GILROY
– More than 1,000 firefighters battled 14 lightning-ignited
blazes Tuesday and into Wednesday across thousands of acres of dry
vegetation stretching north to south between Henry Coe Park and
Livermore and east to west from San Jose to Stanislaus County.
GILROY – More than 1,000 firefighters battled 14 lightning-ignited blazes Tuesday and into Wednesday across thousands of acres of dry vegetation stretching north to south between Henry Coe Park and Livermore and east to west from San Jose to Stanislaus County.
The fires are the result of Monday night’s electrical storm that shot numerous lightning bolts into trees, bushes and other dry shrubs throughout the region. Six of the fires were still uncontained Wednesday and one of the blazes is nearing 1,500 acres in an area just southeast of Mt. Hamilton.
A dozen “smoke jumpers” were airlifted into the Mt. Hamilton fire Tuesday afternoon, when the fire was still 200 acres, to begin cutting a fire break line around the blaze with chain saws, axes and other equipment. Choppers and air tankers soon followed, dropping fire retardent on the flames.
“This is getting our attention pretty well,” CDF Fire Prevention Specialist Chris Morgan said Tuesday. “We’re looking at everything from a tree on fire to a 700-acre blaze.”
By Wednesday morning, the largest of the blazes was in Alameda County, a more than 1,500-acre fire near the Del Valle Reservoir just outside Livermore. Cumulatively, the fires have burned 2,800 acres.
“There’s not a lot of talk on the radios, so they must be doing a lot of battling,” Morgan said early Wednesday of the crews trying to create fire breaks within fire-engulfed terrain firefighters categorize as “extreme.”
Many of the scenes the past two days were reminiscent of firefighting efforts 11 months ago when 3,127 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains just northwest of Morgan Hill and Gilroy were set ablaze. In what was coined the Croy fire, it was a man-made problem – faulty solar panel wiring in a motor home – that started the blaze. This week, nature caused the flames.
“Where these fires are and how spread out they are geographically, there’s no way they were human caused,” Morgan said.
Change of plans
Base camp for firefighting crews will not be reminiscent of last year’s Croy fire since Christmas Hill Park will not be used.
CDF requested the use of Christmas Hill Park as a base camp for incident command and staging, but city officials said the fires were far enough from Gilroy that the park would better serve local residents who have events planned there.
“Our intent is that, with the fire being 30 miles away, there are quite possibly other areas in which they can look for alternative staging,” said Bob Connelly, community services director for the city. “We did just have CDF up there two weeks ago … and we’re still trying to recuperate from the Garlic Festival.”
If CDF were to set up camp at Christmas Hill, its length of stay would depend on the severity of the fires. Several sites in the park, located on Miller Avenue, have been reserved for family reunions over the Labor Day weekend. Adult softball teams use the park on weekday evenings, Connelly said.
Morgan said CDF has changed its plans. CDF headquarters at Morgan Hill will serve as the incident command post. Grant Ranch Park near Mt. Hamilton will be the staging area for attacks from the Santa Clara County side. Camp Parks, a military base off Interstate 580 in Dublin, will be the staging area for the attacks from the Easy Bay side.
“It’ll work out fine,” Morgan said of the change. “So far, we’ve had only one engine pull into Christmas Hill and have to get rerouted.”
Morgan described the city’s decision as a “minor hassle.”
“In this business there’s always minor things popping up. We work through them, and they tend to work out,” Morgan said.
Gilroy fire update
In Gilroy Monday’s storm caused one tree fire and knocked down more than one set of power lines. The Gilroy Fire Department crews reported no fires Tuesday, a sign that any vegetation hit by lightning Monday is no longer smoldering here.
Tuesday evening, a Gilroy family cleared their backyard of debris from their palm tree, which caught fire after being struck by lightning during Monday night’s storm.
“It was like a Roman candle,” said Judy Prentice, who owns the tree. Her husband, Steve, was awake and watching the lightning storm when he saw it strike nearby.
“When I opened the window all I could see was bright orange,” Prentice said.
She and Steve first thought either their house, or a neighbor’s, was on fire.
Neighbors who witnessed the lightning strike the tree immediately called the Gilroy Fire Department.
“They told me when it hit, (the tree) just exploded,” Prentice said.
Firefighters responded and put out the flames within 10 minutes, keeping the blaze contained to the tree. Firefighters checked up on the tree late Monday and again Tuesday morning to be sure it was not smoldering.
The Prentices spent Tuesday afternoon fishing debris, mostly burnt leaves, from their pool that sits directly below the palm. Steve also found a squirrel that appeared to have been burnt in the tree when it was struck.
Firefighters told Prentice she would have to remove the 20-year-old tree because it was so damaged it could be at risk of falling.
Homeowner’s insurance will not cover the cost of removing the tree because it is considered maintenance and did not damage the house, Prentice said.
“Today I got an estimate of $800 (to remove it), but we’re waiting to hear a few more offers,” she said.
So far, the Gilroy Fire Department has not been called for assistance with the ongoing blazes northeast.
Monday’s storm blacked out 6,201 homes.
All power in Gilroy has been restored, thanks to rerouting and Pacific Gas & Electric crews helping to fix downed power lines knocked out by trees or hit by lightning.
“If power is cut off, there may be two or three different ways power gets to your house,” explained Smith, who said 70 to 80 percent of homes had power back quickly due to rerouting. “But the ones that are right in the thick of it are the ones that end up having to wait for crews.”
Haunting memories
Victims of last year’s Croy fire were wary of Monday’s high temperatures and flashes of lightning.
“I’m not spooky, though I do keep a close eye on things,” said Roy Guist, who lost his home to the fire last September and now lives in Morgan Hill. “I’m very sensitive to the fact that there would be fires up there.”
Guist visited his property near the Santa Cruz County line Tuesday morning to check for any smoldering brush, but found no evidence of lightning strikes. He is still working to restore most of his fire-damaged property.
“I usually check it on my own (for fires),” he said, “but I have people out there who call me if something might be going on.”Morgan said Tuesday’s numerous blazes were in “extreme” terrain with no road access, making the fire more difficult to battle than Croy and triggering the need for the smoke jumpers.
“It’s rare we use smoke jumpers. I think in the 15 years I’ve been here we haven’t used them more than once,” Morgan said.
Staff writers Lori Stuenkel and Dave Steffenson contributed to this report.
