62 replies to this topic

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

Someone even parked blocking our driveway! Hello if we need to leave our homes your car is in our way! People need to think!

You should have had them towed.

[tessieca]

I didn't see the Metro fire helicopter which seems odd but since it's state property, the CDF guys at McClellen probably need the practice for what is likely to be a very busy fire season.

There were helicopters, but they all appeared to be news choppers. It reached 3-alarm level, and the metro fire guys raced in. We walked back up the trail from TNM, and interestingly were "blocked" off near Lake Forest. The Folsom employees there said they were on cyclist patrol, but they had their backs to the trail, so I don't know what good they were doing. They said it had not yet been determined what the cause was. I suspect kids, accidentally or on purpose. Luckily no homes were harmed.

[Warren G]

I was on the bike trail 5-10 minutes after the fire started, and judging by where the fire was at that time and that it was only a few hundred square feet in size, I'd say it started very close to the first intersection on the bike trail that you come to riding west from Rainbow bridge (100 yards east of the plaque looking towards the bluffs on the other side of the river). IOW, I think it was started within a few feet of the bike trail on the little curvy section and the wind blew it towards the corporation yard. Near the end, the wind blew the fire across the section of bike trail I'd been on earlier.

[sat]

I was driving across Rainbow Bridge very early this morning (around 4am), and the lingering smoke smell was still strong.

[Johnny_come_lately]

I bet it has something to do with some unsavory character taking light rail into our community....

[supermom]

Saw the fire last night when it was just orange smoke. I was headed down F-A. I turned up to E. Bidwell- got some chicken at KFC-turned back down to FA. While driving down FA I saw the wierdest thing.

There was a Fire CDC pick up in the lane next to me. Not hurrying, not using his lights. Staying in the heavy traffic. I heard the sirens coming from Greenback. They came down the long bridge and turned onto the road(can't remember the name of that road now.) Then the CDC pickup get's over to the turn lane-waits till the light changes and goes down the road.

Seemed very causal-as though the fire was not important.

Why didn't the CDC pull out of the traffic and go UP F-A to clear Greenback for the firetrucks? Or tirn in and start checking the area for people needing help or clearing traffic on that road?

It just seemed that the firetruck was extremely long in getting to the fire and the the CDC truck was --well incompetent? Shrug...maybe the fire was unimportant.

[Warren G]

I have a hunch it's not CDC's fire to fight, but I too saw some things at the scene that made me wonder how long it could take. But, when I first saw the fire (when it wss still very small) the guy who was down near the bike trail, and running along the trail to decide where to go into the brush to do something looked like a CDC guy, not a regular fireman.

It seemed to me that the fire department was mostly concerned about keeping the fire away from the houses, and it was about an hour before they took some trucks down the bike trail to attack the fire from there, and by then the fire had burned 5-10 acres.

Also, I heard sirens and saw new fire trucks 4 separate times during the first 45 minutes or so, as if they didn't realize early on how many trucks and personnel they would need.

[firemedic238]

First of all I was not in town for the fire. So with that said, yes warren life and homes come first when fighting a wildland fire. It would be normal ops to assign the first units to structure protection. Grass and brush will grow back. While some have said it was a slow response from the Fire Dept. When most time records are checked the time is much faster then what most citizens thought. Just because they did not see a fire truck does not mean that they are not on scene sizing up the fire, finding best access, homes threaten ect. I know when you need help times seems to stand still.
As far as a C.D.F pick up not responding. All fire depts. Have staffs that are not firefighters. Investigators, mechanics, and other support staff may have dept vehicles but don’t need to respond to a fire with lights and sirens. All Fire Depts help out other Depts with fires. If you have a fire that’s really big , they will request strike teams from all over the state. I am sure as the summer progresses we will be seeing a lot of CDF( now Cal. Fire) on the ground and in the air. heres a good wed site for more fire info

http://cdfdata.fire....dents/incidents

[john]

Hey, I'll take 10 acres of brush burned over a house any day...

[Warren G]

I went through there today. It looks like about 10 acres of burned open grass areas, and another 10-12 acres of wooded area. Many of the trees look okay but there were two giant oaks that came apart, and a few more trees in the 18-24" diameter range that had already been cut up.

As I mentioned yesterday, and after seeing it close up today, it looks to me like the fire started about 8-10 feet from the bike trail, about 100 yards upriver from the first intersection on the bike trail traveling downstream from Rainbow Bridge. Then the wind moved it a few hundred yards towards the corporation yard and then along the area between the houses and the river. The paved trail acted as an obvious fire break in some areas, all burned on one side, green and untouched on the other side. In the later stages of the fire it did jump across the bike trail in one area. It looks bad there, and will for more than a year.

[Suzyque565]

Today my friend at work was saying the he was riding on the bike trail from Lake Natomas and passed just in that area at 5:30 pm..just minutes prior to the fire starting. He mentioned that there is apparently a rope swing leading out to the water and he observed approx 30 kids in that area.. with a strong odor of pot smoke. The thought had crossed his mind at that time that the kids were asking for trouble.. smoking anything in that grassy area. He peddled straight to Sutter St. where almost instantly when he sat down the fire started. Anyone hear of the cause yet? Could it have been these kids?

[MikeinFolsom]

First units dispatched at 1749. Onscene at 1753. The fire actually was burning in a northern direction from the Young Wo bike trail entrance down the bike trail up to the corp yard.

It was mentioned that there were several times where more sirens where heard and then more grass and engines showing up. The fire was a 3 alarm grass and 2 alarm structure fire. Initial dispatch packages are sent, then if more are needed, they are called for.

You are correct that houses are more important than some grass, weeds, and trees. Those were protected first, the corp yard second, then the rest of the burning items last. Conditions were pretty dry and the fire moved quite rapidly along the bike trail while additional units were responding.

I doubt you'll ever see any firefighters risking their lives to put out some grass or trees that are burning. Not worth it. Saving people, you bet they will!!!!! Single units weren't sent down the bike trail to fight the fires until there were enough of them. A single unit was not going to put that fire out. Flame lengths in some of the areas were 12' high with several trees on fire above the bike trail.

The most unfortunate part were all of the people driving down the access roads to "take a look and see what was going on". Nothing but a recipe for disaster as many fire engines and grass units had to dodge all of the spectators just to get to the access areas of the fire.

[maestro]

Thursday fire destroyed about 50 to 75 acres of State Park,
Corp Yard, private land.

Explosions were numerous.
Black smoke from burning wood poles poisoned the
air, sickened neighbors.

Flames 30 to 35 feet high raged within 25 feet of houses
on Young Wo.

Flames reached Hazardous Materials area (with stored oil,
batteries, electronics, derelict vehicles, tires, wood,
plastic, CRTs, paint, toxics, etc.)

City has and continues to improperly store haz mats
on BARE ground directly above American River.

Most importantly, if the breeze were not a strong
SW Delta breeze, our homes would have been
touched by the raging fire and explosive, air poisoning
toxins of the fire.

We are stunned, shocked, and physically ill.

The fire reached the Haz Mat area, where plastic
tarps cover plastic and metal barrels of haz mats.
Fence at Vet Hall was burned and fire spread to private
forest land beyond. Thanks to firefighters for braving
Creosote-filled toxic smoke in order to halt the
fire before it consumed the Sutter St. Forest and
homes along there.


While explosions occurred, and black smoke rose
from them in Corp Yard, the flames rose to at
least 35 feet in the air, and in front of the Young Wo
Cemetery/Park, our faces turned red from heat.


We have an urban forest. There's a Corp Yard
between forest/river
and our homes. So, where are the Fire Breaks?

None. City brought in Haz Mat area, and all
sorts of flammables, poisons, and toxics.
Instead of fire breaks, we have flammables to
spread the fire to our homes.
Again, thanks to the SW breeze, our neighborhood
was spared. Our lungs and throats are sore, and
we are in shock.


For 3 painful years I have battled cityhall to observe
regulations and safety precautions. Fires are
always occurring in the forest at the river, because
of humans.
Perhaps finally, the city will admit that when I sound
an alarm, I'm on the mark.
I have likewise been extremely concerned about the
very old tinderbox situations on Historic Sutter St.


BTW, I was stunned by the number of looky-lous
coming into the area. The fire trucks were impeded
by the illegal parking. The air was black, white, orange,
toxic. The flames blazed above us. The Creosote
burned our throats and lungs. The fear of the fire shifting
to our homes was red-hot and real. Neighbors used
their hoses against the burning corp yard just 25 feet from
their homes. Fire fighters didn't fight this front until
almost an hour after the blaze began. The area below
our homes is nearly impossible for trucks to reach.
Now they don't have to; there was a "fire clearance."


Corp yard junk and flammables were hard to reach.
And vehicles streamed in onto the 28 foot wide pavement
that had to service all the fire trucks. It was a nightmare
which could only have been worse by the loss of
homes and friends -- not just our False Sense of Security.


I feel deeply saddened and shocked by this near holocaust
because we are a close neighborhood, and we deserve the
city to respect the most basic of safety laws. Take the
hazardous materials away from the forests and our homes.
You've dragged your feet long enough.

A difference of wind direction, and we'd be gone.

[Warren G]

He mentioned that there is apparently a rope swing leading out to the water and he observed approx 30 kids in that area.. with a strong odor of pot smoke. The thought had crossed his mind at that time that the kids were asking for trouble.. smoking anything in that grassy area. Could it have been these kids?

That rope swing is more than a mile southwest from where the fire started. The kids at the rope swing don't go anywhere near where the fire started when they come and go to the swing area.

But last year there was a 1-2 acre grass fire close to the rope swing (a few hundred yards west of Folsom Blvd., and essentially along the path many of the kids use to get to and from the swing area.