Life behind the fire lines

By Leslie Moriarty

Herald Writer

GOLD BAR — When Isaac Howard closes his eyes, he pictures himself in full fire-fighting gear, racing inside a burning house to save a child, who is asleep in a second-story bedroom.

For him, it’s not a nightmare. It’s a dream. And, although he’s lived his dream dozens of times, he hopes that, someday, he’ll be able to live it again.

"My goal is to be back in the field, fighting fires again," said Howard, 43. "It’s what I do. I can’t imagine my life without it."

But that is just how his life is today. Howard, a career firefighter in Edmonds and a volunteer as well in Gold Bar, suffered severe injuries during a firefighting training exercise Aug. 6. Flying glass from an explosion was embedded in his face, causing the loss of one eye and seriously impairing the sight in the other.

He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he was rushed into a 12-hour surgery to try to save his sight and his life.

"It all happened so fast," Howard said. "I have images of it in my head. But I can’t tell you if I saw what happened, or if I am just seeing what has been described to me."

It was a summer evening, a Monday, he said. He was working as assistant chief of Snohomish County Fire District 26, at Gold Bar, helping train volunteers to fight a trailer fire.

The trailer is moved from fire department to fire department giving firefighters the opportunity to fight a propane fire that can be "turned on and off" from a control booth, Howard said. A series of routine trials to fight fires had been completed and many of the volunteers had headed for home, including Howard’s 19-year-old daughter, Desiree, a volunteer firefighter herself.

Howard said he and four others decided to do an additional training exercise where two new recruits and two experienced firefighters enter the trailer to get a feel for being inside a smoke-filled area.

"We try to do some one-on-one so that if the newer folks have a problem with being claustrophobic or something, there’s a trained person right along side of them," he said. "We were about ready to shut down when something went wrong."

An explosion blew him out of the booth. He recalls being on the ground with fellow-firefighters leaning over him, checking his condition.

"I kept telling them to get the rest of the people out and make sure that the propane was turned off," he said. "I went into my ‘chief’ mode."

Soon his face was covered with trauma bandages, and he was in a helicopter.

"I couldn’t see anything because of the bandages," he said. "But I could tell who was around me because I recognized the voices."

Even the flight nurse on the airlift helicopter was someone who knew Howard.

Once at the hospital, experts were called in. His surgery was followed by four days of bed rest, and then he persuaded doctors to let him go home.

A week later he was back at Harborview after his right eye began bleeding while he was at home. Ultimately, doctors had to perform another surgery to remove that eye. He now has a prosthetic eye that was hand-painted to match the brownish-green color of his other eye.

Since August, he’s had almost weekly appointments with doctors. He still has stitches in the cornea of his left eye, and depending on how they heal, he could have 20-20 vision return, said Dr. Bryan Sires, chief of ophthamology at Harborview.

"Right now, I am still sensitive to light," he said. "Most of my vision is blurry, and there is sort of a white haze around what I see. But I am hopeful."

His short-term goal is to be able to drive again. Now, his wife and daughters play chauffeur for him. He’s had to pull his daughter, Heather, 17, out of school to drive him to doctor appointments. His wife, Karen, works full time for the U.S. Post Office in Gold Bar.

His days at home are filled with learning to do things for himself. Even sorting socks is difficult.

"I can’t really tell colors apart right now," he said. "But I have mastered opening the refrigerator," he joked. "At first the light was so bright, I couldn’t stand it."

He often thinks about what he’s missing at the station in Edmonds. His pals there bought him a riding lawnmower, as encouragement.

"I was always talking about how I wanted one," he said. "Right now my son (Jacob, 15) is enjoying it."

Howard got started in firefighting after moving to Gold Bar in 1984. He attended a Christmas festival the local firefighters put on for kids. He was so impressed with their generosity that the following month he signed up as a volunteer. Two weeks later he was fighting his first structure fire. Two years later, he was chief.

In 1991, he was hired full time in Snohomish County Fire District 1, and then in Edmonds where he has been since.

"I never realized how much a part of me firefighting was until something took it away," he said.

Howard feels lucky to be alive and is thankful for his medical care. While the fire marshal’s office is still investigating the explosion, Howard thinks about the future.

"From the very minute this happened, I have gotten such good care," he said. "Friends at both Edmonds and Gold Bar have been so great. There’s been an enormous amount of positive help and prayers. And that’s allowed me to keep going.

"But I spent a lot of time getting to where I was at in my career, and I plan to get back there, even if I am the first one-eyed firefighter in history.

"I didn’t cheat death," he said. "God kept me alive because there’s still something I am needed for here."

You can call Herald Writer Leslie Moriarty at 425-339-3436

or send e-mail to moriarty@heraldnet.com.

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