Sheehy featured in firefighter documentary
A new documentary, “Warriors of the West,” produced by Coors Banquet, the Wildland Firefighters Foundation and UPROXX in support of wildland firefighters, will be screened in a special invitation-only event at the Cascade Theatre in Redding. 1735 Market St., from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 11.
For an RSVP invitation, go to eventbrite.com/e/warriors-of-the-west-screening-presented-by-coors-banquet-and-uproxx-registration-63339007677.
The story of Luke Sheehy, a wildland firefighter smokejumper from Susanville who lost his life in 2013, plays a large role in the documentary.
Doug Sheehy, Luke’s father, said the entire documentary is about 35 minutes long, and the portion highlighting his son is about 7 minutes long.
“It’s wonderfully done, very professional,” Sheehy said. “It’s really cool. The Cascade Theatre is downtown, and it’s a primo venue.”
Sheehy said the primary function of the documentary is to raise public awareness of wildland firefighting. The documentary explores the unsung wildland firefighting community through the eyes of the WFF and the firefighters themselves.
“Most people when they think of wildland firefighters think of a red truck and structure duty,” Sheehy said, “but this is a documentary about wildland firefighting” hand crews in support of the Wildland Firefighters Foundation that has been very supportive of the Sheehy family since Luke Sheehy’s death.
He said Coors Banquet contributed $1.5 million dollars to the WFF, and it’s part of their campaign to protect the west.
“They’re the ones who commissioned the documentary,” Sheehy said of Coors Banquet. “It’s all free, and they’ll supply all the food and beverages, and then there’s the documentary with a Q and A period afterwards.”
It’s fitting that the documentary should feature Sheehy.
“Luke was a big supporter of the WFF,” Sheehy said. “He had patches on his uniform, his helmet and his Harley vest because they’ve got our back in so many ways.”