Baby Yoda travels with firefighters as they battle massive western blazes

In a time of fear and destruction, the kindness of a child has once more brought some light into the world.

In Scappoose, Oregon, 5-year-old Carver told his grandmother Sasha Tinning that he wanted to do something to help the firefighters.

The two went to the store to gather supplies for a local donation drive for firefighters in Molalla and Colton, Oregon, and a toy caught Carver's eye.

Alone on the shelf sat The Child, a well-known character from the Star Wars Disney+ original series The Mandalorian. The Child is also referred to by fans as "Baby Yoda" since the character belongs to the same alien species as the Jedi Master. The doll was packaged in a cardboard pod akin to the floating cradle that carried the character throughout the series.

(Facebook/BabyYodaFightsFires)

"He was the last one on the shelf, just staring at us saying, 'Take me with you! I need go with you.' So that's kind of how it started," Tinning told Fox 12.

However, Carver decided not to take Baby Yoda home but instead to give him to someone else.

Tyler Eubanks, who was running the donation booth, took in Baby Yoda at the donation drive and in turn brought the toy to firefighters. The crews took to it immediately, taking photos of Baby Yoda in firefighting gear as they battled the wildfires in the West. Some of his outfits ranged from an American flag bandana to a department's T-shirt -- and one photo showed a crew treating him to chicken nuggets.

"These firefighters are putting their lives on the line," Tinning told CNN. "To have a little bit of sunshine during such a dark time, I think that's really special for them. He (Baby Yoda) is also just cute as the dickens."

Eubanks now runs a Facebook page that documents Baby Yoda's travels, sharing these photos, news stories and smiles the toy has brought.

A note from the 5-year-old also travels with the toy. It reads: "Thank you Fire Fighters. Here is a friend for you in case you get lonely. Love, Carver."

"The note travels with Baby Yoda, and it goes from fire to fire," Oregon Department of Forestry Biomass Resource Specialist Marcus Kauffman told The Register-Guard. "So we just pass it around, you know. Baby Yoda is the source of light in the Force, in the world."

Oregon Department of Forestry's Adam Meyer stands with The Child on his shoulder reviewing the fire status. (Facebook/Adam Meyer)

For about a week, the Baby Yoda traveled around a camp where Adam Meyer was planning with the Oregon Department of Forestry's (ODF) Team Three, which focused on the Holiday Farm Fire, east of Eugene, Oregon. The team had arrived at the site at the beginning of the fire and has been there for the past three weeks.

One of the things Meyer appreciated about the doll was that once the photos were posted online, it helped to show the different moving parts of the fire program.

"I think a lot of people, when they think of the work that we do, they think of somebody out on the fire line, digging trench or something like that," Meyer told AccuWeather in an interview.

Although there are people who do that, Meyer pointed out there were also people behind the scenes working on finances, logistics and operations, planning and other personnel who aren't necessarily present at the fire line.

"For us, it was kind of fun to see that the world was, through this Yoda figure, was able to see a lot of the work that we were doing."

But the Baby Yoda doll also represents to them a fictional world parallel as to what the fire personnel do in the real world, Meyer said.

On Sept. 30, Meyer spent the morning debriefing and preparing for his team to close out. In that time, he listened to stories of "true heroes" who had been out on the line fighting the Holiday Fire that lost their homes or missed major family events such as seeing their kids going to college or a family member facing a medical condition. Meyer's own father suffered a heart attack while he was on site.

"They've had challenges of all types, and there are a lot of people out here who are, like this mythical Yoda, who are really true leaders and heroes and it kind of was a neat representation of that moving its way around," Meyer said.

He added that there had been some people who had been fighting fires "almost constantly" for seven or eight weeks without being home, sleeping in tents and fighting 16 hours a day.

"There's a lot of people doing some amazing stuff," Meyer said.

While the attention of the public has seemed to latch onto the doll and the donor, Meyer expressed that he didn't feel it distracted the public from what fire personnel were facing.

"It helps to bring sort of a perspective to an issue that is truly important," Meyer said. "That these wildfires are getting a lot worse, that climate change is happening ... for Oregon, we haven't had a wildfire season like this ever before and this fire that we were working on was the third-largest in Oregon."

(Facebook/BabyYodaFightsFires)

The Holiday Farm Fire was over 173,000 acres, as of Oct. 1, and 67% contained, according to InciWeb. By Oct. 12, containment reached 96%. The perimeter, Meyer added, stretched more than 270 miles, and this fire was the largest fire that ODF had been managing in its history.

"I got messages after I posted a photo with Yoda from people, friends that I have in Europe, around the world, who were following the story," Meyer said. "So it's pretty neat to get that sort of attention on issues that are really important and through such a sort of entertaining figure like Yoda."

Seeing the doll around the camp brought a few smiles, serving as a reminder of support from the communities fire personell aim to protect.

"We all come out here in order to serve our community and be there for our community, and it's nice to see that people in the community, even little, you know, young kids who aren't maybe realizing the full impact of what they're doing are there to support us as well," Meyer said.

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