By Nancy Pasternack
The Appeal-Democrat
OLIVEHURST, Calif. — An area strike team led by Olivehurst Fire Chief Steve Hart is in its sixth day of deployment in the Plumas National Forest, helping fight a fire that now covers 98 square miles.
The team’s members include five firefighters from Hart’s department and personnel from the Wheatland Fire Authority, the Pleasant Grove Fire Department and the Live Oak Fire Department.
“The fire just keeps growing,” said Capt. Wade Harrison of the Olivehurst Fire Department, who was holding down the fort for the chief at home base. He was unable to reach Hart Monday.
According to U.S. Forest Service officials, the fire had engulfed 62,541 acres by early Monday.
Hart and the other team members are alternating 24-hour shifts with other units assigned to the fire, and are required to stay close by and on call during off-duty hours.
The team arrived for work in the forest at about 2 a.m. Thursday, Harrison said.
Units with equipment designed for urban environments, including those in Hart’s team, have been assigned to protect structures in populated areas.
The blaze, which began on Memorial Day in Moonlight Pass, headed Northeast, “and then kind of ping-ponged north and south from that,” said Mark Beaulieu, fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service. “And it grew a lot over the weekend,” he said.
On Monday, the fire engulfed and destroyed Brown’s Cabin, an historic structure, as well as a residence, a house that was under construction, a nearby trailer and a storage building, according to Beaulieu.
“It seems to defy our ability to fight it,” he said. “It’s a dangerous fire.”
As of Monday evening, no one had suffered serious injuries resulting from the fire, but several units, as well as Hart’s team, had to retreat from their post on Saturday to an assigned safety zone because of escalating danger.
The effort has involved a total of 3,223 fire fighting personnel in 97 crews, according to Beaulieu and information provided on a U.S. fire Service Web site.
Harrison said he has been sent out before on extensive forest fighting calls, but he stayed behind for this one.
The way things are going, he said, he doesn’t expect to see Hart again until sometime next week.
“When you’re up there, it’s a different world,” he said. “You can have flame licks a hundred foot tall — you just can’t take a hose and put it out.”
Linda and Yuba City fire departments have sent personnel with another strike team to assist in the fire fighting effort.
Copyright 2007 Appeal-Democrat