From the CDF/Cal Fire Tributes and Condolences page.
Jack White, age 88 of Auburn CA, passed away peacefully at his home on July 29, 2024. He began his career with CDF in 1952 at Colfax FFS in Placer Ranger Unit. During his career he held many positions including Fire Captain Dispatcher at the newly constructed Auburn Headquarters during the formation of the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Ranger Unit. Other assignments included SFR1 and SFR2 in Shasta-Trinity Ranger Unit, SFR3 Unit Chief at Siskiyou Ranger Unit, and SFR4 Unit Chief Tehama-Glenn Ranger Unit. His career ended with retirement as Northern Region Chief in 1995. As per his wishes there will be no services.
Note: Pictured is Jack at Auburn ECC in 1973, and his Engine at Colfax in the late 1950’s.
I worked with Jack for about 4 years at NorthTree Fire. He was the Chief of the Incident Support Division, which included our clerical support and GIS trailers. Here are a few things I remember about him:
- He was huge. His hands were some of the largest I have ever seen.
- He liked playing blackjack.
- Though he was retired, he would listen to the fire radio in his work truck and grumble about the way things were getting done. Once, we heard a grass fire IC call for an extra engine to come put out burning fenceposts and Jack said ‘Use your damn piss pumps! If I were the Unit Chief here, that Captain would find me sitting in his driveway tomorrow morning waiting to chew his ass for wasting resources’.
- He ordered eggs over easy and cut them into his hashbrowns at breakfast.
- He loved the history of CDF, and could tell you a story about just about any part of it.
- He told me that after the CCC built the Ponderosa Way, CDF or the USFS put a station every hour along it so nowhere would be more than a 30 minute response. Many of those stations are still there. For example Oak Run, Whitmore, Shingletown, (Lassen Lodge, Panther Spring), Cohasset, Forest Ranch, Magalia Fire Center, Jarbo Gap, Feather Falls, Robinson Mill, and onward…