Jeanine Brown of Aliso Viejo said she was inspired by the brave men and women who risk their lives every day on the fire lines, including her son who is a firefighter in Chula Vista. Hetty Chang reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2024
As well-wishes continue to pour in for the eight injured firefighters from the Airport fire, one Orange County artist thought to show her support through a meaningful painting, which she donated to the Orange County Fire Authority.
Jeanine Brown of Aliso Viejo said she was inspired by the brave men and women who risk their lives every day on the fire lines, including her son who is a firefighter in Chula Vista.
He was deployed to the Line Fire in San Bernardino County when he called his mother with an idea.
“’Mom, they’re lining the fences into camp with thank you posters,” Brown recalled of the conversation. “Could you maybe do something and bring it to your local fire, the Airport Fire?’”
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Brown did not hesitate and got to work, sitting on the floor of her home studio in Aliso Viejo, as the Airport Fire burned nearby.
“I paint from my heart,” said Brown.
Brown used pieces of a California map to create the words so that the hometowns of many of the firefighters on the Airport Fire were represented.
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“These guys and girls carry that strength,” said Brown. “And you do have to have a brave heart to go out there.”
Brown, a self-taught artist who has been painting most of her life, had arranged to bring her painting to the incident command post on Sept. 20. No one could have imagined that the night before, eight firefighters would be seriously injured in a rollover crash in Irvine coming back from the airport fire.
Brown’s painting happened to depict eight firefighters on the front lines.
“I told my husband 'Did you see on the news on the morning,'” Brown tearfully recalled. “We put the news on and saw the accident on the 241 involving 8 firefighters.”
For the next several days, family and friends of those injured firefighters, four who are still in the hospital in stable to critical condition, came by base camp to admire Brown’s painting. They signed messages of hope for their injured colleagues.
“More than the crisis you see – the firefighters getting injured, it’s the brotherhood and sisterhood of firefighters and emergency workers that surround them with love,” said Captain Larry Kurtz, with the Orange County Fire Authority. “Surround them with help… surround them with whatever they need, it’s something that is extraordinary.”
Brown said the outpouring of support and gratefulness has been overwhelming.
“I’ve heard from some of the moms and relatives of the firefighters and they are just overjoyed with this depiction, which was unintentional but came to light as this is what it was meant to do,” said Brown. “And I’m very touched.”
Brown is working with the OCFA to create prints of her painting to gift to each of the families of the injured firefighters.
“These men and women are heroes, they’re amazing,” she said. “So the painting, reaching out and touching the lives of the firefighters I think was just meant to be.”
The original painting, along with the messages of well wishes will soon be on display at the OCFA headquarters building in Irvine.
