![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-Harris-Fire-2007-UTI1210255.jpg\")
On Oct. 21, 2007, on the first day of the Harris fire and not far from Dulzura, the night glows from the flames. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nWhen Kari Thompson was 15, she went to a career fair at her high school thinking she might want to become a paramedic. Then a firefighter at a neighboring table talked up the fire service. She liked that it was physically challenging and largely outdoors.<\/p>\n
Thompson learned more about the profession when she joined a fire Explorer program in Riverside County, and took EMT and fire science classes at a community college after graduating high school early.<\/p>\n
At 18, she was hired by Cal Fire, then known as the California Department of Forestry.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther than the small time that I spent working at McDonald\u2019s when I was in high school to pay my car insurance, this is the only job I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Next month, she\u2019s retiring after 31 years, all of it in the San Diego region. She is the only Cal Fire female battalion chief and the agency\u2019s highest-ranking female firefighter in the county.<\/p>\n
There were few women in the profession when Thompson was hired, and that\u2019s still the case. Of the roughly 1,000 Cal Fire firefighters in San Diego County today, only 20 of them are women.<\/p>\n
While newer stations typically provide each firefighter with a separate bedroom, crews back then often bunked in open barracks with little privacy. Some of Thompson\u2019s male coworkers were \u201cstandoffish\u201d at her arrival, and she remembers one older firefighter who asked her not to answer the fire station phone because he didn\u2019t want to explain her presence to his wife.<\/p>\n
Thompson worked hard and turned critics around. \u201cOnce they saw that I could do the job, they were super accepting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Thompson said she is one of three women in the process of retiring from Cal Fire, including two captains. She thinks her female coworkers should see the retirements as encouraging. \u201cIt shows the younger ones that you really can have a long-lasting, successful career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A family of first responders<\/p>\n
Thompson grew up in Riverside County in a family of first responders. Her stepfather was a sheriff\u2019s sergeant, and her brother and sister each went into law enforcement. She is married to a retired Cal Fire firefighter, and her 18-year-old son is eyeing a fire service career after college.<\/p>\n
Over the years, she fought hundreds of fires and was deployed all around the state. Only the Harris fire in 2007, a deadly blaze that charred 90,000 acres and lasted more than two weeks, left her grappling with questions long after it was out.<\/p>\n
Thompson, then a captain, was the first engine on scene when the fire started around a mile from the Potrero fire station. Winds that October morning were fierce.<\/p>\n
At first, Thompson\u2019s crew didn\u2019t see any smoke because the wind was blowing so hard the fire was pushed low to the ground, she said. When her crew finally did see a few wisps, Thompson figured out where the fire was located, cut a hole in a fence and drove her fire engine down a dirt road.<\/p>\n
The fire was still small then.<\/p>\n
Making a decision that she still weighs, she stopped and backed up the engine. She didn\u2019t know if there was space along the road for her to turn around if they got into trouble. She worried the engine would be stuck on the road if flames suddenly roared toward them.<\/p>\n
Strong Santa Ana winds were pushing the fire to the west, carrying embers up to a mile away, sparking new spot fires. Soon, the blaze was out of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind just took it,\u201d Thompson recalled in an interview outside the Ramona station, one of many she oversees. \u201cAnd I, for years, second-guessed decisions that I made that morning\u2026 I made the decision because I had three people that I\u2019m responsible for. I backed out and decided, \u2018Nope, we\u2019re not gonna catch this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Oct. 21, 2007, on the first day of the Harris fire and not far from Dulzura, the night glows from the flames. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Her memory of that day remains sharply in focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was 18 years ago. And I remember everywhere I was that day like it was yesterday,\u201d she said. \u201cI still remember the incident number. I still remember what time we were dispatched, what I was doing when we were dispatched\u2026 I really wish I could just get rid of that one, but that one, I think, is just stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n