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Fire burns 1,200 acres near bluffs |
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
 One of two CalFire helicopters drops water on a blaze raging along the Owens River south of Chalk Bluff Road on Sunday. The helicopters were part of a concerted, direct attack of the fire that lasted well into Monday. Photo by Daniel Kratz/courtesy Mammoth Times By Darcy Ellis
Editor 3-18-2008
An act of human carelessness, dry vegetation conditions and fierce, unpredictable winds sparked, fueled and fanned a wildfire on Sunday north of Bishop that hundreds of firefighters were still fighting to contain on Monday.
As of yesterday morning, the blaze had consumed approximately 1,200 acres of brush along the Owens River below Chalk Bluffs east of Pleasant Valley Reservoir.
It was in that general vicinity where three Southern California fishermen were plying the Owens River Sunday when they accidentally set the blaze via an ill-advised attempt to use a camp stove in high winds, according to Inyo County Sheriff’s Investigator Jeff Hollowell.
The winds, Hollowell said, knocked over the lit camp stove, which ignited nearby vegetation. The fishermen, all in their early 40s from Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach and Manhattan Beach, attempted to put out the fire to no avail as wind gusts quickly spread the flames to surrounding brush. With a fast-growing, out-of-control conflagration on their hands, the men fled the area, called 911 to report the fire and drove straight to the Bishop Police Department to take responsibility for the blaze.
Within hours after their 12:30 p.m. 911 call, the fire was raging through several hundred acres of brush along the river with the help of 30 mph winds.
According to the incident commander, CalFire Owens Valley Assistant Chief Rodger Thompson, crews were still waging war against an active fire on the west flank near Pleasant Valley Campground about 8:30 a.m. Monday. Tentative containment of the blaze, he said, was not expected until about 6 p.m. Monday.
It could take another 2-3 days of vigilant mop-up operations, meanwhile, before the fire is fully “controlled,” or extinguished.
Thompson, coming off of at least 20 hours straight at the fire yesterday morning, said a CalFire investigator was now out at the scene. Hollowell was scheduled to meet with the investigator that morning to turn over the information provided to the Sheriff’s Department by the three fishermen. From there, CalFire would be in contact with the visitors and will determine whether any charges should be filed. (Hollowell noted they were camping outside of designated camping areas.)
Regardless, the fishermen likely have significant restitution costs in their future.
The lion’s share of the battle against the blaze required the manpower of 600 firefighters from no less than 10 agencies stretching from Mono County to San Diego – all in what Thompson described as an extremely successful cooperative effort.
Fighting the fire were personnel from CalFire in the Owens Valley, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego, the Inyo National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, Mammoth Lakes Fire Department and volunteers from the Bishop, Big Pine and Long Valley fire departments.
“Our volunteers have got to be thanked so much,” Thompson added. “They did an excellent job.”
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, also, “is a great cooperator,” Thompson said. “We had issues with powerlines and they de-energized them for the safety of firefighters and re-routed the power” to avoid outages. The LADWP also assisted in providing water for suppression and contacted its lessees to remove their livestock from harm’s way.
The California Highway Patrol, Inyo County Sheriff’s Department and Bishop Police Department provided personnel to handle traffic control, man road closures and help with the evacuation of Pleasant Valley Campground and The Pit campground at Pleasant Valley – necessary in the face of encroaching flames and shifting winds.
Luckily, Thompson noted, most of the fishermen and other visiting weekend recreators had already gone home Sunday by the time the fire started, so there weren’t too many campers who had to be evacuated. Saturday, which saw the 40th Annual Blake Jones Trout Derby at Pleasant Valley Reservoir, would have been an entirely different story, he said.
As it was, law enforcement had their hands full steering looky-loos away from the area and keeping them at a safe distance from the growing fire, which changed direction about every 20 minutes.
According to Thompson, firefighters had quite a battle ahead of them Sunday.
For starters, there was the fact firefighters essentially had two separate blazes to contend with, thanks to weather and the “nature of the topography.” The river flows west to east along Chalk Bluff Road, Thompson explained, and would normally have created a natural fire break for the blaze were it not for the high winds (40 mph gusts) from the north that kicked flames up and over the channel to the other bank. That created a situation where crews were fighting a fire with “two heads” in volatile weather and dry brush.
Firefighters were still seeing “extreme fire behavior” well into the wee morning hours, by the time most blazes have calmed down. At 3 a.m., 3:30 a.m. and again at 5 a.m., crews were facing off against 30-foot flame lengths, Thompson said. Later in the morning, they witnessed three smoke columns each blowing in a different direction.
Wind is only partially to blame for the extreme situation; much of the vegetation, Thompson explained, is still in its winter dormancy stage and hasn’t “greened-up yet,” meaning it’s pretty dry. There’s also plenty of dead fuel out there.
Considering the factors working against them, firefighters mounted a fierce attack, with crews on the ground standing “one foot in the black,” Thompson said.
They also utilized successful air attacks courtesy of two CalFire helicopters making water drops on the blaze. The helicopters, one from Riverside County and the other from Tuolumne County, were also being put to use yesterday on the fire’s western flank. Two airtankers, Thompson said, were standing by Monday in case they were needed as well.
To further keep the fire at bay on Sunday, firefighters lit a “back burn” along Chalk Bluff Road, “using fire to fight fire,” Thompson said. An indirect attack, the fire operation “went very well.”
As the day progressed, the main concern for crews was preventing the fire’s east flank from spreading along Five Bridges Road and then along U.S. 6, where it could have burned a straight path through pasturelands right into the City of Bishop.
As it was, Sunday ended with no losses of structures and amazingly, no injuries, said Thompson.
Only one cow died as an indirect result of the fire when it attempted to cross a canal and became stuck in mud.
And the fire did come with some crucial lessons in fire safety and prevention, as well as a bit of a win for human decency.
Rather than flee the scene of the fire and head back to Southern California, forcing a criminal investigation, the three fishermen responsible for starting the blaze chose to report themselves to authorities. That’s rare, Investigator Hollowell noted.
“As a general rule, even if it’s accidental, people don’t want to say anything,” he said, especially when they know they’ll have to pay restitution. “The three of these gentlemen are responsible adults and realized what they did was wrong, even if it was an accident” and stepped up to take responsibility. “I was impressed, to say the least.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 21 April 2008 )
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