East Bay fire crews get head start on wildfire prevention
Contra Costa County Fire Protection District crews were doing work this week well ahead of the beginning of fire season to decrease the risk of wildfires in vegetation-dense East Bay neighborhoods.
"We're trying to reduce the fuel loading in the area around this community," Captain Brandon Earhart told CBS News Bay Area.
He and about 18 firefighters were out on Tuesday morning in the Rossmoore neighborhood in Walnut Creek, conducting prescribed burns.
"We try to eliminate a lot of the dead and dying fuel that's on the ground, that would serve as a ladder fuel to carry fire into the canopy of the trees. So if you look around the community here, the areas that we treated, there's usually about eight to 15 feet clearance from the ground to the canopy of the larger trees," Earhart said.
This is all a part of the Lafayette/Wanut Creek Shaded Fuel Break project, where fire crews work through about 268 acres along 11 miles of open terrain in the East Bay.
Cal Fire has awarded a $3 million grant to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District to fund this program.
"Basically what they're doing here is they're using drip torches to aid in ignition. We put in some scratch line around each pile to prevent from fire from creeping out in ground litter," Earhart explained.
He added that fire season typically starts between May and June. Factors including rain and wind conditions also impact how early the season actually begins. But preparing for the upcoming fire season actually starts a year before.
"These piles were constructed probably 12 months ago. So every day that we're out cutting, there's usually at least 60 days from the time we cut the brush to when we would be able to burn it," Earhart said.
Contra Costa County leaders also want to remind neighbors of the resources available to make sure everyone is prepared in case disaster strikes.
"We really have focused on, since we had the Paradise fires, fires in Santa Rosa, we have realized that the way traditionally, we've expected fire seasons to go, fires to be fought. We need to change the whole game plan," Candace Andersen, chair of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, told CBS News Bay Area.
She said the county has strengthened its technology with its Community Warning System (CWS) alerts.
"Go to CWS, Community Warning System, and you can sign up for your cellphone, your email address to be notified of alerts. It's an automatic reverse 911 to your landline, but not everyone sill has a landline, so we want to encourage people sign up for this and you will be receiving alerts," Andersen said.
She also added that residents can also find a wildfire preparedness guide and sign up for Genasys on the Project Genasys website.
"Shows you what your zone is. And when there's a wildfire, it will show you in adjacent zones who is being evacuated. We want people familiar with that," she said.
The chairwoman also encouraged residents to make sure the surrounding areas around their homes are free from any debris.
The fire crews working in Walnut Creek said they want to be extra prepared ahead of the fire season after witnessing the horrific Southern California wildfires.
"Oak woodland and grasslands, combined with the topography where we've got homes that are basically sitting at the top of the hill, it can be prone to having some significant incidents," said Earhart.