The nine Oregon paramedics who traveled to Louisiana shortly after Hurricane Katrina did not set out to be heroes. Nor did they intend to make a penny. They just wanted to help.

Northwest Medical Teams called Lt. Scott Malone at Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue on Sept. 14. "A consulting firm contacted us and said they needed EMT paramedics," says Michael Wenrick, international team coordinator for Northwest Medical Teams.

Within a day Scott had nine volunteer paramedics from the Tualatin Valley unit willing to head south. The consulting firm, C. Henderson Consulting Inc., out of Texas, had contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Defense and the state of Louisiana to provide paramedics and ambulance service in affected areas. "They said they were going to pay these guys $480 a day," Michael says. "I said they'd do it for free, but I was sure they'd be happy with the money."

The paramedics and Northwest Medical Teams understood that Henderson was to provide food, water, shelter and equipment for the men.

They flew to Texas on Sept. 17, "where we were met by two teenagers who supposedly worked for GoldStar, an ambulance company," Scott says. "They drove us into Port Arthur, Texas. Right off the bat, we got indications things were a little screwy."

The teenagers shared that GoldStar, which was somehow affiliated with C. Henderson Consulting, was in turmoil. In fact, according to media reports, GoldStar EMS had filed for bankruptcy, had recently been raided by the FBI in connection with a fraud investigation and faced a tax lien of $1.3 million from the IRS.

When they arrived at GoldStar, the Oregon men found ambulances with almost no equipment. "Most were out of oxygen," Scott says. "I'd say 90 percent had no radios."

The Oregon men say they were nine of only about 15 paramedics in a group of about 100 people who signed contracts that day. They say they were told they'd be paid $480 a day.

"There was no question we were considered employees as opposed to volunteers," says Neale Brown, also with the Tualatin Valley squad.

But for the next three days, their skills were wasted.

"We were assigned to the 82nd Airborne," Neale says. "They had no mission at that point. They were cleaning storm sewers. . . . It was strange, two military trucks followed by 16 ambulances, cleaning out gutters."

"We realized quickly we were on our own," Scott says, "because Henderson did not have their stuff squared away." The Oregon paramedics say Henderson had supplied one military tent for about 100 people to share. Most slept on cots outdoors; a few drove 60 miles and bought small tents. They begged food from the military. They were running low on water. "And we never had maps," Scott says. "I can't tell you how important maps are, to get anything done."

And then the storm track for Hurricane Rita changed. It looked like the Gulf Coast would again be hit.

The Louisiana Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge asked for a task force to go immediately to evacuate Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. "Henderson's lead guy in camp picked us specifically," Scott says, "and a firefighting contingent from Shreveport."

They left with about 16 ambulances, Scott says. "When we checked in at Baton Rouge, we were told by the Emergency Operations Center that we were now under their command."

"They were under Louisiana EOC control" from that point on, agrees Chief Don McMullen, the incident commander at the emergency center in the weeks after Hurricane Rita.

The emergency center sent the group to Port Arthur. Buton the way, Scott says, Chuck Henderson of Henderson Consulting began calling the men on their cell phones. "He's flying off the handle," Scott says. "Lots of expletives, saying, 'What are you doing with my ambulances?' He ordered us to stay put. The EOC had given us a real sense of urgency . . . but we waited. He arrived 30 minutes later, yelling and screaming."

The men say they explained to Henderson that they were following orders from the emergency center. Henderson said they should take orders from him.

Don McMullen disagrees. "They were under contract to us," he says. "The private owner cannot determine what he wants them to do. In fact, the owner is answerable to us, too. He didn't think he was, though."

In the next few days, as Rita approached, the Oregon men evacuated hundreds from nursing homes and hospitals, performed rescues and gave medical aid to dying and injured people in Port Arthur.

The hurricane was just hours away when the men finally left Port Arthur. Some of the 16 ambulances had broken down. Some were sheltered in Beaumont with other emergency vehicles. Some, on Henderson's orders, the paramedics say, had been driven elsewhere by non-Oregon workers, abandoning the Northwest group. In the end, seven men crowded into one remaining ambulance and drove to Baton Rouge in heavy wind.

Henderson had become so frustrated that the Oregon men were not following his orders that he had called military and police authorities and claimed they'd stolen his ambulances.

Last week, Richard Bell, attorney and principal in C. Henderson Consulting, made the claim again, by phone. "They commandeered our ambulances and stole them for four days," Richard said. "It cost us over $90,000 in billing to the government, and they probably hurt some people because they didn't respond to our orders to come back. They decided to do their own thing."

Actually, according to information obtained by Sen. Ron Wyden's office from FEMA, C. Henderson Consulting has been paid more than $7.5 million "and they expect to see additional invoices, possibly up to the full amount of the contracts," which totaled more than $12.5 million, says Geoff Stuckart, a Wyden spokesman.

If Henderson is paid the full amount, it will be for providing approximately 60 ambulances and between 100 and 120 workers for several weeks. And that's just the FEMA contracts.

The Oregon and Shreveport men quit Henderson's employ as soon as they got back to Baton Rouge. (Henderson Consulting says they were fired.)

As volunteers, they then rented vehicles, bought their own chain saws and worked for days to open roads and help victims of Hurricane Rita. "I can't say enough good things about them," says Don McMullen. "They were outstanding."

Now, the Oregon paramedics have received 1099 tax forms saying they were paid, even though they have never gotten a penny from Henderson.

"We did not pay these guys for days they worked," Richard Bell of Henderson Consulting admits, "because their actions cost us a lot of money."

The Oregon men weren't going to protest the lack of pay --after all, they'd been willing to go as volunteers --until they got the 1099 forms. Now they want the world to know what happened.

Richard Bell says the Oregon paramedics are "bad people."

Chief Don McMullen says they are "outstanding professionals, incredible heroes."

And Geoff Stuckart says Wyden's office is conducting an investigation. "This may be how they do things in Texas," he says, "but we don't treat firefighters that way in Oregon."