Walt Vandervelden oral history recording

Title

Walt Vandervelden oral history recording

Description

An audio recording of an oral history of Walter Vandervelden, volunteer fire chief of the Forest Grove fire department, who experienced the first hours of the 1933 Tillamook fire. The interview abruptly starts in the middle of a conversation. Forest Grove fire department had very limited equipment at the time so did not take anything with them when they were first sent out to the scene of the fire to see the seriousness of it. It would take the firefighters three to four hours to get to the location of the fire with the equipment lent to them by the Northwest Forest Fire Association. Men who would stay overnight would wake up unable to see because of the damage done to their eyes due to the fire; an easy fix of dampening a handkerchief and resting on their eyes for fifteen to twenty minutes. After the fire was contained and put out 73 million trees were hand planted along with seeds being dropped from planes flying above. The audio interview cuts out at 31:02 and 45:58, to start again in the middle of a conversation.

Creator

Vandervelden, Walt

Is Part Of

Ellis Lucia papers

Subject

Forests and forestry

Place

Forest Grove (Or.)
Forest Grove (Or.)

Extent

1 sound cassette (51 min.)

Language

English

Identifier

PUA_OH_53

Rights

In Copyright
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Source

Pacific University Archives

Contributor

Lucia, Ellis

Format

Audiocassettes

Type

Sound