Local fire crews battling Wragg Fire near Napa

According to new information from Cal Fire, the Wragg Fire burning in Napa and Solano counties has grown to 6,900 acres. Of the 1,300 fire personnel on scene, some 80 of them are from our area. Two local strike teams were activated early Thursday morning. One from Cal Fire, the other from local agencies.

A strike team is made up of five engines. The local agencies responding include North County, Salinas, the Presidio, Fort Hunter Liggett and Aromas. The Cal Fire strike team has crews coming from King City, Antelope, Beaver Dam and Parkfield.

“Our strike team would get assigned a division and they would be assigned work,” explained North County Fire Chief Chris Orman, “Like mop up, put all the fire and all the smoke out, 100′ in. Sometimes it’s ‘We need all this brush removed,’ sometimes it’s ‘Prep the houses before the fire gets here’ and sometimes it’s, ‘Just hang out here and we’ll figure out what to do.”

Chief Orman says we are still protected in case a fire were to break out locally because some firefighters are working overtime.

“It was an immediate need,” Chief Orman said. “So the strike team was formed up, they left in the middle of the night. So we called out, and got overtime back to fill out the shift because the people that were on shift were the ones that left. We got coverage back but there will be some overtime.”

And in other departments, resources are being moved around to help pick up the slack.

This is the first time this year that North County Fire has had to activate a strike team. No word when these crews will be back home.