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Alpine fire
engine battles 100,000-acre Zaca Fire
By Wende Cornelius
The Alpine Sun
SANTA BARBARA — As the crew of USFS Fire Engine 46 emerged from
their tents in the gray, early light of Saturday, Aug. 11, a
cool fog swirled through the Zaca Fire base camp. Captain Eddie
Delgado, engineer Ron Brewer, and firefighters Luis Ramirez,
Rick Welder and Dana Barré joked around while they checked their
equipment and waited for their day’s assignment.
Welder is a temporary addition to the engine, normally
working on Mt. Laguna, yet the bond of the team was evident in
the comfortable way they interacted.
“It’s about respect. The training we have comes into
play, yet we still all learn things as we go,” Delgado remarked.
Barré chimed in, “We all have a common goal, and we’re
all looking out for each other.”
Fire management officers gathered at 6 a.m., reporting
on successes, discussing operational plans, finances, even human
resources. If not for the plywood stage and yellow Nomex shirts,
one could imagine the conversation taking place in any office
board room in America. The weather was more than a topic of idle
conversation at this meeting, however.
Temperatures in the Santa Barbara County wilderness
were forecasted to peak around 97 degrees with humidity
plummeting to 12-18 percent. The 100,000-plus acre Zaca Fire was
expected to become active as the fog burned off by 10 a.m., when
torching and spot fires would continue to plague suppression
efforts.
The news didn’t surprise Japatul Station’s Engine 46
crew. In the two weeks they had been assigned to the Zaca Fire,
it ballooned from 32,000 acres. In a southwestern area known as
Division R, they had watched the fire come closer and closer,
and finally run parallel past their location.
For first season firefighter Barré, it was an exciting
reinforcement of her training.
“You know you’re not going to be put in harm’s way,”
she explained. “So you’re able to watch how the terrain,
alignment and wind affect the fire’s behavior. It was very
exciting.”
The job is not all excitement, as Welder described the
long days of work known as “mopping up.” Engine 46 works in
concert with a “strike team” of engines from around the
Cleveland National Forest. Each day the crews hike the steep
edges of the burned area, watching for “spots” in unburned
brush.
After pursuing tendrils of smoke and extinguishing
these smaller fires, the group returns to their line. Progress
is slow as they reach into ash, feeling for telltale warmth that
reveals still smoldering limbs, stumps, or roots.
“We’ve buttoned up the west end of the fire,” Welder
reported.
The work is grueling, and each firefighter experiences
personal sacrifices while away from home.
Engineer Brewer joked, “Things break that don’t break
when you’re home. If I was home right now, my computer would be
working.”
Barré’s five-year-old son lost a tooth and her
three-year-old now answers, “because” to many of his mother’s
questions.
Delgado missed his daughter’s 13th birthday. After 18
years of fire seasons, the captain is pragmatic. “Life happens
while you’re away. You miss out on many things that happen at
your home, but you notice them, and they mean more.”
Each firefighter finds ways to cope with the
separation. Ramirez calls his brother every couple days, but
Barré calls home every night. Welder plans to take his son
fishing when he gets home, Delgado told his daughter her
birthday won’t be finished until he takes her shopping. Not one
of the firefighters begrudged the sacrifice.
Engine idling and anxious to get on with their day, the
group nodded as Brewer shrugged and spoke for them all, “I can’t
see myself fitting into an office and doing the same thing every
day.”
The six-week-old Zaca Fire burning in Los Padres
National Forest has blackened more than 100,000 and is still
more than three weeks away from full containment, according to
authorities.
The fire started July 4 and to date, 101,472 acres have
burned. There are 2,783 fire personnel fighting the blaze and
they have it 44 percent contained.
Weather conditions are not helping the firefight.A red
flag warning has been issued for San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara,
Ventura, and Los Angeles Counties. In one area extreme fire
behavior and wind pattern have pushed flames to within a mile of
the dozer line.
The fire has forced the closure of the Lower Santa Ynez
River Recreation Area campgrounds, day use areas and trailheads.
An earlier evacuation order for Paradise Road community, Los
Prietos Boys Camp, Paradise Store and the Rancho Oso Guest Ranch
has been downgraded to a warning. Just one outbuilding has been
lost.
Fire officials say the fire was caused by humans. It
has cost $69.2 million to fight.
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