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DENVER, Colo. – When Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Supervisory Agent in Charge Bob Dalton is not leading and advising background investigators in the Western Region’s Desert Mountain Area, you will likely find him fighting and preventing fires, protecting people and their homes from wildfires fueled by raging 100 mph winds, or treating those who are injured.
What’s more, there’s a good chance you will find his wife, Dorie, engaged in these efforts while working shoulder to shoulder with Bob and other volunteers to save lives, homes, property and forests.
Although the Daltons work full-time in their respective careers – Bob with DCSA and Dorie now as a wildland specialist (following a prior career as an elementary school teacher) – they find time to work as volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians, serving their community and beyond.
Over the past two years, their volunteer efforts encompassed several of Colorado’s largest fires in what Bob describes “as the most active fire season Colorado ever had.” They’ve also responded together to surrounding fire districts on “initial attacks” while committing to quick operations to stop wildfires quickly before they have an opportunity to grow.
Bob fought the Marshall Fire overnight, following a full day at work in late December 2021. Over 6,000 acres and nearly 1,100 homes were destroyed by this fast-spreading wildfire in Boulder County.
He fought the Cameron Peak Fire which burned 208,913 acres of steep, rugged terrain on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Larimer and Jackson Counties as well as Rocky Mountain National Park. Dorie – who was a full-time schoolteacher at the time – could not join her husband to fight that fire. After 62 days of burning, on Oct. 14, 2020, the Cameron Peak Fire became the largest recorded wildfire in Colorado's history.
“We deployed to Cameron Peak on two 72-hour surges to protect rural homes from the oncoming fire,” Bob recalled regarding the fire, which was 100% contained on Dec. 20 and called controlled on Jan. 12, 2021 after burning more than 200,000 acres. “At one point, the fire ran 14 miles in one day because of the wind and dry conditions,” said Bob.
He was among the firefighters who fought the Sylvan Fire, which burned several thousand acres in northwest Colorado’s White River National Forest in June 2021. Bob arranged to take two weeks of annual leave to help fight the fire – believed to have been sparked by lightning – “but the rains came and thankfully mother nature helped us out, so we were able to come back home after one week.”
Before returning home from the Sylvan Fire to his DCSA job, Bob helped to construct a fireline – a break in fuels, made by cutting, scraping or digging down to the mineral soil. “There were power lines at risk so we worked on cutting a fireline around the power lines where we cut down to the mineral soil around the fire to keep it from spreading and then patrolled that line,” he explained. The firefighters ensured the fireline was wide enough to prevent smoldering, burning or spotting by embers blowing or rolling across the line.
“Sometimes, we go in with thousands of feet of wildland hose and plumb that line where it’s hooked up to a water source and we’re putting out hot spots, keeping that fire from reigniting,” said Bob, who at this point in his volunteer firefighting career leads small fire crews in their various efforts which include the necessity to keep wildfires in a defined area as they strengthen fire lines and incorporate natural barriers such as aspen stands and rocky areas.
“One of the things I find really interesting is being in a leadership role with DOD while starting over as a volunteer firefighter and finding myself in a non-leadership role,” Bob reflected. “It forced me to reevaluate some of my leadership principles and how I approach things. I'm finding myself over time beginning to move into a leadership role with the fire department. It's an entirely different mindset because these are people that are there as volunteers because they want to be there. They come from all professional walks of life from attorneys and small business owners to medical professionals. It's an entirely different group of folks that you're leading and it's a different scenario in which you're leading because it is, at times, a life-or-death situation.”
Volunteer firefighting and EMT efforts occasionally take the Daltons out of state. In the fall of 2021, the couple took two weeks of leave from their government positions to patrol the grass lands of Wyoming for the U.S Forest Service. “We would drive hundreds of miles a day in this big fire engine through the national grasslands keeping an eye out for anything that might spark up due to high temperatures, high winds and dry conditions.”
When not deployed to fight wildfires, Dorie educates people in their local community about fire prevention and mitigation.
“She talks to them about things they can do to mitigate such as keeping pine needles out of their gutters and if you're going to replace your siding – consider noncombustible materials,” said Bob, who uses his annual leave coupled with the flexible hours to volunteer. “We sleep with the pager by the bed. In the middle of the night, the pager will go off and we will respond to the station to help someone who has a carbon monoxide alarm going off or chimney fire.”
The pager may also signal their response to provide the basic life support emergency care and lifesaving treatment as EMTs at any location in all types of weather and road conditions.
| Date Taken: | 04.04.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2022 08:42 |
| Story ID: | 417760 |
| Location: | CO, US |
| Web Views: | 301 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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