me was consuming at an alarming rate, and I noticed some things that I had not seen before,” Erwin said.
Erwin then raced to his car and was able to escape safely.
“All it was was black smoke in the neighborhood,” he recalled. “I knew I was going to lose everything at that point."
Once the Hawk Fire was mostly contained and residents were allowed to return, he was able to see the destruction. Lots of things were unrecognizable.
"I couldn't even figure out what it was until I went down in there, and I'm like, 'Oh, piano,’" he said as he was giving us a tour of the damage.
Tye Erwin’s mother’s piano.
As we looked at the remains of his house, some things were easier to spot than others. Through the ashes, you could make out a washer, dryer, a bathtub, a grill, and some furniture.
Three of his cars are now a complete loss. Erwin says the fire was so hot, it didn’t shatter the glass from the windshields; it melted it.
However, there were a lot more things worth more than a price tag.
"I have my memories, lived here since 1998, and so there are things that we'll never be able to replace,” Erwin said. “My folks are gone, so all the stuff that they collected.”
Despite not being able to save much, Erwin believes his family knows he did all he could.
“My family would look at me and go, you did the right thing,” he said. “You saved yourself in the end, even though you tried to save everything you have."
Since the destruction, Erwin says, trying to deal with everything is overwhelming.
“It's emotionally draining. Physically it's not too bad, but the emotional side just tears into you after a while, and you're just like another phone call. Another. I got to keep track of this. I got to keep track of that. "
For more than 30 years, Erwin saw things from the other side of the coin.
"I see the devastation, and I see the turmoil, and I see the pain in people's eyes on TV, and I see all that, and I go, man, I hope that never happens to me, and it's happened to me,” he said.
Despite everything that’s happened, Erwin is looking on the optimistic side of things.
"I have to remember that, you know, life goes on,” he said. “We have to keep going. And, you know, all this stuff can be rebuilt."
The firefighter says the support from insurance, his coworkers, and the community has meant the world.
"The people of Reno, it reminds me of when I first moved here 30-plus years ago. Just the overwhelming support."
Erwin says in the future, he will try to help other people who are going through losing their homes.
He says as he looks towards next steps, he does not know at this time if he’s going to rebuild or relocate.
One of his coworkers started a GoFundMe to help him through this time.
