"Smoke gets in your eyes"

Jeromy Phinney, Chief of Columbia County Fire District 3, is a good man to have a conversation with right now. He's cool as a cucumber, with a large framed photo of John Wayne on the wall beside his desk. He has the confidence you want in a fire chief while wildfires rage around the Pacific Northwest.

"Everything's dry, and dry conditions happen every year. It's nothing new," he said. "But yeah, this summer has been tough."

Twenty-one years ago, Jeromy Phinney was a kid fresh out of college. He'd come back home to Dayton to live and work. He'd never given a day's thought to fighting fires. The...