GILROY
– With the
”
Annie
”
wildfire under control, firefighters from the California
Department of Forestry cleared out of the city’s Christmas Hill
Park by midday Wednesday.
GILROY – With the “Annie” wildfire under control, firefighters from the California Department of Forestry cleared out of the city’s Christmas Hill Park by midday Wednesday.
The Annie fire, north of Highway 152 east of Gilroy, reached 17,400 acres and is still burning, but CDF Information Officer Chris Morgan said the department can mop it up from its Morgan Hill headquarters.
Originally, the city said the CDF couldn’t use Christmas Hill as a base camp, but the next day, Aug. 27, they allowed crews to take over the Ranch side of the park. This compromise allowed picnics and softball games to continue through Labor Day weekend and also gave the firefighters a South County base as Annie spread south.
“That fire needed its own base,” Morgan said.
City Administrator Jay Baksa said Gilroy was caught in a bit of a bind, especially since Labor Day is one of the park’s busiest weekends of the year, but letting the CDF use half the park was a good compromise. Still, he said, the city did hear some complaints, mostly because Miller Avenue was closed through the park. This put pressure on traffic, he said, especially to and from Gavilan College.
“That park is the linchpin of recreation activity here,” Baksa said. “We can’t have that be their base all summer. … What if they wanted the park during the Garlic Festival? … But we’ll do our share in the public safety arena.”
The CDF pays the city $3,100 a day every time it uses the park. For this, the city provides utilities, reschedules prior bookings. Plus, the CDF pays up to $5,000 total or $500 a day, whichever is less, for damages.
This deal came about when CDF firefighters took over the entire park last September to battle the Croy fire. Baksa said he heard few, if any, complaints from the public then. A week after this summer’s Garlic Festival, however, the CDF used the park again to fight a blaze in Henry Coe State Park. Softball games, pavilion reservations and all other activities at Christmas Hill were canceled, and not everyone took it well.
“That was the first time we started to get what we call ‘customer complaints,’ ” Baksa said.
Christmas Hill will be free for this weekend’s Combined Classic horse-and-carriage event, for which organizers had reserved the park a year ago.
As of Wednesday morning, Morgan said, the CDF had 1,200 people committed to fires burning in Santa Clara, Alameda, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. All were started by last week’s lightning storm.
The Annie fire was the biggest of these. Ten thousand acres of its range was grass and light brush, with the rest being heavy brush.
“It was extremely steep, rugged country … way out in the middle of nowhere,” Morgan said.
All the fires were 100 percent contained as of 8 p.m. Tuesday – meeting the CDF’s target.
Firefighters sustained only four minor injuries, which consisted of small cuts and burned elbows. Morgan described the injury record as “outstanding” and attributed it to two things: good training and safety officers assigned to every fire.
Containing the blazes gives the crew a break to do basic equipment maintenance and pull themselves together before the next fire.
“They’re ready to go any time,” Morgan said, “but I’m sure they’d like to sleep in their own bed.”
