Second Imperial Valley strike team now battling Mendocino Complex Fires
UKIAH — A second strike team from Imperial Valley has arrived to help battle the largest pair of wildfires in California history. The team, consisting of about 17 firefighters from various agencies in Imperial County, arrived at the Mendocino Complex Fires on Wednesday, relieving another local strike team that had been on scene for about a week.
“We are assigned to a division and our primary objective is to contain the fire,” Ken Herbert, El Centro Fire Department chief and strike team leader, told Imperial Valley Press over the phone Thursday from the front lines. The team had a rest day on Friday, and is back in the maelstrom today.
The Imperial Valley Strike Team on Thursday was battling the Ranch Fire near the city of Ukiah, the seat of Mendocino County.
“We’ve got some areas of hillside up to 4,000 feet [near us], Herbert said. “Our division [extends] over about a 5-linear-mile front. Today, so far, we have just been actively putting out hot spots to keep it from going from areas of burn to unburned.”
As of Friday, the Mendocino Complex fires had burned about 307,447 acres and were about 60 percent contained, according to the InciWeb Incident Information System. There are two separate fires blazing currently, the so-called River Fire and the larger Ranch Fire to its north. The fires began July 27. The cause of the fires currently is under investigation.
The River Fire is located northeast of the community of Hopland, and the Ranch Fire is located northeast of Ukiah, in Lake County and Mendocino County. The Ranch Fire is actively burning in the Mendocino National Forest north of Clearlake.
About 229 structures have been destroyed in the fires, but no fatalities had been reported as of press time Friday. Full containment of the fires is not expected until at least Sept. 1, according to InciWeb.
On Thursday, Herbert’s strike team was assigned to patrol the flank of the fire and to make efforts to prevent it from spreading further, Herbert said.
“If we notice smoke in an area, we will go investigate that,” he said. “Today we’ve had to use a chain saw to take out part of a tree that was blocking a road so we could even gain access. We worked some hotspots. There is a lot of hand-tool work involved in that, as well as hose-line and chainsaw work. It gets pretty demanding, but the good news is that our guys are used to the climate.”
First strike team returned home Thursday
The original Imperial Valley Strike Team, consisting of about 22 firefighters, arrived home Thursday after a grueling two weeks battling two separate wildfires, Alex Silva, chief of the Holtville Fire Department and strike team leader, said over the phone while traveling home with the group.
“The whole Imperial Valley contingency, they all worked together great,” he said. “They all watched each other’s back, and, at this time, we are all coming home safely.”
Silva and his team were looking forward to coming home.
“We are very tired,” he said. “Very, very tired.”
Silva’s team worked 24hour shifts every other day while on assignment, the same as Herbert’s strike team now. The off-days are spent resupplying and fixing equipment.
Silva’s team spent about six days on scene at the Cranston Fire, which had burned about 13,139 acres and was about 96 percent contained as of Friday, according to InciWeb. His team was demobilized from the Cranston Fire and moved north to the Mendocino Complex Fires at the beginning of August. Their last day on the front lines of the Mendocino Complex Fires was Wednesday when they were relieved by Herbert’s group.
Silva expressed disappointment that the blaze has grown so large. Earlier this week, the conflagration surpassed the Thomas Fire as the largest in state history. That fire burned through more than 281,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in late 2017.
“To us, it was a little bit disappointing because there are a lot of people doing a lot of hard work, and we didn’t see any good containment,” Silva said. “The fire just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. That is due to low humidity, the [availability of] fuel, the topography. The conditions were ripe for a big burn.”
The strike team, and all the other firefighters on the frontlines, have been and are doing their best, Silva said.
The strategy has included the use of back-burning, a process through which firefighters set controlled fires to eliminate the fuel in the path of a wildfire using “driptorches” — hand-held fuel canisters with a burning wick used to deposit flaming fuel onto specific patches of earth as needed.
“We did what they call fire operations, and we were actually putting flames on the ground with the wind to our backs, so it was going towards the fire, and that burns out the fuel there so when the [fire] starts coming towards it, it will die out when it gets to the burnt-out area,” Silva said.
Setting fires to prevent fires is a complex and dangerous task, he said.
“The biggest considerations you’ve got are wind [direction] — it has to be at your back — and the relative humidity,” Silva said. “If it is too low it will burn too fast.”
Additionally, fires are not intentionally set in areas where a large amount of brush or vegetation are present.
“You don’t want to have huge fuel that is going to have high flames and jump over the protective line,” Silva said.
Mental preparation
Herbert’s strike team spent the day long trip up to the Mendocino Complex Fires this week mentally preparing for the extensive task lying in front of them.
“On the way up, we are doing things like listening to weather reports [and] listening to updates on fire progress,” Herbert said. “You are using that drive time to get in the mode.”
Herbert’s team was fresh and raring to get into the firefight Thursday.
“Everyone is eager to get out on the line and do the job that we are here to do,” Herbert said. “I can’t compliment my crew enough. They are great. It is hard work, it is dangerous work — physically and mentally demanding, but I am just always blown away” by the team. “For me, it is a real pleasure to work with such a group of professionals.”
Local agencies
Local agencies that have provided firefighters for the two strike teams include the Brawley, Calexico, Calipatria, El Centro, Holtville and Imperial County fire departments, according to Chief Alfredo Estrada, Imperial County Office of Emergency Services coordinator.
Silva’s team left behind five type-3 fire engines, which are now being used by Herbert’s team. Type-3 fire engines are designed especially for wildland fires, and are outfitted with four-wheel drive in order to navigate rough wilderness terrain, according to Silva.
The Imperial County strike forces were assembled after calls for mutual aid were received from departments battling various blazes throughout the state.
After responding to mutual aid assignments, the city or county funding the fire department receives money from the state of California to offset expenses accrued during the trip, Estrada said.
While the strike team firefighters are out of town, there is no disruption to emergency services on the home front, Estrada said, because those remaining behind step up to fill vacant shifts. This often leads to overtime, which is paid out from a contingency fund set up by the county or city governments in authority over the respective fire department.
“I appreciate the commitment, and I realize there is a sacrifice, not only if you are going to a fire but if you are staying behind, because the guys who are staying behind are having to work three or four days in a row to cover for the guys who are gone,” Herbert said.
Spending long periods away from family and friends at home is a sacrifice the strike team members are more than willing to make, Herbert said.
“We don’t mind,” he said. “Everybody has family commitments and personal commitments. Guys are missing their kids’ first day of school. There is an understanding that when you get into the fire service the focus is on the service element of it.”
And the work is never finished, Silva said, noting that he was scheduled to be back on the job at the Holtville station Friday.