Oakland Fire Department readies for wildfire season
Joining CalFire alongside other regional fire departments, Oakland Fire Department officials acknowledged the arrival of this year's wildland fire season, and planned to balance support to key agencies with trusted partners' expertise.
OAKLAND — Joining CalFire alongside other regional fire departments, Oakland Fire Department officials acknowledged the arrival of this year’s wildland fire season and planned to balance support to key agencies with trusted partners’ expertise.
But those officials also made clear that residents’ keen eyes and careful behavior were needed more than ever, given unprecedented weather conditions and fire activity.
In a statement Monday, interim fire Chief Melinda Drayton described the state’s 2020 season, with over 4 million acres burned, as “the worst we have experienced on record.”
“The good news is, due to our pre-planning, aggressive operational engagement, and comprehensive vegetation management program, all fires in Oakland were quickly contained with limited property damage,” Chief Drayton said.
“2021 is forecasted to be equally as bad as 2020 in terms of potential for large scale vegetation fires due to decreased precipitation this past winter and expected record setting temperatures.”
On Tuesday, OFD deputy fire chief Nick Luby said he’d never seen a season start as early in a calendar year, noting that department observers were seeing grim conditions for tree groves in the city’s vulnerable hills.
“Here we are in April and early May, and we’re seeing hundreds of acres burned in Northern California. I think they just had a fire in Mendocino a couple of weeks ago or last week, where they burned 200 acres of the Mendocino forest,” Luby said. “We’ve had two small fires in April in the city of Oakland that burned on the [Interstate 580] roadside, but they were able to jump 30-foot paved roadways and get to the other side of the road. Well, that right there puts the hair up on my neck. It just makes me as a operations chief a little more concerned because if we’re seeing that in April, what are we going to be seeing in June and July?”
Residents’ awareness of the deadly potential of fire season remains unevenly distributed, Luby said.
Although recent years’ North Bay fires’ ravages remain in many minds’ forefront, “we haven’t had a large scale fire in almost 30 years,” he said, referencing the October 1991 Oakland hills firestorm that claimed 25 lives and 3,000 homes.
“Complacency is our enemy and lack of education is our enemy,” Luby said. “We’re doing such a good job at not letting fires get big, with vegetation management and aggressive operational tactics, that people get a sense of security.”
Many residents have developed resilience in handling Pacific Gas and Electric PSPS, or public safety power shutoffs, in response to forecasts of dangerous “red flag” conditions, said Luby, who added that good relationships with agencies like the East Bay Municipal Utility District mean topped-off reservoirs and readied emergency water supplies.
Luby hoped residents would help fire officials by managing fuels, but also by planning ahead for possible evacuations and setting up communication plans.
“If a situation does arise where you think you maybe should evacuate, don’t wait, go ahead and evacuate,” he said. “Lean on the side of caution and observation. Don’t wait to be told to leave, because it may be too late if you wait for that message.”
Resources to prepare:
Residents may update PG&E emergency contact information by visiting pge.com/mywildfirealerts and learn more by visiting the city’s PSPS page at https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/power-outages, the Oakland Community Preparedness & Response page at https://www.oaklandcpandr.org/ and CalFire’s Ready for Wildfire toolkit at https://www.readyforwildfire.org/
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.