[env-trinity] Northern California firefight stretched thin

[Josh Allen]

Northern California firefight stretched thin
By Bobby Caina Calvan - bcalvan at sacbee.com

Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, June 28, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A18

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1046371.html 

WEAVERVILLE – Flashes of light, the groan of gears and the constant din of fire crews disrupted the darkness, and there was not much time for sleep. In the Friday morning light, the haze was thick, the air soured by the stench of smoke.

There was fire all around, and Matt Lingenfelter's squad was waging war against a formidable blaze that threatened as many as 850 homes as it marched across 10,700 acres in some of Northern California's most beautiful and rugged terrain.

"It's been a physical drain, a mental drain," said Lingenfelter, who readied his U.S. Forest Service crew for another round of battle against fires known as the Iron Complex near Junction City.

It will take the collective stamina of thousands of firefighters to keep up with the Trinity County blaze, one of more than a thousand lightning-sparked fires – some now burning for a week – that have sent crews chasing flames across the state's northern mountains.

"It's tough country. You have to keep your focus," said Lingenfelter, 29.

The U.S. Forest Service and state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have deployed some 11,300 people, some arriving from as far as Hawaii, Florida and North Carolina – 21 states in all – with more firefighters coming.

Of the 1,200-plus fires recently ignited, only a fifth have been contained – with no end in immediate sight.

More lightning is expected, heightening worries that fire crews could be spread thin so early in the fire season.

The state's fire chief, acknowledging staffing challenges, said he is considering canceling the vacations of thousands of Cal Fire employees to keep them available for what he worries will be a long fire season.

"We are pacing ourselves. Absolutely," said the chief of Cal Fire, Del Walters.

"The numbers game has been a real challenge for us," Walters told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited Shasta County on Friday. "We're still unsure how many fires there are, and how many were caused by lightning."

Schwarzenegger issued a call for help Friday when he asked President Bush for a federal declaration of emergency, aimed at providing more resources to combat the fires that have consumed hundreds of thousands of acres.

U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne joined Schwarzenegger at Whiskeytown Lake west of Redding at a news conference to commend the thousands of firefighters who have been kept busy by the wildfires, many of them ignited by a lightning storm a week ago.

"These conditions are very, very stark," Kempthorne said.

The fires have been unusual for not only the high number, but their occurrence so early in the fire season. "Well, I tell you, that it was quite a shock for me, waking up on Sunday morning, to hear about how many fires there are all over the state of California," the governor said. "It started out with 500, then later on in the day it was 700 and then, all of a sudden, by Monday it was 1,000 fires."

As he spoke, occasional flecks of ash drifted from the hazy sky. In the nearby mountains, the Whiskeytown fire continued to rage out of control.

While most of the state's fires are concentrated in Northern California, the most high-profile blaze is burning along the fabled Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur, where 900 homes were threatened by the lightning-caused fire. The 26,763-acre fire was 3 percent contained Friday.

In his letter to President Bush, the governor requested direct federal assistance, including debris removal and support for evacuation operations and sheltering displaced residents.

"I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments," he wrote, "and that supplementary federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property (and) public health."

The governor already has declared states of emergencies in Butte, Mendocino, Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta and Trinity counties.

Huge swaths of forestland were under siege by flames in Trinity County, where as many as 850 homes were at risk from the Iron fires. Another conflagration south of it threatened 1,500 homes in Shasta and Trinity counties. State highways and local roads are closed, or subject to major delays, throughout the north state.

Evacuation orders are in place of parts of Butte, Shasta and Trinity counties, and precautionary evacuation orders are in place in Lassen, Modoc and Mendocino counties.

With limited resources, Chief Walters said, the state's fire crews "must pick their battles, performing what amounts to firefighting triage by going after fires that pose risk to life and property while being less aggressive on fires that pose no immediate threat to communities."

In addition to possibly revoking already approved summer vacations, Cal Fire is considering extending the rotation periods from two weeks to three weeks before crews can take a respite from the front lines.

"It's a real struggle," he said. "We struggle with staffing, but we have to give people a rest so we don't burn them out."

The U.S. Forest Service will likely maintain its current policies that require time off after 14 days of front-line service.

For Lingenfelter and his crew, it's been a week of 16-hour days of grueling and dangerous work.

On some days, firefighters dangle from a helicopter to reach hot zones too forbidding to reach by foot. On other days, they hike up into burning mountains.

"There's times when I'm just sitting back and thinking about being with family," said Marcel Gomez, 25, of Wheatland. "I'm just tired by the end of the day. Sometimes you can't sleep. You try to get used to the all the noise, all the lights from the trucks."