Lakeport >> From boots on the ground hiking treacherous terrain during the day to infrared flights at night, Cal Fire is using every possible resource at its disposal to identify any potential hazards left in the Valley Fire’s path of destruction.
With only 97 percent containment, firefighters are now tasked with mop-up operations of the 76,067 acres destroyed — searching for smoke and hot spots, clearing paths and restoring as much as they can of the natural landscape.
The process is lengthy, considering so much of what was burned affected communities and not just wildland. Cal Fire was cautious when it set its full containment date for Tuesday at 6 p.m.
“To make sure everyone feels safe,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bertelli said. “That’s really why we’ll have a presence a little bit longer, to make people calm and feel secure.”
Crews are broken down into division and assigned to specific areas outlined on a map. Wednesday night another plane will conduct an infrared flight that will help Cal Fire personnel plan the next five days’ agenda.
Firefighters usually start close to the fire lines and work their way in, spreading out and slowly walking through the scorched area, flipping over logs and looking for anything that’s smoking such as stumps and embers, downed poles and power lines tangled with branches.
Hot spots still have the potential to flare up into larger fires if they are near unburned fuel.
It’s a lot of dirty work, said Lakeport Fire Protection District Chief Doug Hutchinson. Firefighters call it gritting, and it brings its own set of risk for personnel.
With a timber fire like Valley, there is residual heat and trees that burned from the inside create a major hazard. Limbs are weakened and could potentially fall.
“A lot of trees affected by fire will need to get dropped to eliminate that hazard,” Cal Fire Capt. Tiffany Mercado said.
In many cases, all that’s left of a large tree is a stump hole with smoldering wood that can burn between 400 and 500 degrees. Firefighters risk getting injured from hot ashes approaching the stumps from tree roots that burned beneath the surface.
When engines can’t access an area, firefighters must hike to the remote location carrying their equipment including backpacks with 5 gallons of water. Footing and traction is an issue, Hutchinson said, as firefighters could slip and fall.
Not surprisingly, fatigue can also become an issue during mop-up operations. Bertelli said in order to maintain firefighters’ health, they strictly adhere to their schedule and continue to rely on neighboring resources to help.
The amount of firefighters on the scene continues to dwindle as they approach containment. On Tuesday there were still more than 800 men and women from Northern California working. It’s only a fraction of the number that came from all over the state, but local fire agencies aren’t ready to relax.
Hutchinson said surrounding fire districts continue to provide heavier responses to calls and urges residents to remain cautious with what they do outside.
Lawns should be mowed or trimmed before 10 a.m., if necessary, and metal blades should not be used. Even setting down a gas-powered motor on dry grass could start a fire.
“We are doing everything that we can to be positive that we don’t get another big fire, but with warm weather the threat still exists,” he said. “Until we get significant rainfall … (Lake County) potentially could have another large incident.”
