Cal Fire warns of possible staffing shortage as late-summer wildfire season peak looms
SAN JOSE -- Cal Fire is warning the public that this year's relatively mild wildfire season is expected to intensify as we enter the late-summer months into the early fall.
"It's not an if, it's a when," said Chelsea Burkett, spokesperson for Cal Fire's SCU Unit, which covers San Jose's east foothills. A small but fast-moving grass fire blackened about ten acres off Mt. Hamilton Road Saturday night -- a reminder than the worst of wildfire season in Northern California may be yet to come.
"This whole hill was going up in flames. And I was like, 'Shoot!'" said area resident Alex Gadda. He says he heard a loud bang like a car backfiring shortly before he noticed the flames.
Gadda said he watched the flames race up the hillside across the street from his girlfriend's house, but thankfully about two dozen fire engines from the city and Cal Fire arrived a short time later to battle the blaze.
"There were tons of cops. About 30 fire trucks probably. So they were kind of everywhere around here," said Aaron Miller, who could see the flames from down in the valley and drove up to check on his house.
Cal Fire says all the wet weather this past winter shifted the peak of fire season later into the summer.
Burkett says Cal Fire is trying to staff up -- especially hand crews -- to meet the expected demand later this summer. Hand crews who fight fires from the ground often with shovels and garden hoes are sometimes the most effective, if labor-intensive, means of bringing a fire under control.
Alex echoed Cal Fire's words of caution, urging people to be careful as the area enter peak fire season.
"People should be more aware of what they're doing or what they throw out the window. Because at the end of the day, it's going to affect the people who live here. Up here, this is just a big playground for fires," he said.
