As Fires Rage, San Joaquin Memorial High School Alums are on the Front Lines

Zach Irion '06 (above, middle photo) became a volunteer on call firefighter when he turned 18. As he tells it, he showed up at Station 89 in Easton and asked the fire captain there how to get into the fire service. Now, he is a Fire Apparatus Engineer for Cal Fire. He's been helping to fight the spreading blazes of the Creek Fire and the other fires currently raging across California. Irion is originally from Easton and says it's important to him to get to serve his community. "It's been cool to come back to where it all started," he said.


Donavan West '14 (above, top left) is another alumni helping to fight these devastating fires. As a Wildland Firefighter, he has been working hard to battle the fires.

Brother Chris Donnelly, a Christian Brother who taught at SJM in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has also been fighting the fires. He has spent 22 years as a volunteer firefighter in Huntington Lake. He is now chief of the Huntington Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Read more about his efforts at  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/08/910626434/california-creek-fire-zero-percent-contained-chief-firefighter-says