Cooler weather due to arrive tonight will reduce fire danger in
Northern California but won
’t help the hundreds of Southern California residents who lost
their houses over the weekend.
Area firefighters dispatched to fight out-of-control SoCal blazes
By CAROL HOLZGRAFE
Staff Writer
Cooler weather due to arrive tonight will reduce fire danger in Northern California but won’t help the hundreds of Southern California residents who lost their houses over the weekend.
The National Weather Service forecasts highs Wednesday of 65 degrees along the ocean and low 80s inland and lows of 45 to the low 60s in the South Valley, plummeting from 90-plus days over the weekend and falling 10 degrees each day as the week progresses. Temperatures Thursday through Sunday should dip to highs of 55 to 70 and lows of 50 to 60 degrees. Skies are expected to be mostly clear with winds picking up again Wednesday.
Because of lowered temperatures and increase in the off-shore winds, the red flag warning for South Santa Clara County has been lifted, Chris Morgan, fire prevention specialist with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, South Santa Clara County Unit, said Monday. Red flag warnings for the north and east San Francisco Bay areas should be lifted this afternoon.
Halloween ghosts and goblins should wrap up warmly before heading out Friday night because temperatures will be chilly.
California’s hopes that it would squeak through the fire season without a major conflagration were dashed in the Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego areas when as many as 950 houses went up in flames and at least 13 people lost their lives before Monday night fleeing the brutal fires. As many as 30,000 homes were threatened.
As of Monday, none of the 7,000 firefighters had lost their lives as fires raged through more than 450,000 acres, a number that grew hourly. The fire was spurred along by Santa Ana winds sometimes reaching a hurricane force of 70 miles per hour. Morgan estimated the fires would ultimately blacken more than 750,000 acres.
“It’s the size of Rhode Island,” Morgan said.
Unlike 2002 when the local Croy/Uvas fire drained firefighting resources from the Los Angeles-area Glendora wildfire, Northern California remains relatively quiet, despite low humidity, unseasonably high temperatures and occasional brisk winds, the recipe for fire danger.
Fire units from all over the Bay Area were sent to help out with the Southern California fires. Santa Clara County Fire Department Engine 12 from Morgan Hill’s El Toro station went with three firefighters, along with engines from Los Gatos and Los Altos, according to Capt. Wally Finck. An engine and strike team from the department’s Office of Emergency Services in Cupertino was also dispatched, Finck said.
“The requests just kept coming,” Finck said. He said news of the changing weather conditions was wonderful and very welcome.
“These (earlier) conditions have been similar to the Oakland fire,” Finck said. “We’re looking at weather patterns dictating what a fire can do; the ones in Southern California got quite a head start.”
SCCFD Battalion Chief Steve Franklin wanted to assure residents that, despite several firefighting units being deployed elsewhere, county fire stations are covered, just in case something got started in the area. The firefighting strength, he said, is mainly lacking in the air attack force since several planes and helicopters were sent to Southern California.
A vegetation fire on San Jose’s Mount Hamilton Monday afternoon was fought with ground forces and bulldozers. Monday afternoon’s other incident with downed power lines, Morgan said, occurred near the Lupin Lodge near Lexington Reservoir.
By Monday afternoon fire crews from Arizona and Nevada were on their way to help California’s thinly stretched teams, the first time out-of-states had been requested since the 1993 Malibu fire, also in Southern California. Gov. Gray Davis had declared the four affected counties disaster areas so residents could receive federal help.
The CDF, South Santa Clara County Fire District based in Morgan Hill sent 66 firefighters and management teams from its several stations, plus 12 engines, three bulldozers and a helicopter from the Los Gatos station, according to Morgan.
Several smaller posts in the area are currently unstaffed, Morgan said but the larger, “must-staff” stations are ready to work.
“We can meet our obligations,” Morgan said, “but we need fog, we need drizzle.”
Also from South Valley, a strike team of four and one engine from the Gilroy Fire Department went to the Rancho Cucamunga area. The Gilroy crew helped save two homes.
The weather forecast for Southern California is positive, expecting temperatures to reach 80 degrees today and highs of 70 the rest of the week. The San Diego area will experience dense fog beginning tonight and continuing through Friday.
A controlled burn of 490 acres Friday at Fort Ord near Monterey got out of hand at 9 p.m. and ended up consuming 1,470 acres and sending smoke and ash over the area from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach. No structures were damaged and the fire was expected to be controlled by Monday afternoon according to local fire officials.
The fire interrupted air travel throughout California and the nation as smoke and ash covered the skies above Los Angeles and San Diego internationals and several smaller area airports.
