Search and Rescue searches for home

CHICO — Dennis Schmidt was working as public works director for the town of Paradise when he found a second calling as a first responder.

In December 2007, he saw a convoy of vehicles race up the ridge to look for a family lost in the forest. The helicopter rescue of Frederick Dominguez and his three children after three days in the snow became international news; over the course of the search, Schmidt found himself thinking, “Man, this is right in my backyard, and I probably have some skills that could help them.”

Now he’s trained in helicopter extractions — one of his primary roles with Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SAR), a team of 50 volunteers who provide life-saving aid to people in distress.

SAR answered 130 calls last year, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The team trains 15 days a month to stay sharp on the various skills that may come into play on any given rescue. Members also perform maintenance on vehicles and equipment.

The compensation? Nothing financial. Despite the depth of the commitment and risk of injury, SAR members don’t even get a stipend like the $15 a day for jury duty.

“But (jurors) don’t get to have nearly as much fun,” Schmidt chuckled.

“That’s true,” said Christina Skaggs, SAR’s board president, who joined the team soon after her husband, Trevor. “We work hard, but also are having fun. We get to see parts of the county that I never would have seen before, and we get to do some pretty cool stuff.”

Take Schmidt’s role as a helicopter rescue tech. As Skaggs describes it, “he gets to dangle beneath a helicopter and help people. That’s the life; I don’t think you could pay to do that.”

Skaggs incorporates her medical background as a physicians assistant along with skills she’s learned on the team — training coordinated by Trevor, a software engineer by profession who also lends his expertise to the I.T. side of the operation.

Sheriff Kory Honea supports and salutes every member’s service.

“The Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team is made up of all volunteers,” he said “They are a highly trained and skilled group of people who give their own time to help others. They respond on average to two to three calls per week. They are an invaluable resource to the Sheriff’s Office and an invaluable asset for our community.”

HQ quest

Any time of the day or night, on any day, an alert from Honea can rally SAR to its headquarters in southeast Chico. They’ll muster personnel and equipment to head out as quickly as possible — sometimes even beyond the county line to provide assistance to other agencies.

Speed is relative given the constraints of the facility. It’s located on the edge of the Mendocino National Forest Genetic Resource Center; SAR leases the land but cannot expand. The equipment bay demands a real-life version of Tetris to fit vehicles — and even then, some must remain outdoors.

“We’re just hamstrung here at this location,” Schmidt said.

The gate is manual with locks. SAR hoped to upgrade to automatic but couldn’t get permission to trench for the power lines and sensors.

“Trying to open a combination lock at 2 in the morning when it’s raining,” Schmidt began — “In the dark,” Skaggs injected — “it’s not easy.”

Before heading out, someone must stop to shut and secure the gate.

Every minute counts. Last year, for instance, SAR reached a woman clinging to a tree as stormwater rushed toward Ord Ferry Road by River Road. “If we’d have been five minutes later,” Skaggs said, “who knows what would have happened?”

So, SAR is searching for a new home. They’re in the midst of a $1.5 million fundraising campaign, Operation Rescue Ready, to build a facility on new land — preferably in the vicinity of the current HQ, which Skaggs said is “close to where most of our members live” and, thus, reduces response time.

The estimated timeline is four to five years. (Visit buttesar.org/rescue-ready for more details.)

Meanwhile, SAR continues to recruit new members. The group welcomes participants at the general meeting the second Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. at the Lt. Larry Estes Training Center, located at 3965 Morrow Ln.

Neither Schmidt nor Skaggs came in with rescue backgrounds — “I was a Boy Scout many years ago,” Schmidt quipped. “Everything else has been taught through the courses being a member here.” He described members as “white collar, blue collar, everything in between.”

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The common denominator: shared dedication to the community. The group’s motto,  “So that others may live,” guides the mission.

“When you go out and find somebody who’s in a really bad spot and you’re able help them,” Schmidt said, “that’s a high that you’ll never get from a chemical means.”