By Jondi Gumz
From the outset, Cal Fire’s strategy was to box the CZU Lightning Complex fire in, and keep flames from jumping the box.
It appears to be working, with evacuees from UC Santa Cruz the first of 77,000 exiles in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties allowed to return Wednesday.
As of Monday night, the fire, which started Aug. 16, grew to 85,060 acres in the two counties with 41% contained and 2,394 personnel, double the numbers at the start.
The destruction is massive: 1,453 structures, of which 1,401 are in Santa Cruz County and 901 are single-family homes, with 95% of inspections complete.
Santa Cruz County opened a recovery center Saturday at the Kaiser Permanente Arena, 140 Front St., Santa Cruz, with hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to help residents impacted by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire with resources needed to recover and rebuild. Residents can register with FEMA for federal disaster aid and get information about the rebuilding process, removal of debris, utilities, insurance, community and social services and obtaining documents that may have burned in the fire.
Tad Jones, 73, of Last Chance Road in Davenport, a hard-hit area, was the first casualty; he was found on his property. A 63-year-old Felton woman was found dead in her home Monday; her name has not been released.
Firefighters prepare for another round fighting the CZU Lightning Fires in front of Bonny Doon Church.
Henry Reinke, 70, Micah Szoke, 37, and Shane Smith, 21, who had been reported missing, have been found, and one person is still missing, according to Chief Chris Clark of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. Missing persons can be reported to 831-471-1121.
For evacuees wondering when they could return home, residents of Scotts Valley, a city of 12,000, got the good news Thursday, as did residents of Paradise Park. Residents of Zayante, Lompico, Mount Hermon and the eastern Bear Creek Road learned Friday afternoon they could go home.
On Saturday, Felton residents learned they would be able to go home.
The wait will be longer for people who live in the towns along the Highway 9 corridor, Ben Lomond, Brookdale and Boulder Creek, where the fire is active, and also Bonny Doon where the fire damage is so extensive, with downed power lines and trees in the roadways. PG&E is following firefighters into areas deemed safe to restore power.
Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox has hosted daily press conferences at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the firefighters’ base camp in Scotts Valley to report their progress.
Battalion Chief Mark Brunton and Assistant Chief Billy See described the strategy to box the fire in by creating “lines” — defensive trenches wide enough to prevent embers from blowing across.
This task was accomplished relatively quickly in the south, protecting the heavily forested UCSC campus and the city of Santa Cruz, but it’s much more challenging on the east along Highway 9 in Felton, Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek and in Bonny Doon where terrain is steep and homes are interspersed among the redwoods. Crews work by hand because the job can’t be done by bulldozers.
See said 12 National Guard crews, 288 men and women, with 44 Cal Fire supervisors overseeing them, are coming in to work on containment. North of Ben Lomond, there were places where fire jumping the lines, “something we have to deal with,” he said.
He was pleased that 30,000 people were able to return home in 11 days. More than 40,000 people remain evacuated.
For the first week, smoky air grounded Cal Fire aircraft and helicopters. Once the air cleared, they dumped 1.6 million gallons of water.
On Thursday, a critical operation was scheduled in San Lorenzo Valley — a burn designed to “control the fire on our terms,” as See put it. The job was expected to take 24 to 30 hours but was delayed a bit, first by a weather change, and then by a brazen theft of the commander’s personal protective equipment by someone who broke into his truck.
The burn was successful, protecting residents of Scotts Valley, with the other communities to follow, as long as roads are safe, and gas, electric sand water service are available.
Water is a concern because the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, which serves San Lorenzo Valley and part of Scotts Valley, had three tanks damaged, reducing storage capacity by half, and five miles of polystyrene water lines snaking across Ben Lomond Mountain melted. Water district general manager Rick Rogers said a majority of the system, however, is in good shape and emergency repairs have been authorized.
Looters were a concern at first, with multiple arrests made, until the Sheriff’s Office bolstered its forces with personnel from around the county and out of the area, as many as 90 officers on the weekend to deter burglars.
Another issue has been people returning to their property to check on their homes and retrieve forgotten items, potentially causing conflicts with firefighters’ plans to dump water or retardant, or worst case, residents trapped by fallen branches or power lines, requiring a rescue.
One man was cited after he tried to sneak back home, using a back way, getting lost and spending two nights in the woods until a friend of his called deputies. Clark said the search took 126 hours plus a helicopter to extricate him out of the terrain, and a deputy was injured riding a mountain bike to the rescue.
On Tuesday, Santa Cruz County released a map where property owners can look up their address and check the status of their home: https://www.santacruzcounty.us/FireRecovery/DamageAssessmentMap.aspx
A green marker indicates no damage. Orange means 26-50 percent damaged. A red marker means destroyed.
For those wanting to thank firefighters, letters, cards and posters can be mailed to: CAL FIRE CZU Headquarters 6059 Highway 9, Felton, CA, 95018