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As the record-breaking Park Fire in the northeast part of the state ballooned rapidly in its early days, residents in other areas of California – including the Tri-Valley – also found themselves facing threats from flames during hot, summer weather conditions that made it easier for wildfires to start and spread.
Shortly after the Park Fire initially ignited near Chico on July 24 and residents of the outlying rural communities were evacuated, smaller wildfires within and surrounding the Tri-Valley also led to evacuations for some, and a reminder of the dangers of wildfires hitting so close to home for all.
On July 26, the Creek Fire that started near Welch Creek and Calaveras roads in Sunol forced evacuations for a number of residents of the rural community in the southern Tri-Valley, with the Point Fire that started just 37 minutes earlier also forcing evacuations to the north of the region near Mount Diablo. Meanwhile, the smaller Flynn Fire near Livermore had been burning since the previous evening on July 25.
Sunol Glen parent Diana Rohini LaVigne said that while she wasn’t personally impacted by the Creek Fire, her connection to the community – including a close friend who was forced to evacuate – had put her into a panic as the fire grew in its initial hours.
“It took her the longest hour to get back to me,” LaVigne said.
Her friend, Jamie Do, had meanwhile been preparing to evacuate, leaving with her family and pets shortly after responding to LaVigne.
“At the end of the day, I am super thankful to the fire crews for defending my home and neighbor’s homes,” Do said. “I am happy we got out safely. Things can be replaced. Time and people you need to cherish it when you have it.”
While all three local fires were 100% contained or close to it by Aug. 3, firefighters throughout the region are now turning their attention and resources toward the ongoing Park Fire in the northern part of the state, which has become one of the largest on record and continues to pose a formidable challenge to fire crews from throughout the state.
The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department is among the local fire agencies juggling their roles responding to and preventing fires locally in the Tri-Valley while also participating in a statewide mutual aid effort to provide additional support to Cal Fire in their ongoing battle with other menacing wildfires in the state such as the Park Fire.
“We sent three units to the Creek Fire, and I actually believe our unit, station four, were the first ones to put water on the fire,” acting deputy chief Kurtis Dickey told the Pleasanton Weekly. “Two crews spent the night there. We did get one back – we brought four back because they were pretty exhausted, and then we left station two and station nine on the fire all night long.”
While the unincorporated community of Sunol is technically under Cal Fire’s jurisdiction, Dickey noted that the state fire agency’s resources were spread thin with the continued challenge posed by the Park Fire, leading LPFD and other local agencies to lend a hand.
“They don’t have too many units available, so they asked a lot of the local jurisdictions to stay and help out so we agreed to leaving two crews,” Dickey said.
As fire crews gained control over the Creek Fire and Point Fire, and evacuation orders were lifted in the subsequent days, LPFD along with the Alameda County Fire Department and Contra Costa Fire Protection District were among the local agencies who turned their focus towards the Park Fire as part of ongoing mutual aid efforts throughout the state.
In addition to mutual aid, LPFD and other fire agencies are among the volunteers for a program through the state’s Office of Emergency Services, in which they house a fire engine owned by the state government that can be called into service for demands throughout the state.
When providing mutual aid to agencies out of the area, LPFD sends out strike teams composed of five units and one leader, with various vehicles depending on the demands, Dickey said. In the case of wildfires, type six and type three engines equipped for off-road navigation are generally the vehicles of choice.
As of Aug. 2, LPFD was part of a strike team, with one unit from the local department joining forces with units from the Oakland, Hayward and Alameda County fire departments.
“The strike team made up of the five units. They are a team that cannot be separated, so everything they do they do together,” Dickey said.
Dickey estimated that there were likely nearly 100 strike teams from across the state deployed to the Park Fire as of last week and 542 engines on the scene.
While the Park Fire and the local fires have captured public attention in recent weeks and served as a reminder of the threats posed by wildfires, Dickey said this year’s fire season had already been a busy one, with LPFD crews having already been deployed to the Gold Complex Fire in Plumas County that burned 3,007 during its 13-day duration that started on July 22.
“Our group, when they left, they were sent to the Gold Fire in northwest California,” Dickey said. “They were sent out on July 23, spent a couple of days at the Gold Fire, then went to the Park Fire.”
As crews continue to battle the ever-growing Park Fire this week, ACFD announced on Aug. 5 that some of the same firefighters who had battled the Creek Fire – crew eight – were on the scene at the Park Fire along with two ACFD engines and an OES vehicle, marking the crew’s first out-of-county deployment.
“Our members are working 24-hour shifts in challenging terrain, along with other departments to combat the 4th largest fire in California’s history,” ACFD officials said on Facebook.
While the 24-hour shifts are grueling with a firefighting force that’s becoming increasingly stretched thin throughout the state, Dickey emphasized that while fire vehicles remain on the scene for the duration of a deployment, firefighters themselves are rotated out and given the opportunity to rest for 24 hours after their long, grueling shifts.
As of Aug. 5, a hand crew from Con Fire consisting of two captains, 16 fire control workers and a battalion chief serving as a safety officer provided a bulldozer for assistance to Cal Fire crews at the Park Fire.
Meanwhile back at home, Dickey said that he and other local agencies were continuing to brace themselves for fires locally, particularly along the Altamont.
“On the Altamont it feels like there’s a fire nearly every day there,” Dickey said. “Our engine eight out of Springtown and Livermore is the first unit into the hills, even though it’s a state responsible area and Alameda County, but Alameda County units are coming out of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.”
Like a vast majority of wildfires throughout the state, Dickey noted that fires on the Altamont are generally caused by human error.
“The traffic on the Altamont causes a significant amount of fires – car fires or sparks or cigarettes, so we’re up there daily with little fires and sometimes they get a little bit more than little,” he said.
Dickey added that other local hotspots the department keeps a close watch on and responds to frequently are off Interstate 580 between North Livermore Avenue and First Street, as well as the Stanley area near the railroad tracks and Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, which was the site of a sizable fire last year.
While a majority of fires are caused by humans, Dickey noted that wildfires pose a threat to rural areas, not cities.
“There’s not a whole lot that can burn within the city, and we get on the fires really quickly, but there’s always that threat of the houses all around and the scare it gives people,” Dickey said. “Our big threat is obviously the ridge, and we haven’t had a large fire on the ridge in a number of years. But that certainly would be a major ordeal just because the houses are mixed in there.”
The causes of the Point, Creek and Flynn fires all remained under investigation as of last week, with court proceedings ongoing for the suspected arsonist behind the Park Fire in Chico. But many fires are caused by predictable and preventable human behavior, Dickey said.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand how quickly a fire can start,” Dickey said. “Unfortunately a lot of fires do start from smoking material, so even if you think your cigarette is out and put it on the ground, it can still start a fire.”
Hot coals from summer barbecues are another common cause, Dickey said.
“People in the summer are still doing small fires in the backyard – Just make sure any hot coals from barbecue or fire pits are disposed of properly. It needs to be in metal cans and away from the structure.”
In addition, a further complication facing numerous fields including firefighting is also compounding the struggle to contend with this year’s fire season – recruitment and retention of qualified professionals.
“The entire state is struggling with hiring firefighters, so everyone is a bit low on their personnel to begin with. So trying to assist and be part of the mutual aid system becomes difficult when you’re trying to staff your own department,” Dickey said. “But we can’t send any more resources because if we did, we wouldn’t be able to staff our own department.”
Dickey said that he believed part of the shortfall in firefighting professionals was due to pipeline issues caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an 18-month gap in paramedic training programs and the professionals who would have come out of them, as well as the proliferation of remote work that might be more attractive and comfortable than the notion of 24-hour long shifts on the frontlines of wildfires.
However, he emphasized that the work is rewarding in ways that can’t be matched by other professions.
“The teamwork, the excitement of working in an organization that serves the community helping people is very rewarding, and just the enjoyment again of working on a team that’s motivated for the greater good, for helping people, helping the state when it’s on fire – you could be a part of saving someone’s life,” Dickey said.
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