Hundreds of community members crowded the edges of the Arcata Plaza on Sunday, cheering as a line of firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and other first responder vehicles made loops around the square. The parade was led by a troupe of Cal Poly Humboldt’s Marching Lumberjacks, skipping and spinning as they played their instruments. Handmade cardboard signs were raised in the air as officers and firefighters smiled and waved at the crowd.
Chris Emmons, a Humboldt native and chief of the Arcata Fire District, said he was overwhelmed by the amount of support and appreciation from Arcata locals and visitors from neighboring cities.
“I have never seen this in this community,” Emmons said. “I mean, this is my community. I grew up in it, and I have never seen something like this, and it’s just tremendous. I saw someone, I don’t know if it was a sign or I heard somebody say it, but there was something along the lines of, ‘With everything going on, this is the goodness that came.’”
The Heroes Parade, organized by Amy Bohner of Alchemy Distillery, gave the community a chance to thank the first responders who helped extinguish the Jan. 2 Arcata fire and provided resources to those impacted.
At the parade, booths were set up in the plaza by the Arcata Fire’s Volunteer Logistics Unit, CAL FIRE’s Humboldt-Del Norte Unit and Northtown Books, among others. Several therapy dog teams were also present to provide respite for attendees.
Arcata Mayor Kimberley White read a proclamation recognizing the efforts of the many organizations throughout Humboldt County that aided in suppressing the flames fanned by high winds, highlighting the many fire districts that traveled to Arcata to provide reinforcement.
“Every ladder truck in Humboldt County and approximately 100 fire suppression support personnel were deployed to this incident where they dumped more than 2.5 million gallons of water on the fire. More than 9,000 gallons of water every minute at the fire’s peak,” White said.
Jen McFerrin, an Arcata local who attended the parade, was surprised and delighted to see the number of organizations present, ranging from the Red Cross to PG&E.
“If this is representative of the efforts on that day, it was really kind of nice to see the volume. It was really cool,” she said.
Jay Aubrey-Herzog, an employee of Northtown Books, one of seven businesses destroyed, has been working from home since the fire. While Northtown is looking for a new location, Aubrey-Herzog is grateful for the presence and support of Humboldt residents.
“It was great to be here because I saw a lot of customers I haven’t seen, obviously, in a while,” Aubrey-Herzog said. “It was great to see them in person again, because I really miss seeing the regulars in the bookstore all the time.”
Northtown Books is currently taking orders through its website that are shipped through the Arcata institution’s distributor. Several residents of the eight apartments that were also lost in the Friday afternoon blaze have fundraising sites as they prepare to rebuild and recover.
The Arcata Chamber of Commerce website has links to fire relief resources and vetted donation sites to help those impacted.
Griffin Mancuso (he/him) is a freelance journalist based in Eureka. He is passionate about uplifting the stories of local communities and wildlife education and preservation. More of his work can be found at griffinmancuso.wordpress.com.
This article appears in Arcata Rises Up for Fire Victims.