Neighbors battling fires; crews urge them to stop
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – With California firefighters strapped for resources, residents have organized to put out flames themselves in a large swath of land burning south of San Francisco, defending their homes despite orders to evacuate and pleas by officials to get out of danger.
They are going in despite California’s firefighting agency repeatedly warning people that it’s not safe and actually illegal to go into evacuated areas, and they can hinder official efforts to stop the flames. The former head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the effort near a cluster of wildfires around the city of Santa Cruz is larger and more organized than he recalls in previous blazes.
“People are frustrated with the lack of resources available. People are always going to try to sneak back in, but it sounds like this is growing to a new level,” said Ken Pimlott, who retired as director of the Cal Fire in 2018. “I haven’t seen people re-engage to this scale, particularly with the level of organization.”
On Thursday, thousands of people forced to flee their homes were allowed to return after firefighters reported progress. Officials were working on plans to repopulate other evacuated areas.
Cooler weather and higher humidity, along with an influx of equipment and firefighters, continued to help hardpressed crews fighting some of the largest fires in years, which are burning in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We’ve had a lot of good success,” Mark Brunton, a state fire official at a blaze in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties south of San Francisco, said early Thursday.
The fires have claimed seven lives and destroyed 1,800 buildings, according to Cal Fire.
In Boulder Creek, a community at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains near a state park filled with towering redwoods, some people call the group of residents fighting the flames the “Boulder Creek Boys.” They say the group, which includes former volunteer firefighters, have been protecting homes and extinguishing blazes behind fire lines for over a week, at times using nothing but dirt and garden hoses.
About 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, crews of civilians stayed back to protect homes in the tiny community of Bonny Doon that they believed firefighters were too strapped to protect, patrolling neighborhoods through the night in shifts. Brothers Robert and Jesse Katz even brought in their own firetruck.
Cal Fire Deputy Director Daniel Berlant said he’s not heard of residents organizing to the extent civilian groups are now in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But he said it’s always problematic for residents to stay or reenter evacuation zones, and sometimes they need to be rescued by official crews.