By David Rolland
Novato Fire Captain Fred Pfeifer asked the question, "How hot is hot?"

Immediately answering his own question, Pfeifer quipped: "When the asphalt melts."

The fire captain was talking about fighting the Inverness Ridge fire early Wednesday, Oct. 4, when his crew was assigned to protect an isolated house just east of Limantour Beach.

Numerous firefighters battling last week's blaze have told tales of searing heat, towering walls of flames, and seemingly impenetrable smoke. Many called it the most chaotic and frightening experience of their lives.

"For me it was intense," said Inverness volunteer firefighter Scot Patterson. "I've never really experienced anything of that magnitude."

Patterson told The Light this week how he guided a convoy of fire engines on a slow and perilous journey west on Limantour Road just after midnight Tuesday night.

Patterson and three others, Tom Nunes, Bill Hart, and Tony Giacomini, were assigned to protect the Clem Miller Environmental Education Center. Driving through a tunnel of fire, they headed west in Engine 1584, leading a strike team that included two engines from Corte Madera, one from Novato, one from San Rafael, a county engine, and a truck driven by Kentfield Fire Chief John Lando.

A tunnel of fire

As they slowly moved down the steep and curvy Limantour Road never more than 50 yards apart, Patterson noted, flames 40 feet high on one side and more than 100 feet high on the other arched over them, generating winds estimated at 40 mph.

"It was cooking," Patterson recalled. "Flames were blowing across the road. Some of the pipes on the side [of the engine] were charred from the flames going up over the truck. It was just boiling. The big trees (bishop pines and Douglas firs) were lighting off," he said. "It was just like gasoline on a stick."

Engines in the convoy were in constant radio contact, and Patterson heard an anxious firefighter in a truck behind him urge, "Hey, it's getting a little hot. You guys might want to hurry up a little bit."

A San Rafael firefighter later said that if it had been up to him to lead the convoy, he wouldn't have gone in, Patterson noted.

As it happened the blaze didn't reach the environmental educational center until the next afternoon. By that time, helicopters dropping water, line crews clearing brush, and bulldozers building fire breaks helped protect the structures. All that was lost was a cabin behind the facility.

"It was very intense," Patterson said, "something I don't want to have to go through again for a long time."