How to stop a fire that – at its most intense
– burns 3,500 acres an hour (about an acre a second)?
That was the question facing firefighters at the 1995
Inverness Ridge fire, which ultimately burned 15 percent of the Point
Reyes National Seashore and destroyed 45 homes in the Paradise Ranch
Estates subdivision.
The fire was most ferocious early on the morning of
Wednesday, Oct. 4, when it consumed 7,000 acres of parkland in just
under two hours. Soon firefighters became concerned about stopping the
blaze from advancing on Bolinas.
Under those conditions, said Battalion Chief Tim Thompson
of the Marin County Fire Department, combating the blaze is largely
a matter of playing defense.
Thompson, who led a strike team during the fire, this
week explained, "What’s called ‘direct attack’ goes
out the window."
Instead, he said, the more-than-2,000 firefighters
at the blaze concentrated on protecting homes, clearing firebreaks,
and lighting "backfires," which eliminate potential fuel ahead
of the wildfire’s advance.
Saved homes before park
A troika of "incident commanders" –
Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher, Marin County Fire
Chief Stan Rowan, and Chief Tom Tarp of the California Division of Forestry
– directed firefighters, firetrucks, helicopters, airplanes, and
bulldozers. The command center was located at park headquarters in Bear
Valley.
Early on, Neubacher told The Light this week,
most resources were moved to the fire’s eastern edge, which threatened
the towns of Inverness and Inverness Park. That meant giving priority
to human life over coastal wilderness – a decision, Neubacher said,
he would make again in an instant.
"Under the circumstances," the park superintendent
added, "you’re about to lose 400 or 500 homes. It’s a
choice that may be easier to make than people think." Neubacher’s
own home in Inverness Park was in danger.
The park superintendent went so far as to authorize
the use of bulldozers to clear fire breaks in the park’s federally
designated "wilderness areas," a move that Battalion Chief
Ethan Foote from Forestry and Fire Protection called unprecedented.
"Bulldozers are typically forbidden in national
parks," Foote said. "Most of the time, you’re not even
allowed to take chainsaws into a ‘wilderness area.’ It was
a tremendous decision."
Bulldozers cleared fire breaks
Fire control lines were built along the fire’s
northern, eastern, and southern fronts. The eastern front, where most
firefighters were set to work, proved too rugged for bulldozers and
was cleared by hand, while helicopters dropped water from Tomales Bay
onto the fire. Bombers from the air defense base in Santa Rosa were
also sent to the fire’s eastern front, where they dropped Phoscheck,
a fire retardant distinctive for its bright red color.
North of the blaze, bulldozers cleared firebreaks
from Mount Vision Road to Home Ranch. A break was also cleared along
Sky Trail to the south, with Bear Valley Road serving as a backup control
line, Neubacher said. Beyond that, he added, bulldozers were ready to
clear a control line along Stewart Trail if the fire continued to rage
south.
Had the southern lines collapsed, the superintendent
stressed, firefighters would have been forced to fall back to Mesa Road
in Bolinas while the fire burned unchecked through the National Seashore’s
remote southwestern region.
Bolinas threatened
Battalion Chief Foote was responsible for creating
contingency plans at the Inverness Ridge fire. Had the fire overlept
Bear Valley Road, he said, firefighters would have moved in to protect
homes in Bolinas. "If we had lost Bear Valley Road, the fire would
have burned down to Bolinas," he said. "There’s no place
to stop it."
Luck played a role in the final defeat of the Inverness
Ridge fire. A rare east wind picked up on the fire’s second day,
carrying the flames toward the ocean and away from residences.
Looking back, Neubacher credits the containment of
the fire to a combination of strategy and fortune.
"A lot of the strike teams that went to certain
homes were instrumental in saving those homes," Neubacher said.
"However, if the winds had kept blowing from the northwest, it’s
likely under every scenario that we would have lost more. The weather
has a lot to do with your success in fighting the fire."