Matthew Gerzin had a very atypical homecoming.
The Ely native returned to town last week, but unlike other high school graduates who had moved away, he didn’t come back just to renew old acquaintances, visit with family, or take a look at his old stomping grounds.
Indeed, he came back to help save them.
The 26-year-old Gerzin is one of nearly 800 personnel battling the wildfires in the Ely area and within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Gerzin is in his ninth season as a firefighter and was dispatched to Ely as part of the Pioneer Pike Interagency Hot Shot Crew.
On Thursday morning, Gerzin was ahead of his crew, scouring fire lines near Whispering Pines on the Echo Trail.
The return home has been a surreal experience for Gerzin, who has deep Ely family roots.
“It’s a whole lot of things,” Gerzin said of his experience. “I look at it as kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To be home fighting a fire, it’s like ‘holy.’” Gerzin is stationed each summer in Palmer, Alaska, and that’s where he has spent the bulk of the fire season, attacking fires in that state.
But earlier in the month, his team was dispatched to Boise, Idaho.
“We flew down to Boise, and it’s called a large fire resource order,” said Gerzin. “It’s a big fire cache, a hub, and they send you to fires with the highest priority. It just happened to be when this fire blew up.”
Last weekend, Gerzin arrived in town with his team, and the son of Louis Gerzin and Dawn Anderson received a hero’s welcome of sorts., with welcoming signs outside of town and a mini-family reunion.
“I got a huge welcome home when we were en route to the fire,” said Gerzin. “My superintendent let me get 10 minutes because we were on our way to the fire. There was all sorts of family. My grandmas were there, all the kids.”
Anderson added that roughly 25 family members were present and said, “We were super excited. I don’t get the chance to see him in the summer, so we were super proud to have him down, and then just the support we’ve received from family and friends. I’ve had at least six or seven people ask what they can do.”
Since then, Gerzin has spent his days in the woods fighting the fire while his crew has stayed at a family farm down Highway 21.
In addition to familiar territory, he’s found some similarities and differences while fighting the fires here.
“This fire itself for us, is pretty calm for us,” he said. “We’ll go to northern California and build defensive areas around homes. I’ve seen homes burn down. I’ve seen fire activity like that.”
Instead, Gerzin and his crew are navigating the forest.
“What’s crazy about being home is I’m standing in the tundra,” he said. “It’s boreal forest and it’s the same fuel type in Alaska, but for our sawyers it’s a weird transition seeing tundra then rock under it.”
Gerzin is working 14-to-16 hour days, so there has been little time to reconnect with family and friends.
His mom was hoping for some time Thursday evening “if I can stay up late enough,” she joked.
It’s not clear how long Gerzin will stay.
“Since we’re a hot shot crew, we could bounce at any moment,” he said. “It’s usually like a two or threeweek assignment.”
Then it will be on to the next fire for Gerzin, who took up firefighting upon graduating from high school without looking back.
“I’d say it’s something along the lines of when you’re playing football and hockey, you’re part of a team, and I think after that not everybody gets to keep that going in adult life,” said Gerzin. “It’s just the brotherhood is what gets it to me.
