EBRPD fire fighters, staff, join multi-agency team facing wildfires

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA—As you might imagine, East Bay Regional Park District firefighters and operations staff have had their hands full dealing with the unprecedented series of lightning-caused fires that are burning in the regional parks, East Bay counties and throughout the state.

Aileen Theile, park district fire chief, provided this information about the park district’s firefighting efforts:

During a period of 90 minutes on Aug. 16 there were 12,000 lightning strikes statewide, of which 560 caused fires. As part of a multi-agency firefighting team under the overall direction of CAL FIRE, park district firefighters fought fires on park district land and other open space, wherever needed, from Round Valley and Morgan Territory near Brentwood to Sunol and Ohlone Regional Wilderness in southern Alameda County. Fires started within 5 regional parks.

To give an idea of the area involved, the Calaveras and Canyon complex fire, encompassing about seven counties, has burned more than 366,000 acres as of this writing.

Entire team mobilized

The firefighting effort has required mobilization of the district’s entire firefighting team. This comprises 23 fulltime firefighters and some 34 on-call firefighter staff – district employees with other primary occupations, but who are also fully trained firefighters available when needed. The on-call firefighters were released from their primary district jobs to reinforce the full-timers. And the park district lifeguard staff set up a camp at the district’s public safety headquarters in Castro Valley for firefighters coming off the line. The camp design conformed to COVID-19 protocols.

Another asset is the district’s Eagle 7E helicopter unit, which was one of the only early air resources available. Using the copters’ Bambi bucket capability, the Eagle pilots worked every day, assisting CAL FIRE by dropping more than 4,000 gallons of water on the fires.

A notable effort was at Camp Arroyo at Del Valle Regional Park south of Livermore. Camp Arroyo provides an environmental education experience to children during the school year. In the summer and on some school year weekends, it serves as a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses, in partnership with the Taylor Family Foundation.

During the fire emergency, district firefighters, rangers, and park operations staff spent three days at Del Valle Regional Park and Camp Arroyo, making the site more fire safe by clearing vegetation and securing buildings. Chief Theile called it a “tremendous effort.” As a result, if the fire does come through, a lot of fire damage will be averted.

A final assessment of damage will have to await post-fire inspection, but it appears that the Sunol Regional Wilderness visitor center was spared. Park residents were evacuated from Round Valley and Mission Peak.

Parks closures

Because of the fire emergency, the district closed all regional parks on Aug. 21, except for some shoreline parks and paved inter-park regional trails.

Chief Theile gave several reasons. For one, the air quality was really bad. Apart from health concerns, the thick haze made it impossible for firefighters to tell whether a fire was actually burning within a park.

Also, in the event that a fire did occur, firefighters and police would have a serious problem finding and evacuating park visitors or dealing with other emergencies. Their jobs are already dangerous enough.

And finally, CAL FIRE officials informed the district that 96 percent of their available resources were committed to the fires in the Bay Area and elsewhere in the state. Resources were stretched so thin, CAL FIRE said, that if a fire started in another regional park, the park district might have to fight it without assistance.

As of Aug. 27, improving conditions allowed reopening of most of the regional parks that had been closed. Exceptions were parks directly impacted by the fire: Del Valle, Mission Peak, Morgan Territory, Ohlone Wilderness, Round Valley and Sunol.

If it becomes necessary to close regional parks again, the park district urges everyone to abide by the rules. Please do not enter a regional park that has been closed. By doing so, you can endanger yourself and others, and force already overworked firefighters and police to divert from emergencies in order to escort you out of the area.

For up-to-date information about the status of regional parks, visit the district website at www.ebparks.org. Fire and COVID-19 reports are right at the top of the home page.

Ned MacKay writes a regular column about East Bay Regional Park District sites and activities. Email him at nedmackay@comcast.net.