Hi, good evening. Russ Long, Operations Section Chief. So as part of the incident management team, we have branches all the way around the fire and we've organized with what team three, California team three that we transitioned with and Cal Fire, which both of those teams did a tremendous job and handed us off a great package to continue on with their strategy and tactics going forward.
We'll talk about the strategy we're using and the situation on both sides. Primarily I know that you're interested on the coastal side, so we'll talk about where that is and it's the priority one right now with the wind that we have and where we have most of our assets working.
So the strategy that we're using is the one that was set and sound when we came in, which is an indirect strategy that follows natural ridge lines where we could put dozers, where we could keep firefighters out of harms away, out of the deep drainages where there's just no roads, there's just no place to be.
It's really probably one of the most unforgiving pieces of ground with the brush and the terrain and the thickness of it and not to mention the poison oak and all the other things that go with it in there. So we kind of gotten out of the business of putting firefighters in those deep dangerous areas.
So with that the indirect lines are complete all the way down the coastal Ridge Road. There's still a little bit of work for it to be tied in down to Memorial Park on the very south end, but that's still in progress and there's crews and folks down there kind of putting those pieces together where it gets very complex.
On the branch three side, on the east side, we have the same organization and all of that dozer line is in and plumbed and comes all the way down around to Royal Seiko and then down to Memorial Park as well.
So there's still ongoing work with masticators and dozers. I'm going to call it refining the work that's already been done to ready that line should the fire ever get there.
Now we hope that that's not the case so I'll tell you about the actions that we're taking to try to not have to use the big box out there.
So over here on the west side, the firefighters have been successful of keeping up with it, taking small bites we call it, with burning operations along the ridge line.
So if you kind of look up on the mountain and envision that the knife back ridge up there and the firefighters standing on the top, they'll burn the brush on the top to keep up with the edge as it burns down below.
So when the fire does come up, there's black for it to hit and to reduce the potential for it to spot over on the west side.
Now we are facing an adverse wind condition and we'll get an update from Ryan on the wind and the weather here coming up.
I know and that's one of our concerns right now over the next 36 hours with what's going on.
So in order to prevent that from happening, to do the best that we can with all of our assets, we have hot shot crews and engines and all kinds of resources up on top.
And we're not burning right now because they don't need to, but what we're doing is they're putting retardant interior with air attack.
So we have a fixed wing aircraft flying over the top direct in the helicopters and they're putting the retardant between the fire and the line to restrict that movement to check it up, we call it.
So it gives us more time to buy time until that wind does quit.
And when that does happen, when the wind does shift and get back in our favor, the wind at our back, then we'll start our burnout operation again along the ridge line with a heli torch.
So there's a helicopter with a piece of equipment that has gelled fuel and it ignites it and drops it into the brush.
So we don't have to put a firefighter down into those steep, steep drainages.
It's very difficult to get out of and it lights the brush in the crown and we can get a burnout to burn in and create that black barrier to make that fire line safe.
So that's the method that we'll use continuing on down as we go south with the goal initially of trying to get down to marble and then we'll kind of figure out where we need to be from there.
The trick is we can't just head on down the ridge.
Everything has to be coordinated with the fire, with the weather, with the resources, moving it back and forth with all the values at risk on this fire.
So this side is priority one right now, it's getting all of our attention, it's had it, continues to get it and continuing to shift resources and efforts all over here.
There's a night shift up there, so that's always a question that comes up like what happens at night.
So often times at night when, not under the next two days, but often times at night, it'll be like 8% RH up on top and warm when it's foggy and cool down here and there's fire conditions up on top.
So they'll be up there working at night as well, up on the ridge lines, not down off of the edges, continuing to make progress and keep that fire on that side of the line.
We'll always get the question, well what about the places inside the box? What about the structures inside?
Well that's a giant concern of ours as well.
So with that, what we've done is we have structure protection groups that go inside, outside and inside and prepare the structures and I'm sure many of you guys have seen the things and there's been some valiant efforts and great successes back behind us.
Go in and prepare the structures for a fire to come through it, hoping that that's not the situation, so that we can hopefully be in a situation where we can burn around it and defend the structure.
Now can we always stay? Not always, it depends on the safety of the firefighters number one and the public.
So I always like to throw in there, the best thing that everybody can do is try to help yourselves ahead of time.
Get your homes ready whether there's a fire near it or not, create defensible space, there's information through information on that, but if you know somebody or if you have a home in a fire environment, I always like to advocate for preparing your home for a fire.
