LAKE COUNTY >> Maneuvering down a steep and narrow driveway, a ten-wheel truck barely squeezes down into a basin of mud, a plot of land that was once a garage.
With some careful direction, the driver edges the truck’s bed near a large crane that sits along the banks of Anderson Creek. Equipped with a pink and gray breathing mask, James Wheelan operates the heavy-duty machine, capturing some concrete and ash in its claws.
Wheelan will continue to do that until the truck is filled with nearly ten tons of debris — the final swipe of an eraser across people’s memories and livelihoods from a once thriving property. Together, he and five others have worked together to clean many sites, including Anderson Springs.
His team, self-named the “Dream Team,” is one of approximately 50 task force teams charged with the responsibility of cleaning up more than 1,200 properties destroyed by the Valley Fire.
These teams have made significant progress and according to Lake County Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski, private contractors and subcontractors hired by Pacific States are ahead of schedule. They have already reached 1,000 properties in two and a half months.
Their speed and success derive from two factors: the size of the workforce and its organization.
Composed of five to seven members, each team works from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to remove concrete, metal, and dirt from the sites, usually spending a day and a half to two days on each one.
Once they are finished, they receive new assignments from the Debris Removal Operations Center (DROC): a coalition of experienced members from CalRecycle, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Air Resources Board, and Cal OES.
Located in a rented house on Calistoga Road in Middletown, DROC is the brain of a government-developed emergency response network formally known as an Incident Command System (ICS).
Inside, living rooms and bedrooms have been turned into offices with documents and maps of the burn area covering tables, walls, and floors. This is where plans are made, finances are documented, and logistics are figured so operations go as smoothly as possible.
The manifestation of those efforts is found in Incident Action Plans that are released every two days. Sent to the contractors, they outline the specific goals to be accomplished for that time period. Every person, job, and location is accounted for, even down to the person that hoses down the site to keep dust from flying into the air.
Some situations, like the one Wheelan’s “Dream Team” faces, require extra resources and time.
Anderson Springs’s tight roads, old building foundations, and unique topography have added a degree of difficulty to the job, which Ruminski said made for some chaos at the beginning of the cleanup process.
Now, most of the ash in the tranquil area has been cleaned up. All that really remains of the secluded community are the stone steps that walk down to patios along the creek.
Even the ash is mostly gone. In its place is hydroseed, dirt, and marked trees.
“We are proud to do the cleanup,” Wheelan said, noting that his group has completed about 60 properties. “It just makes you happy to help out and know that you are making an impact.”
