Proposed Fire Breaks Aimed at Protecting Vulnerable Contra Costa Community
CONTRA COSTA (CBS SF) -- With wildfires seemingly happening year round, fire prevention has become a top priority in Contra Costa County, where officials are proposing a line of fire breaks as a defensible barrier to protect some of the county's most vulnerable communities.
The danger is obvious to Contra Costa resident Bob Daines. He only has to look over the railing at the steep, tree-filled canyon beneath his Rossmoor home.
"We look down there quite often and wonder what would happen if -- when and if -- the fires will occur," he said.
The senior-living community of Rossmoor is particularly vulnerable, with mountains towering above it on three sides.
"The areas to our south is the Las Trampas Wilderness, which has a lot of vegetation and has become a threat. Especially now that California's entered into this new mega fire time," said Rossmoor Public Safety Manager Tom Cashion.
It's along the Las Trampas Ridge that Con Fire, East Bay Regional Parks and the Moraga-Orinda Fire District want to extend a 13 mile stretch of what's called "shaded fuel breaks."
The trees would remain, but all the lower debris and vegetation would be removed to a height of 6 feet, creating a defensible space up to 100 feet wide.
"If a small fire is moving across the ground, that's its way to get up in the trees and start creating those crowning fires," said Con Fire Assistant Chief Chris Bachman. "So we want to eliminate all those lower fuels, what we call 'ladder fuels' to eliminate crowning fires. It's a lot easier to control those small fires that are 2-3 feet traveling across the ground, to extinguish, than those fires when they're 30-40 feet high."
Con Fire is asking the State for $5 million to establish the breaks that would basically surround the Rossmoor community, slowing down any fires coming in or out while also providing protection for nearby Moraga, Lafayette and Walnut Creek.
"So it really gives us that good buffer that, if something is coming over the Las Trampas Ridge, it's going to provide up plenty of space to slow it down and put the fire out," said Bachman.
California has put a high priority on creating fuel breaks, increasing the number of projects from 35 this year to more than 500 in the next five years. It could avert another disaster. At the very least, it may give Bob Daines a good night's sleep.
"We do think about it all the time," he said.
The project would extend a 16-mile stretch of fire breaks created by the Moraga-Orinda district last year. If the grant is approved, Chief Bachman said they could begin clearing the fire breaks at the end of this season, in time for next year.