Proactive wildfire response in California seeks to avoid another catastrophe

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake County on Monday as an out-of-control blaze -- one that marked a frighteningly early kickoff to the California fire season -- destroyed at least 22 structures in the community of Spring Valley and prompted more than 200 firefighters to battle the flames.

This was the new normal that officials had warned of after October's historic firestorm in Wine Country. And they said the response, which included battles on land and from the air, sought to incorporate the hard lessons from that deadly catastrophe.

Well before the Pawnee Fire ignited Saturday evening northeast of Clearlake, fueled by dry conditions and driven by high winds, state agencies were preparing for the worst.

On Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, had ordered extra aircraft from Montana and New Mexico to be flown to bases in Chico, Sonoma and Sacramento. Extra firefighters and battalion chiefs trained in managing complex firefights were placed on-call.

Within an hour of fire-scarred Lake County calling for mutual aid Saturday, engines from around 50 agencies responded, officials said, including from as far away as Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Mutual aid had been difficult to secure during last year's Wine Country fires, in part because there were so many fires burning on so many fronts.

``The events of last October are an ingrained emotional event for everybody,'' said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox. ``It taught us that, under red-flag conditions, we needed to aggressively allocate our resources to keep the fires small, both on the ground and in the air. We were very aware, with last weekend's conditions, that we would need additional staffing.''

As of Monday, the Pawnee Fire exploded to 8,200 acres and had no containment, meaning that fire crews hadn't shored up any of the perimeter. In addition to the 22 ruined structures in Spring Valley, the fire was threatening 600 homes.

Soon after the Pawnee Fire sparked Saturday -- the first report came in at 5:21 p.m., though the cause is unknown -- the Lake County Sheriff's Office sent out four alerts, warning Spring Valley residents of evacuation orders and directing them to an American Red Cross evacuation center at Lower Lake High School.

At least 54,659 subscribers to a service called Nixle and 15,000 telephone landlines linked to the LakeCoAlerts system received alerts, officials said. They also sent an Amber Alert-style message to mobile phones. Taken together, the emergency messages went out far wider than Spring Valley, a cluster of 3,000 residents north of Highway 20.

Lake County's approach stood in contrast to that of Sonoma County, which took heavy criticism after it chose not to send out Amber Alert-style messages as the deadly Tubbs Fire -- the biggest of October's infernos -- bore down. Since then, state legislators have sought to strengthen emergency alert systems.

``We used every available tool we had to put out a notification,'' said Lt. Corey Paulich, a spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Office. ``And we get it out as soon as possible. We are dealing with a very educated populace that understands what these alerts mean, and also understands how to deal with wildfires. We are more experienced than some, obviously.''

Rural Lake County -- while mostly spared by the wildfires that tore across Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties last year -- was hit by the 4,000-acre Clayton Fire in August 2016, which burned 300 homes and businesses in Lower Lake. A year earlier, the 76,000-acre Valley Fire killed five people and destroyed 2,000 homes and structures in Middletown. It was started by faulty wiring on a hot tub, Cal Fire found.

While the cause of the Pawnee Fire is under investigation, wildfire experts said it appeared to have been man-made, noting that no lightning was reported Saturday.

``All the big fire events in 2017 were the result of power lines igniting the fires,'' said Jon Keeley, an adjunct professor at UCLA and fire ecologist studying historical fire patterns.

``In this case, it's likely the same,'' he said. ``During severe wind events and red-flag warnings, the real concern is watching what happens to power lines. It is certainly something that has caught people's attention since October.''

A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokesman, Matt Nauman, said Monday that the utility has no indication that its equipment started any of the fires burning Monday in Northern California.

Acting on a request from Cal Fire, PG&E on Saturday cut electricity to 6,800 customers served by power lines running through active fire zones in Butte, Shasta and Tehama counties -- a common step to protect firefighters working in the field. Another 3,200 PG&E customers lost electricity after fires damaged PG&E's equipment. Service was restored to all 10,000 of those customers by Sunday night.

PG&E this month warned 570,000 of its customers that the company might shut off power lines during severe fire weather as a way to prevent its lines from sparking flames during windstorms. But PG&E did not consider this weekend's weather sufficiently dangerous to take that step anywhere in Northern or Central California, officials said.

Already, PG&E has received the brunt of the blame for October's wildfires. Cal Fire investigators have said the utility's power lines coming into contact with branches and trees amidst powerful winds sparked many of the firestorms. The cause of the Tubbs Fire, though, remains under investigation.

The Wine Country fires have put immense pressure on state and local officials to prepare for this summer and fall. State funding was funneled into new suppression gear, large-scale tree removal and prescribed burns, putting California on safer footing.

``I've never seen so much focused attention in Sacramento on the issue,'' said Keith Gilless, a professor of forest economics and dean of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley.

``Last year, 2017, got everybody's attention,'' said Gilless, chair of the California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. ``Last year was just terrible. Everybody involved is doing their best to be as prepared as we can. Any area might burn now, including those with much higher structure densities than they did 20 or 50 years ago.

''You are going to need a lot of resources that you might not have needed before,`` he said. ''The state is being very aggressive in its suppression efforts.``

But there are limits to those efforts, and in Lake County on Monday, great plumes of smoke in June were an ominous sign.

Paul Lowenthal, assistant fire marshal for the Santa Rosa Fire Department, was among those who responded to Lake County. His home burned down during October's firestorm.

''We have had some really rapid rates of spread that are relatively large for a fire this early in the season,`` he said. ''It's something we will have to remain aware of.``

More than 235 firefighters were battling the Pawnee Fire, using seven bulldozers to carve fire breaks, two helicopters to drop retardant and 32 engines, officials said. The blaze was one of several wildfires burning across Northern California, in Tehama, Shasta, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties.

Cpl. Ruben Murgia, of the Red Bluff Police Department, was working a 12-hour shift Sunday and assisting with the Stoll Fire when he realized the magnitude of the blaze. He called his pregnant wife and told her to evacuate immediately with their three young children.

The growing family only had time to leave with the clothes on their backs. Their house was soon destroyed.

''The family hasn't had a chance to process what happened,`` said Capt. Quintan Ortega, a Red Bluff police spokesman. ''Since it's only been a day, they haven't had a chance to really grasp the difficulties that's ahead of them.``