County Fire Helps Fight State Wildfires
Alameda County Fire Department engine on its way to fight wildfires elsewhere in the state.
Alameda County has so far been spared the worst of wildfire season, but its firefighters have been pitching in around the state to help put out wildfires in other areas.
An Alameda County Fire Department (ACFD) strike team was most recently sent to Santa Barbara County to help put out the Lake Fire there, which had spread to over 36,000 acres. Parks, nature preserves, and even the late Michael Jackson’s former Neverland estate were under threat.
While the coast was cool and foggy, if smoky, people were being evacuated in parts of the hotter inland Santa Ynez Valley. The Sedgwick Reserve, once owned by the parents of Andy Warhol's muse and leading model Edie Sedgwick, was in particular danger.
A strike team leader and assistant leader from AFDC were among the 22 firefighters who made up strike team OES 2870-C, deployed by the state. (OES stands for Office of Emergency Services.)
ACFD firefighters and two Type-3 engines are joined on the strike team by firefighters and one engine each from Hayward, Fremont, and Oakland.
Earlier this month, ACFD crews were deployed to the Lake Fire near Lake Oroville on July 6, just after helping with the Thompson Fire in Butte County. That fire burned some 3,789 acres before being contained.
The OES 2870-C team was pre-positioned on July 1, 2024, to areas facing possible wildfires.
A week earlier, they had fought the Apache Fire, also in Butte County, which had been set off by lightning. That burned 691 acres before being contained.
AFDC spokesperson Cheryl Hurd assured the public that firefighters remain closer to home should fires ignite here.
“Every time we send a firefighter to the strike team, we’re sure to back them up with an additional firefighter on duty here in Alameda County,” she said.
Cal Fire reports that as of July 12, some 3,630 wildland fires have affected 228,756 acres, combining state and federal figures. By the same date last year, there had been 3,095 such fires affecting 11,136 acres, so the size of fires is up substantially this year.
The five-year average for wildfires up to the same date was 3,743 fires affecting 111,813 acres, Cal Fire reports.