Central Coast firefighters help with Pawnee Fire

More than 200 firefighters are battling the 8,200 acre Pawnee Fire burning northeast of Clear Lake Oaks in Lake County. Cal Fire says the rugged terrain has proved challenging for firefighters as they try to protect homes.

So far, 22 structures have been destroyed and 600 more are threatened. About 2,500 people have been forced from their homes because of the theat. On Monday, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake County, freeing up more state resources to fight the fire and to aid in the recovery afterwards.

Some of those resources are coming from the Central Coast. On Monday morning, a “strike team” left Monterey County.

“We sent out an engine with our crew on it as part of a strike team that came from Monterey County, so it’s five engines and a strike team leader,” said Monterey Fire Chief Gaudenz Panholzer.

Rounding out the strike team are resources from Monterey Regional Fire Protection District and the Monterey-San Benito Unit of Cal Fire. No word what kind of operations the team will take part in.

It’s part of what’s called the “California Fire Assistance Agreement.”

“They send the closest resources to that fire to mitigate or put out the fire,” said Cal Fire Public Information Officer David Clark. “They do that to a point where they don’t impact the local resources, so they’re not going to deplete a community of the resources to go to a wildland fire.”

Depending on the agency, firefighters could be gone anywhere from 14-28 days, which means they won’t be here for the 4th of July holiday.

Panholzer said he’s not worried about being understaffed at a time that is traditionally busy for firefighters.

“At this point it’s not a concern, because when we send out a crew, we always backfill behind them so we don’t shut down any companies in the city, don’t close any stations or anything like that,” Panholzer said. “All the stations and all the fire apparatus that are normally staffed are staffed as they always are and will remain that way through the 4th of July.”

The Santa Cruz-San Mateo division of Cal Fire also sent a strike team. We’ve also learned of another Santa Cruz County based strike team, made up of crews from Aptos/LaSelva, Central Fire, Scotts Valley and the city of Santa Cruz.