Tucson man continued to follow his passion despite a fire at Grande Hot Springs RV Resort seven years ago

LA GRANDE — Jerry Pillarelli, a professional photographer pursuing a dream of visiting all of the United States’ national parks, is somber as he stands on the lawn of Grande Hot Springs RV Resort at 3:30 a.m. on May 27, 2017.

Pillarelli fears that an inferno in front of him will do what a cancer diagnosis in 2015 did not — derail his life.

Pillarelli, who is traveling alone, is watching a fire engulf his motor home, one he escaped from 20 minutes earlier.

“Almost everything I owned was inside," Pillarelli said, while reflecting on the fire seven years later.

Pillarelli said that watching his RV burn was an out-of-body experience.

“I thought, ‘Is this really happening?'" he said. “It was unreal, something that happens to someone else, something you see on the news," said the Tucson, Arizona, resident who lives in an RV year-round.

The blaze was extinguished by a crew from the La Grande Rural Fire Department before the fire could damage nearby RVs, but Pillarelli’s was a total loss. Larry Wooldridge, then chief of the La Grande Rural Fire Department, said at the time that a smoke alarm that awoke Pillarelli likely saved his life. Pillarelli agrees that the smoke alarm and its ear-piercing wake-up call saved him.

“News flash. It did," Pillarelli writes in his new book, “Spectacular in a Losing Effort — A Travel Memoir," a 299-page work in which he discusses the Grande Hot Springs RV Park fire, his battle with prostate cancer, his work as a sports photographer for the University of Arizona and Georgia Tech University, and his visits to all 63 of the U.S. national parks.

Sobering news

Pillarelli learned that he had prostate cancer after a series of tests that were ordered by his doctor following his annual exam.

The process of being diagnosed and treated had its share of pain and discomfort. Early on, Pillarelli collapsed at his residence a few hours after a biopsy, possibly because the biopsy caused blood loss.

With the help of radiation therapy and a radioactive seed implant procedure, he recovered. His prostate cancer was far from a death sentence, because it was caught early and is a slow-growing cancer — still, he emerged from the experience a different person.

“I was finally facing my own mortality," Pillarelli said. “Ultimately, this was a life-changing experience. I was rethinking everything."

A sense of urgency took hold of Pillarelli, who decided not to wait until he was 66 to retire and pursue his dream of touring all of the national parks.

He realized there was no guarantee that he would be able to do what he wanted to in the future.

“What if it’s too late? You won’t know until you get there and then it may be too late to do anything about it," he said.

Pillarelli thus began his park tour in 2016, visiting the Virgin Islands National Park, a 1,600-mile flight from Atlanta, where he then lived. Next, he went to Alaska, which has eight national parks, only three that can be driven to. The others he got to by plane or boat.

Pillarelli had visited 54 parks by the time he stopped at Grande Hot Springs RV Park. He had planned to spend one night there before continuing on to Yosemite National Park in California. Then the fire hit. Fire officials believe the blaze was caused by the refrigerator in Pillarelli’s motor home.

The RV's propane tank was full when the fire started, which turned out to be a blessing. Pillarelli said firefighters told him a propane tank that is not filled has vapors that can ignite, causing an explosion that can send metal shrapnel flying.

Pillarelli also said he was fortunate the RVs at Grande Hot Springs were 30-35 feet apart, so they were protected from the flames of his burning motor home.

He said had this happened in a park he had stayed in a few nights earlier, where RVs were packed so tightly one could stand between them and touch both, five or six RVs may have burned.

Initially, Pillarelli thought it would take him a year to get back on his national park tour. In the end, though, he needed only about a month.

"I had the mindset that I was just going to get it done," he said.

A milestone in his comeback was reached in late June 2017 when he was able to purchase a 2008 RV with money from his insurance company.

Pillarelli did not need funding for a new car because his Subaru, which he pulled with his RV, narrowly escaped the fire.

He said he was urged to drive the Subaru to safety by someone at Grande Hot Springs Resort, one of many people who helped him land on his feet. Those he credits also include La Grande Police officers, volunteers with the American Red Cross, emergency medical technicians and the La Grande Rural Fire Department.

“So many people did everything they could to help," he said.

Achieving a goal twice

Pillarelli resumed his national park tour about six weeks after the fire. He concluded it at Isle Royale National Park near Lake Superior in Michigan. This was the last of the then 59 national parks he visited.

Pillarelli then found that his achievement was fleeting because Congress, less than a year after he reached his goal, created Gateway Arch National Park in 2018, followed by Indiana Dunes National Park and White Sands National Park in 2019 and New River Gorge National Park in 2020. This boosted the new total to 63.

Pillarelli visited the four new parks in 2021 and 2022, putting himself among those who had met the new standard.

“I captured No. 63 in 2022," Pillarelli said in his book, "and once again all was right with the world."