Fire Chief Jim Wright awarded state Medal of Valor for rescue during Lake County's Valley fire

South Lake County Fire Protection Chief Jim Wright has been awarded the State of California Governor’s Medal of Valor for quick action in the first minutes of last year’s Valley Fire that rescued four injured members of a helitack crew overrun by the firestorm.

Wright, a Cal Fire division chief who heads the local district under contract with the state agency, was recognized for his decision to drive into the fire zone and bring the four - covered in the protective emergency shelters in which they’d sought refuge - out in the bed of his pickup.

He was among seven Cal Fire personnel to receive the award Tuesday and said it was “definitely an honor.”

“It’s a very fine line between what we do every day and something that we do that gets singled out as special,” Wright said Wednesday.

Wright last year described being called back to duty as the wind-blown blaze spread across Cobb Mountain on the afternoon of Sept. 12.

He was at home in the hamlet of Cobb, getting into uniform, when a helitack crew from nearby Boggs Mountain dropped into the area to battle the growing blaze.

Four of its members were quickly overrun and survived only by deploying portable fire-resistant shelters, though only three were usable in the scorching heat that melted the packaging.

The firefighters - Logan Pridmore, Richard Reiff, Niko Matteoli and Capt. Pat Ward - suffered second- and third-degree burns, but despite the smoke and chaos, one of them was able to radio a description of a type of metal barn near their location.

Wright, who was evacuating nearby residents, recognized the description of a local landmark and raced to the site, picking up two other helitack members along the way and driving through active fire and smoke to reach the wounded.

He and the other firefighters gently loaded the injured into the back of the pickup and drove to a landing zone for transfer to a Cal Fire helicopter, which took them to UC Davis Burn Center in Sacramento. The Medal of Valor is awarded for “acts of heroism extending above and beyond the normal call of duty.”

In announcing the awards, Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott, the agency’s director, said, “Our firefighters put their lives on the line every day. But these individuals had to make decisions to act quickly, without regard to their own safety, which ultimately cost one of them his life.”

The Valley Fire, the third-most-destructive in California history, ultimately burned more than 76,000 acres, more than half of that in its first 12 hours.

Ward, captain of the helitack crew, was the last to take shelter that day and was the most badly injured.

He is still rehabilitating, Wright said.

The other three have been cleared to return to work.