Butte County fire crews also battle fatigue

CHICO – Jay Graaskamp hoisted himself atop his firetruck and slid into his sleeping bag with the same dusty clothes he’d put on nearly a day earlier, his weary body resting against cold, hard metal.

When darkness fell on the mountains Tuesday, there would be time for sleep, at last.

 

For weeks now, Graaskamp and his Cal Fire comrades have been chasing flames across the wildlands of Northern California, jumping into one hot spot after another.

No time to dwell on fatigue, no use keeping track of time when hours blur into days and days blur into weeks. No use yearning for sleep.

“When we’re working hard, it doesn’t really hit you. We’ll work for 24 hours straight,” said Graaskamp while on duty on Flea Mountain, 20 miles northeast of Chico.

On some nights, there is little time for rest.

“Time’s not real,” one of his comrades, Bronson Wilcox, said later.

“It’s either light or dark,” echoed Graaskamp.

By most accounts, it’s been a surreal fire season, bedeviling fire crews from Big Sur to the Oregon border. Never in recent history have so many blazes burned so early in the fire season. Since June 20, 1,781 blazes have blackened more than 494,000 acres, much of the devastation in the north state.

Because of staffing concerns, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on Monday extended rotation periods from two weeks to three weeks before crews can be given time off.

Firefighters from across the country have rushed to California’s aid. At least 19,942 people – supported by 1,470 fire engines, 428 water tenders and 106 helicopters – are fighting the blazes.

In Butte County more than 2,400 personnel have been assigned to a complex of 36 fires that has burned 17,500 acres and continues to threaten 1,200 homes. Fire crews have made progress, bringing a third of the 10-day-old fires under containment. They hope for full containment by July 14.

“If there’s an active fire, no one can really sleep. If you do, you’re sleeping with one eye open,” said Capt. Jim Underwood with the Long Beach Fire Department, which traveled hundreds of miles to help battle the Butte County fire complex.

“All these fires aren’t being put out by only one person’s effort – it’s a lot of people’s efforts,” said Eric Johnson, a battalion chief for the San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit of Cal Fire.

West Coast 911 firefighter news source - Sac Bee/ photo by Carl Costas / read entire article