Missing firefighter left note in truck

OAKRIDGE — A 32-year-old missing wildland firefighter left a note in his pickup truck that authorities say was not a suicide note, but indicated that he was despondent.

“We’re still working on it. We’re still actively searching,” Lane County Search and Rescue Coordinator John Miller said Friday.

Steven Dickerson, 32, was last heard from about 5:45 a.m. Wednesday when he spoke with his crew boss by phone, Willamette National Forest spokeswoman Judith McHugh said.

Dickerson’s red pickup truck was found about noon Thursday on a remote Forest Service road northeast of Oakridge, Miller said.

He was supposed to meet a group of other local firefighters early Wednesday morning to catch a ride to Redmond, and then take a flight to New Mexico to help battle record wildfires raging there.

“We really don’t know where he went,” Miller said. “The truck did have a note inside. It basically states that he was despondent. I won’t say that it was a suicide note, because it wasn’t.”

Searchers found shoe prints in the mud around his truck, and followed them for about 1½ miles before they ended, Miller said. There were no signs of foul play found in his truck, he said.

Nine law enforcement personnel from four agencies — the Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Police, Lane County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Forest Service — were still searching Friday afternoon.

Dickerson is single, but his parents, Chuck and Nancy Dickerson, live in Oakridge. They did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

“They’re a wonderful family,” Miller said. “They’ve got lots of support from the Oakridge area.”

Dickerson has been a seasonal firefighter based out of the Willamette National Forest’s Middle Fork Ranger Station for seven or eight years, McHugh said.