California firefighters plead for assistance
State strapped for resources as it battles more than two dozen major blazes
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — More than two dozen major fires sparked by a lightning siege that dropped nearly 11,000 strikes over several days were scorching California on Thursday and taxing the state’s firefighting capacity.
The fires have destroyed 175 structures, including homes, and are threatening 50,000 more, said Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Five people have died, and 33 civilians and firefighters have been injured.
Most of the activity is in Northern California, where fires have moved through about 500 square miles of brushland, rural areas, canyon country and dense forest surrounding San Francisco.
A Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker assisting with advance clearing died in a fire in the Vacaville, Calif., area between San Francisco and Sacramento. The worker was found in a vehicle Wednesday and CPR was performed, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital, Cal Fire said.
In central California, a pilot on a water-dropping mission in western Fresno County died Wednesday when his helicopter crashed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who pulled out of speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, said California received a federal grant to reimburse some of its firefighting costs.
Travis Air Force Base ordered nonessential personnel to evacuate. Residents in nearby Vacaville, a city of 100,000, were roused before dawn Wednesday by an order to flee.
More than 10,000 firefighters are on the front lines, but fire officials in charge of each of the major fire complexes say they are strapped for resources. Some firefighters were working 72-hour shifts instead of the usual 24 hours. The state has requested 375 engines and crew members from other states.
“That’s going to allow our firefighters that have have been on the front line since this weekend to have an opportunity to take some rest,” Berlant said.
In Marin County, just north of San Francisco, where a smaller fire is burning near the Pacific Ocean, county fire chief Jason Weber said he is waiting for assistance from Montana to arrive this weekend.
He said in his 25 years in fire service, “we’ve never seen this level of draw-down” from cooperating agencies, as there is heavy competition in the western United States for equipment and people.
In the coastal mountain regions south of San Francisco, where 26,000 people were under orders to evacuate, the CZU complex fire grew overnight to 62 square miles. Officials warned it had the potential to grow significantly in the next day.
Given depleted resources, one of the best tools firefighters have for public safety is to get people out of harm’s way. But some people refused when officers went door-to-door Wednesday night, Cal Fire Chief Mark Brunton said.
“With the resources that we are lacking, we ask you to help us do our jobs and to keep the public safe,” he said.
Kevin Stover, 42, was struggling with indecision early Thursday when a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the rugged small town of Felton outside the beach city of Santa Cruz.
“I don’t want to leave,” said Stover, a camera operator and rigger now driving for Door Dash and Lyft because of the pandemic. His car, loaded with important papers, his father’s urn and some arrowheads that meant a lot to him, had a flat tire.
“I’m trying to figure out if I should cut these original oil paintings out of the frame to salvage them,” he said.
The unusually large size and number of simultaneous fires, other fires throughout the West and the loss of inmate firefighting crews because inmates were released from prisons to prevent the spread of coronavirus, have created a crisis for firefighting.
“Our agency is taxed to the limit,” said Incident Commander Mike Smith at the fire near Santa Cruz. Officials there are awaiting help from other states, but they are having to look further afield than usual, meaning it will take days for crews to arrive, he said.
The U.S. Forest Service can’t help because it is busy fighting fires on federal lands.
“This is a very dangerous fire. The probability of an ember igniting something is 100 percent, which is very high. Embers are traveling as far as a mile and igniting trees and brush,” Smith said.