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Tom Craven	Karen FitzPatrick	Jessica Johnson	Devin Weaver
Photos Courtesy King5.com

Courtesy Yakima-Herald.com

Today is for mourning. Wednesday was for shock.

Four young lives, three from Yakima and one from Ellensburg, were claimed by the Thirtymile Fire near Winthrop. The four were part of a 21-member fire crew that was caught in a valley in the middle of the blaze. Four other firefighters were injured, including one Yakima man who is hospitalized in serious condition.

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Families were notified in the early hours of Wednesday. Their grief spread as word of the deaths circulated.

Two teen-agers with college aspirations. A 21-year-old who wanted to be an engineer. A 30-year-old football hero and father of two.

Even those who didn't know them felt the loss.

For those who knew them and those who shared their profession, the pain often led to unashamed tears.

"It's a somber day," said Yakima Fire Chief Al Gillespie, who spent the day consoling fellow firefighters. "There's a lot of long faces around, and we all want to know what we can do to help."

Ellensburg's Tom L. Craven was a 30-year-old fire veteran who could outrun flames the way he once sprinted from linebackers on the gridiron at Central Washington University.

West Valley's Karen L. FitzPatrick, at 18 the youngest of the four, was a devout Christian who once battled a neighborhood brush fire while wearing pajamas.

Yakima's Devin A. Weaver, a 21-year-old outdoorsman and former curveball pitcher at Eisenhower High School, was headed to the University of Washington this fall.

West Valley's Jessica L. Johnson, 19, was a member of the West Valley High School swim team who incorporated firefighter training into her studies at Central Washington University.

A survivor who suffered severe injuries in the blaze is Yakima's Jason Emhoff, 21, who wanted to be a career firefighter.

"We know that the potential is out there," Gillespie said. "We face that every day. We know this is an issue we could face personally. We always hope it isn't us or someone we know."

These are things people remember about them:

Tom Craven

Tom Craven was the most experienced of those killed. He began working for the U.S. Forest Service as a firefighter in 1990 and had been assigned to the Naches Ranger District since 1993.

His father, William, believes his son died trying to save others.

"He could run. He could turn on a dime. He stayed with his crew. I knew he could have outrun that fire," said William Craven, who said he had no details of how his son died, except for news reports.

"It could have been worse. It could have gotten my other three boys," William Craven said, explaining that three other sons are also fighting forest fires this summer, with one of them working as far away as Colorado.

The Craven name is well-known in Central Washington. William Craven said his family came to Roslyn in 1880 from Illinois, brought in to work during a strike in the coal mines. He noted that he went on to become the first African-American mayor in the state, elected to the position in 1975.

The family -- including brothers Ted, Tim, Tony and K.C., and sister Corrine -- was renown for its athletic exploits at Cle Elum High School. Tom Craven earned 11 varsity letters in four years and played in the East-West All Star Football Game in 1990.

After two years at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, Calif., he transferred to Central Washington University, where he played football and hosted a rap-music show on the campus radio station.

At Redwoods, Tom was the football team's most valuable offensive player in 1991, gaining 1,281 yards and scoring 14 touchdowns.

Tom played football in 1993-94 for CWU. He set a then school record with a 265-yard rushing effort in a playoff game at Linfield College in Oregon. In his final three games at Central, Tom ran for a total of 578 yards.

He is 12th on the school's all-time yardage list for running backs.

James Atterberry, a 1989 West Valley High School graduate, played with Tom during the 1993 season at CWU. He remembered the bullish running back as someone who simply would not be outworked.

"If we had to be there at 7, Tom would be there at 6:30," said Atterberry, who is president of High-5 Marketing in Seattle. His firm handles marketing for another CWU teammate, former Seattle Seahawk quarterback Jon Kitna.

"If it was cold, he never wore sleeves. He was tough as nails."

The grittiness on the field did not mask Tom's true personality. "He was just the nicest guy in the world. I'm in shock," Atterberry said.

Tom graduated from Central with a sociology degree.

He is survived by his wife, Evelyn, and two children, a 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.

Karen FitzPatrick

She was the youngest, at 18. And Karen FitzPatrick had only been a firefighter for three weeks.

Those were the weeks after her June 8 graduation, the finish of her West Valley High School career in which she was an honor student, a soccer player, a noteworthy weightlifter, a photographer, a musician, a volunteer and, toward the end, a hopeful firefighter.

The 5-foot-8-inch, slender teen planned to go to college, probably at Yakima Valley Community College. She was thinking about being an emergency medical technician. She wanted to work for the Yakima Fire Department.

But first, she wanted to get some experience. She signed on at the Naches Ranger District to fight forest fires.

After a five-day wildfire training session, she went out on a recent fire in the Nile Valley, not too far from home. Then to another on the Columbia River.

This week was her third wildfire, though there was one in her earlier teens that doesn't quite count.

A few years ago, on July 4, a fire started in a vacant lot adjacent to her West Valley home. It threatened homes there, including hers (where she still lived at 18).

She leapt out of bed in her silk pajamas, her mother Kathie FitzPatrick said. She hefted two garden hoses and jumped over a 5-foot fence to soak the area.

"That made the big difference," her mother said.

But this year she was a genuine firefighter and looking forward to getting her first paycheck today.

Kathie FitzPatrick said her daughter was something of a contradiction. She loved evening gowns and the finer points of catering. But she also had a "rough, tough tomboy side."

As much as anything, Karen was known for her religious faith, her parents say.

Leslie Baer, owner of Valerie's Espresso on Yakima Avenue, remembers how important her former employee's new firefighting venture was to her.

"The last thing I can remember telling her was, 'I'm so excited you have this opportunity,'" Baer said.

The girl worked off and on at the espresso stand for two years. Baer said she got good grades, played volleyball, baseball and loved to sing.

"We're very shaken up. We're just really heartbroken and can't believe this has happened."

Kathie FitzPatrick said it hasn't hit her yet. The last time she saw her daughter, Monday, she was heading with her father, John, to practice driving a stick-shifted Suzuki sport-utility vehicle in the mountains. They stopped at a friend's house for prayer before coming home late.

"I'm glad they had that last time together," Kathie FitzPatrick said.

She tried to call her daughter Tuesday on the cell phone she always carried on her belt. No answer.

Now Karen FitzPatrick's family is trying to decide how to plan a memorial service, though they don't yet know what they'll have to bury.

Her mother said Wednesday, "I don't know if there's a body or not."

Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson's high school swimming coach recalls her as "a kid you couldn't not remember."

Holly Dunham-Wheeler said when she heard about the fire Tuesday evening, she knew her former student would be in the thick of it.

She said that when she heard of the deaths Wednesday morning, her heart sank.

Dunham-Wheeler paused to collect herself several times during a short conversation, alternately talking excitedly about a larger-than-life youngster she described as "squirrelly, loud, gutsy" and trying to cope with the loss of someone with so much promise.

"Her true passion became firefighting her senior year," Dunham-Wheeler said. "She tried to juggle the two, but often they collided. I talked with her about it, and because she wasn't someone I wanted to lose from the team, I gave her the freedom to pursue firefighting. She made it all the way to districts with us that year."

Family members, speaking through a friend, declined to comment Wednesday.

Jerry Craig, retired West Valley High School principal, recalls that Jessica swam in the morning, took classes all day and then went to fire cadet training in the evenings -- a full schedule even by an overachiever's standards.

"Jessica wanted to live life. She was a risk-taker but not in a bad way. Anyone who ever met her could see that," Dunham-Wheeler said. "I knew there was a high-risk factor in her passion. You just hope something like this would never happen."

As a volunteer, Jessica fit in at the West Valley Fire District.

"When she first came (to the fire district), she was as quiet as a church mouse," said Deputy Fire Chief Dave Leitch.

But eventually she was telling jokes, hanging out with the other firefighters and keeping herself in great shape, he said.

And when she was at a fire, "she was never in a big hurry to go home. She never had a bad attitude," Leitch said.

In 1999, she graduated from West Valley High School and started at Central Washington University. On weekends, she'd visit her parents and go out on calls for West Valley, Leitch said.

She'd even pop up during the week to participate in drills.

"She was probably skipping class," Leitch said with a smile.

Last year, she joined the state Department of Natural Resources to fight summer wildfires, while still helping out the West Valley District on weekends. And this summer, she joined the U.S. Forest Service.

Earlier this month, she helped battle a wildfire in the Nile area, off State Route 410. That blaze burned for more than two days and charred 250 acres.

Jessica was no rookie. She was what firefighters call a "fire fighter one," meaning she had experience and was closer to a supervisory position. "Fire fighter two" are beginners.

Jerry Craig's son, Nathan, was Jessica's boyfriend. Nathan Craig was notified of her death by Leitch at about 3 a.m. Wednesday and called his father a short time later.

"He's in the first stage of disbelief," Jerry Craig said of his son. "We were sitting at the West Valley fire station, and he said, 'Dad, every time that door opens, I think it's going to be Jess.'"

Nathan Craig recently purchased a boat, and he and Jessica spent time fishing on the Columbia River, a trip from which she returned with two fish while he was shut out.

"She gave him a lot of grief about that," Jerry Craig said.

Devin Weaver

Devin Weaver was a good kid known for being shy and quiet.

The kind of boy who excelled in school but who was upset about going to kindergarten at Nob Hill Elementary. Too many people for his liking.

"We had tears today," his father, Ken Weaver, remembered the kindergarten teacher saying as she held young Devin's hand after class.

As he grew up, the tears came less frequently, but the quiet, self-reliant nature continued.

At 21, Devin had the next chapter in his life decided. The Eisenhower High School graduate gave up on his return to the baseball diamond at Yakima Valley Community College this year and was headed to the University of Washington, where he planned for a degree in electrical engineering.

But before he went off to school, he yearned for an adventure. A job outdoors far from the family flower business.

"He was always conflicted between his IQ and his love of dirt," his father said.

The opportunity came when he met a childhood friend at a store. Jason Emhoff, who was critically injured in the Thirty Mile Fire, told Devin about his work as a wild land firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service.

Devin couldn't wait to join.

"He was just pumped," Ken Weaver said. "He worked really hard to get that job."

Devin was no stranger to hard work, said Mel Moore, a Yakima Youth Baseball board member who watched the right-handed pitcher grow up on the diamond. Weaver was a Little League All-Star, from his first at-bats to his teens. He was a varsity player on the Eisenhower squad.

Devin was never a fireballer who possessed a streaking fastball. He worked hard on the mound with changeups, sliders and curves.

"He was maybe as hard a worker as anyone I know," Moore said.

He was looking to return to the mound this year for YVCC. But an injury to his throwing arm proved too difficult for the control pitcher to overcome.

Outside baseball, Devin had a passion for the outdoors.

His mother, Barbara Weaver, remembers her son camping in the forest outside Nile in knee-deep snow.

Firefighting made sense for Devin.

"I was delighted for him; he was bored out of his mind," his father says.

When his mother saw a classified ad from the Naches Ranger District, she clipped it for her son.

"I helped him get that job," she said.

Devin ran carrying a 30-pound pack to prepare himself for the training session less than three weeks ago at West Valley High School.

"I want you to be the best one," Ken Weaver remembers telling his son. "There's no sense going out there if you're not going to be the best one."

Devin helped with mop-up work on a 250-acre forest fire in the Nile Valley earlier this month. He helped battle other smaller blazes around the Yakima Valley.

Barbara Weaver said she was scared every time.

"I'm a mom. That's my job," she told her son after he made fun of her for being so fearful.

When the call came for Devin at 1 a.m. Monday telling him he was needed to fight a forest fire in Okanogan County, his mother rose with him.

"She packed him a double lunch," Ken Weaver said.

Another call came at 1:07 a.m. Wednesday, a time that is etched into Ken Weaver's mind.

"I remember the words 'He didn't make it,' " Ken Weaver said.

Then he paused.

"I still expect him to walk through the door."

Devin's parents, grandparents and his two sisters gathered at the family's two-story home in Yakima in the hours following the phone call.

Emotions ranged from denial and grief to remembrance and rage.

"Those rookies had no business being there," his mother said.

"If that is standard procedure, they need to check the manual," his father said.

They want an investigation. They want to know why Devin died and the assurance that no more of his colleagues will perish.

And they are grieving.

"He was the friend I was going to take to the grave with me," Ken Weaver said.

Yakima-Herald.com Jason Emhoff

Jason Emhoff

Jason Emhoff was the only member of his five-member firefighter crew that left the Chewuch River canyon alive Tuesday night. He is being treated in a Seattle hospital for burns over nearly a third of his body. When the 21-year-old Yakima man recovers, he will mourn his friends and remember the tragic moments of a job he cared deeply about.

"These were the people he worked with every day and on every fire," said his father, Steve Emhoff.

Jason, an Eagle Scout and longtime baseball player, was a squad leader with the wildlands fire group he worked with from March to the end of fire season in the fall.

"They trusted him," his father said. "They knew what he could do."

Years ago, the 1998 graduate of Eisenhower High School had started working in the forests for a private contractor. Last year, he began as a seasonal firefighter for the Naches Ranger District.

His father said his son knew the risks of his job. He knew about the deaths of 14 young firefighters in Colorado seven years ago. In fact, he had recently read a book about it.

"We had talked about it," Steve Emhoff said about the fatal tragedy. "He knew it was possible."

Reporters Jesse Hamiliton, Tom Roeder, Liz Daily and editor Mike Anderson contributed to this report.

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