Quick response holding back fires

On Friday afternoon a fire broke out, burning on both sides of Reservation Drive just before Dead Man’s Curve. Temperatures were in the upper-90s, wind was moderate and the grass was dry.

Fortunately, as has been the case in nearly every low-elevation wildland fire this year, a quick response limited the fire in acreage and manpower needed to ensure it would not spread.

Fire fighting resources are not spread so thin, yet, that fire agencies such as Calfire, the US Forest Service and Tulare County Fire, can not get immediate help to quell a fire as quickly as possible.

On Friday, within just a few minutes of the fire being reported just before 4 p.m., an air attack plane and three air tankers, including a four-engine jet, were on the fire and surrounding it with fire retardant. That retardant buys firefighters on the ground time to also surround a fire. In Friday’s fire, which was ripe to burn a lot of ground had it had a few more minutes to spread, the air tankers were each able to make a second run, dousing hot spots with the second run. By the time the last tanker left, several hand crews had already made their way up the side of the hill and were cutting down burning trees and brush and getting water to smoldering areas.

The same situation occurred on a wildland fire near Three Rivers and another near California Hot Springs in the past two weeks. In both those fires, the initial area burned did not spread once the air tankers got on scene and then the hand crews. In both fires, the acreage did not grow after that first attack.

With temperatures in the triple digits now, the fire danger is extremely high and what vegetation was not dry a week ago, will definitely dry out this week, meaning the fire danger will remain high even if the temperatures cool a bit.

One thing that definitely helped on the Reservation Road fire was the land property owners have plowed along their fence line. That definitely gave firefighters a break and a place to stop the fire’s spread.

Everyone who lives in the wildland, including along the lower foothills, should be doing all they can to protect their property. They cannot always count on that quick response.