My name is Jessi Langston and I am the current active EMT on the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company, currently serving my third year. I am honored to have the privilege to speak about Nancy Peregrine today.
I would like start by reading a quote from Nancy describing Whale Gulch and the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company for a grant she started writing in 2019. Sandy and I were able to take what she wrote and finish the grant to purchase a slide on unit for our side by side used for difficult to access emergencies.
Jessi Langston (Photo Credit: Douglas Fir)
“My community of Whale Gulch is perched above the Pacific Ocean, spanning altitudes between 500-2200 feet above sea level in a remote mountainous area of Northern California known as the “Lost Coast”. The Land surrounding us is also mainly heavily forested wildlands including Sinkyone Wilderness State Park to the South and Chemise Mountain Wilderness Area to the North with a vast amount of these areas largely inaccessible by regular vehicle. Also the access road, which runs through the heart of our community, is a narrow single lane that suffers slip outs, slides and sheer drop offs and is not a high priority for county maintenance.
Whale Gulch is at risk of both wildfire and the need for emergency medical services in these isolated, challenging and inaccessible areas. In 1973 ,the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company was conceived out of the ashes, so to speak, from our local Finley Creek Mega-fire. At this time I took the first steps to establish our company by requesting training from the CDF (now CalFire) and It turned out they were more than willing to do trainings with our then raggle–taggle band of volunteers. The perseverance and dedication of our firefighters to do their best is commendable.”
She got her EMT Certification in 1980 inspired by her many lama trips. She did it because she saw a need. She did it because of love. Nancy Peregrine was the chief on and off multiple times throughout her service with the WGVFC and she mentored many other volunteers and encouraged others to be the chief with her continued support. She nurtured that love and it grew.
We now currently have a firehouse, 2 type 3 Engines, 1 type 6 Engine, and a Side by Side. We have 15 volunteers 9 of which are certifying and recertifying for medical aid this very weekend and a handful of us who have taken up the many responsibilities that Nancy Peregrine held to sustain our fire company and support our community. Nancy participated in making decisions in the Fire Company until she could not. I want to thank Shelter Cove Fire, Whitethorn Fire, CalFire, Southern Humboldt Tech Rescue, and Briceland Fire for reaching out and showing up for us. You have helped us feel supported while we are grieving and transitioning. Finally, thank you to Jessica and Anna for sharing your mom with Whale Gulch for all of these years. She was always there. When we needed her the most. She was there for us when we were at our worst. A whole community of us.
Nancy taught us so much by walking her talk. She taught us what shape love can take. Love means saying uncomfortable things in compassionate ways. Love means showing up. Love means having your vehicle stocked with emergency supplies. Love means helping someone in an emergency in the middle of a winter night storm when everyone else is sleeping. Love means going to trainings at night and on your days off. Love means being okay with not being liked. Love means accepting your humanness. Love means paying attention to the details. Love means doing what is needed. Love means being involved and being accessible. Love is picking up the torch and carrying on trusting that we are guided by love. The Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company is held together by love. The love that Nancy Peregrine ignited in us keeps her close in our hearts. We honor Nancy by continuing this work and know that she stands beside us in nurturing ourselves first so that we may continue to nurture Whale Gulch.
I would like to finish with a quote from Nancy from an Interview she did for the New Settler in 1994 entitled, Nancy Peregrine, Wondrous Woman of Whale Gulch: fighting wildland fires, homestead alchemy, and local herbs: “We’ve all heard that we need to know ourselves, and we also know about needing to love ourselves, but learning how to heal ourselves means we have to understand all our organs and the functions of our body, which are our vehicles on this planet, and we have to learn how to keep them in balance. And once we learn how to heal ourselves, we have something to share with other people in those realms, because all of us are always struggling with being in balance or out of balance.”
Tributes to Nancy 