Age: 23
Last Call: 9/12/2004

Firefighter Schicke was a member of an elite 9 person helitack team. The team was called to fight the beginning stages of the Tuolumne Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest. When the team arrived aboard their helicopter, 7 members of the team were dropped off, and 2 members remained with the helicopter to begin water drops.Firefighters established safety zones and began their descent into a steep canyon. The fire was moving up the canyon away from them and had displayed mild behavior at this point in the incident. While the crew was working, a wind shift blew the fire toward the crew.

With only moments to react due to the speed of the fire, firefighters were forced to run to their safety zones. Firefighter Schicke and another firefighter attempted to run uphill to the roadside safety zone. The first firefighter made it to safety; the fire overran Firefighter Schicke before she could reach the safety of the road.The cause of death for Firefighter Schicke was smoke inhalation. Firefighter Schicke was the first female CDF firefighter to be killed in the line of duty.

Eva planned to resign from firefighting because she thought the work hours would interfere with being a wife and a mother. She had just enrolled in nursing school at Modesto Community College a few short weeks before her untimely death. Her professional goal was to be a flight nurse.

Eva had worked for CDF for four years. She had been recruited to the Helitack team in the summer of 2003. She was respected among her peers for her firefighting skills. During down time‚ Eva always tried to sucker in her co-workers to a game of basketball or volleyball. She was quick-witted and very funny.