Firefighters battling the last of the Hummingbird and Whitehurst
fires got some
”
tremendous
”
help from this morning’s thick fog that stretched up into the
scarred hills.
Firefighters battling the last of the Hummingbird and Whitehurst fires got some “tremendous” help from this morning’s thick fog that stretched up into the scarred hills.
“The fog this morning was just great. It went up to about 1,400 feet and was nice and damp,” said Cal Fire Fire Prevention Specialist Chris Morgan; Mt. Madonna stands nearly 1,900 feet tall. Crews continued mopping up the smoldering mess from the completely contained Whitehurst Fire Tuesday, extinguishing a few burning stumps here and there, Morgan said.
“It looks pretty good out there,” he said. “They’ve done such a tremendous job keep (the damage) to 200 acres.”
So far it has cost $371,776 to provide meals, crews, fire retardant and all things suppression for the Whitehurst Fire, $213,968 for the Hummingbird Fire, Morgan said. These prices do not include changes in property values and are also expected to rise throughout the next few days, Morgan cautioned.
A handful of Gilroy residents called Morgan and wrote The Dispatch Tuesday wondering about the lingering smell of smoke and the expansive whiteness blocking the sun: Was the fire spreading, and could they open their windows, they asked. But Morgan assured residents that smoke was blowing from the sundry fires farther north, and the smoke was blowing through the Carquinez Strait in the northeast Bay.
“It’s just good common sense that the air right now is not very healthy, and people should limit outdoor exercise,” Morgan said.
As for the blackened live oaks standing stately and strong among the moonscape hills, most of them will be fine. They’ve had hundreds of years of experience, Morgan said.
“Who knows how many grass fires have occurred through here over the past hundreds of years?” Morgan said. “The smaller, younger trees may have a tough time, but most of those live oaks are very sturdy trees as long as they don’t get into crown fire … They may look funny for a while with brown leaves, but most will be fine.”
How many firefighters are out there today?
nHummingbird Fire humming – 17 firefighters, 4 engines, 1 supervisor
Whitehurst Fire – 87 firefighters, 6 engines, 30 people “mopping up,” 2 water tenders and 1 supervisor
Source: Cal Fire
