Lodi firefighters share stories from California wildfires
Capt. Mike Gold of the Lodi Fire Department sat in Station One’s conference room, sipping an energy drink as he took a break between calls on Thursday, jumping back into his regular duties after returning from fighting the wildfires in Nevada, Napa and Sonoma counties.
“We got the call around 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 9, and we deployed to the Wind Complex in Nevada County. We were there until Oct. 15, when we were reassigned to the Central LNU Complex, where we stayed until we were demobilized on Oct. 20,” Gold said.
Gold, along with firefighter Tim Aguirre Jr., and others were part of a team consisting of engines from the Woodbridge, Lathrop-Manteca, Manteca City and Tracy departments that was mobilized to the various fires, primarily for structure protection and to support other teams. When there are multiple fires in one area, they will typically be referred to as “complexes,” with firefighters assigned to a general staging area to be delegated to specific fires as needed, Gold explained.
“You don’t know exactly where you’re going to go or what you’re going to do until the next morning,” he said.
While the team was on their way to the Cascade Fire in Yuba, the part of the Wind Complex to which they were initially assigned, they were rerouted to the Lobo Fire in Nevada County, where Gold says they were one of the first strike teams to arrive. They began their efforts on a ridge, performing structure protection before changing their tactics to assist another team as the flames moved up the ridge, aided by air tankers and bulldozers. After the Lobo Fire, the team was assigned to protect the Nevada City School of Arts, which Gold says was successful.
“It’s still standing, but the reality is that the bulldozers and air tankers did the lion’s share. We backed them up, preventing what’s called ‘slop-over,’ keeping hot spots from jumping the fire line. Even one of the smaller fires has the potential to pick up momentum and spread,” Gold said.
When the team arrived at the Central LNU Complex in Sonoma County, they were stationed at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, where evacuation centers had also been set up. Although the Lodi firefighters were willing to speak with evacuees, many of whom had lost everything to the flames, they decided not to initiate conversations, out of respect for the tragedy that had befallen them.
“When someone goes through something like that, it’s not out of place to force an interaction. If they seek us out, we’re more than happy to speak with them, but there’s nothing you can really say to someone who’s lost everything,” Gold said.
While Gold and company focused their efforts on structure protection, Capt. Dave Bolognini of the Lodi Fire Department was deployed as an assistant strike team leader with a San Joaquin County team, arriving at the Wind Complex on Oct. 10 and the Central LNU Complex on Oct. 17, where he helped coorThe dinate the felling of trees that presented burn hazards, as well as rehabilitation and reforestation crews and power and utilities workers taking care of downed power lines.
“We worked on repopulating the communities, making sure it was safe for the population to reenter the area,” Bolognini said.
Despite everything the evacuees had been through, Gold and his comrades were impressed by how they managed to keep their spirits high, offering coffee and gratitude to the firefighters. The crew from Lodi also had some personal connections to the displaced residents, with Gold’s parents on the evacuation list and Aguirre running into some friends at the Sonoma Fairgrounds.
“The fire got close to their home, but their house was safe, although they did have to board their daughter’s horse at the fairgrounds, where I met up with them. They were super grateful, but we were mostly just doing what we do, what we signed up for,” Aguirre said.
Gold echoed Aguirre’s humble sentiments, saying that he was grateful for the camaraderie, working with agencies from as far away as Australia to help communities in their time of need.
“We do what we can, where we can do it, while trying to fit into the greater objective. Some days, you’re doing what some might consider glamorous work, but the reality is that, with a tragedy like this going on, there’s a lot of meticulous work. You’re making sure you get every ember, making sure that people have peace of mind to know that the fire is out, that their homes are safe, that they are safe,” Gold said.