QUEST FOR FIRE(FIGHTERS)

June 7, 2000 12 AM PT

Amber Willard

GLENDALE -- Fire engines with lights flashing are not an unusual sight

in the city. But a slow-moving caravan of engines and trucks, led by

Glendale Police and Californian Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles,

drew attention from pedestrians and motorists Tuesday as it cruised

through town.

The trucks weren’t headed to a fire or a parade -- they were raising

money for Firefighters Quest for Burn Survivors.

The nonprofit group was created in 1996 by area firefighters to help

colleagues who were badly burned by Malibu wildfires. Since then, it has

grown to help other burn survivors and their families both financially

and emotionally.

“One-hundred percent of what we get, every last penny, goes to burn

survivors,” said Glendale Fire Capt. Thomas Marchant, one of the

organizers of the weeklong rally.

The caravan, called Quest Rally, is the group’s biggest fund-raiser,

with 65 fire and law enforcement officials traveling the state

relay-style. Volunteers pass dignitaries like former weatherman Dr.

George Fishbeck instead of batons and make designated stops to pick up

donations.

Led by Glendale fire engines, the group arrived at the Glendale Police

Department to accept $1,000 from the officers foundation and posed for

pictures with City Council members and police officials. They then

collected more than $4,000 from various groups at Station 21.

By the end of the day, they were approaching the $30,000 mark, with

three days still to come. Last year, the rally raised $40,000, Marchant

said.

Traveling with Quest was Chad Dillon, who received burns to more than

half of his body in a November airplane crash. The 27-year-old Dillon,

who grew up in Chatsworth, returned home from Washington, D.C., for

treatment at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks. The center is one

of Quest’s beneficiaries.

In a survivors support group, he met Bill Jensen, a Glendale

firefighter who was burned in the Malibu fires.

“I went (on the rally) all four years,” Jensen said. “My heart needed

to go.”

The rally started Monday in Santa Maria and traveled south through

Santa Barbara before picking up Tuesday in Pasadena. The group will

journey into San Bernardino County before ending Friday in Orange County.

For information, or to make a donation, call 548-3311 or visit