A firefighting crew checks an area of dense vegetation near the burned out side of a mountain in Henry Coe Park as they fight the Lick Fire Monday afternoon.
Gilroy - After 10 days of working with local agencies to contain the Lick Fire, CalFire handed the reins back to its Santa Clara County unit.
More than 30 fire officials gathered at City Hall Wednesday afternoon for the formal transfer. They ran through a checklist of hand-over conditions, such as post-fire containment needs and expected manpower, which hovered around 250 Wednesday, fire officials said.
Local Santa Clara County CalFire battalion Chief Dave McLean, based out of Morgan Hill, will take over the fire camp at Christmas Hill Park, said CalFire Capt. Rob vanWormer, who has been training as a CalFire Incident Commander since the fire began Sept. 3.
McLean will assume control from Incident Command Team Two. The team was dispatched to the fire last week and headed by Bob Wallen, who said of Gilroy that he had "never witnessed this degree of support in 35 years of service."
The wildfire, the biggest in Santa Clara County's recent history, consumed 47,760 acres, cost a total of $11 million, destroyed four cabins and 20 outbuildings since Sept. 3 when it was ignited from a burn barrel lit roughly a mile north of Mt. Sizer. Eleven firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the fire, none of them serious.
"Anytime homes are destroyed, it's a bad fire, but it's definitely good for the area and the forest around it because it cleans out the understory, the vegetation below the trees allowing new growth to occur," said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for CalFire. "The responsible party has come forward and is working closely with our investigators. Burning in a barrel is illegal and dangerous in the county."
VanWormer agreed and said it was now up to McLean to wrap things up.
About 250 CalFire firefighters slept at Christmas Hill Park Wednesday night and stayed there until Friday morning, but vanWormer said "it's up to Dave [McLean] to look at things" to determine if the base camp's still necessary.
"He could down-size the camp," vanWormer said, "[but there's] still the possibility, though very minimal, that the fire could come to life again."
Remaining crews will work to rebuild dirt roads pulverized by heavy equipment rumbling toward the fire. The fire's nearly $11 million estimated cost could be billed to a single person, who came forward Friday to admit to accidentally starting the fire.
CalFire has not released the person's name, pending a complete investigation, and has referred questions about the person to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, where David Howe is an assistant DA.
"We have received some initial reports regarding [CalFire's] investigation," Howe said. "We're reviewing them and we expect to receive additional reports in the near future ... My hope is that we'd have a better review within the next few days."
Gilroy Fire Chief Dale Foster said final efforts depend largely on the weather, and Wednesday saw mostly cool, cloudy conditions.
The Lick Fire wasn't the first fire in South County's backyard, though, according to the Post-Incident Action Summary prepared by Incident Team Two.
The Canyon Fire in roughly the same vicinity consumed about 34,000 acres last year and had been close enough that some of its containment lines were incorporated into fighting the Lick Fire. The Croy Road Fire occurred in 2002, and the Annie, Jump, and Devil fires that burned in 2003 were within about 25 miles of the Lick Fire. And back in 1961, the Bollinger Ridge Fire consumed 34,217 acres throughout much of the same area. The Lick Fire destroyed nearly 50,000 acres and has cost nearly $11 million to squash, but there are some Gilroyans who benefited from the ordeal.
Meanwhile, hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, gas stations and general stores in Gilroy all welcomed the troops of tired, hungry firefighters and their diesel equipment, though Gilroy City Administrator Jay Baksa said the rush of economic activity wouldn't result in more than "a blip" on the city's financial radar at the end of the fiscal year.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 47,760 acres burned
- 100 percent contained
- 25 residences threatened
- 4 homes destroyed
- $11 million estimated cost
- Began Sept. 3, fully contained Sept. 11
- 20 outbuildings destroyed
- 11 injuries
- 1,911 total firefighters at fire's peak Sept. 7
- 10 airtankers
- 35 bulldozers
- 53 inmate crews, each made up of about 15 people
- 8 helicopters
- 200 fire engines
Chris Bone Chris Bone covers Gilroy government for South Valley Newspapers. Reach him at 847-7109 or e-mail him.
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