September 27, 2013
Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com
Cycles, from page 1 completed work was done to protect structures and repair bulldozer tracks from the firefighting effort. Generally speaking, erosion in the burned areas is another part of nature’s healing process; in fact, erosion is as natural as fire. She said that erosion efforts undertaken in other fire aftermaths have had “a far greater impact on the environment” than simply letting things evolve naturally, including landslides. FEAR OF EROSION CalFire representatives say that water bars and a process of replacing divots over underbrush are often used to stabilize a burned area. And on Sept. 11, even before the fire was fully contained, efforts started to reseed Mt. Diablo of
vital trees and plants. Save Mt. Diablo Advancement Director Julie Seelen says her organization will be “watching very closely for erosion” in the coming months as the rains come, especially after any heavy rainfalls. She says the main concern is for debris washing down from the burn areas and clogging culverts, creeks and trails. Her staff and volunteers will be documenting “nature recovering” in the burn areas for several months and beyond. The wildflowers expected to bloom spectacularly over the next couple of years are mainly from fire-adapted species that only regenerate due to the high heat levels in a fire. Over a short time frame shrubs and mixed vegetation on the mountain will cover the wildflowers. In fact,
the pine tree that exploded and sparked the “big” fire on Mt. Diablo on Sept. 8 was only doing what nature meant it to, spewing its cones and seeds to the ground to root. Bob Doyle is general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District and one of the founders of Save Mt. Diablo. “There were flame poppies in 1978 and some in ‘79, but they dramatically reduced after the first year.” He says he found a few more in 1980 but after that only wind poppies. “The other fire plant of note was even more dramatic and that was the dicentra, or golden ear drops, which covered entire chaparral hillsides and stream washes in Donner, Back and Mitchell canyons but were gone pretty much by 1980,” he added. Even though this fire has been determined to have been man-caused, the 36-year interval since the 1977 blaze gave the
mountain ecology a chance to go through a natural cycle. On the flip side, the repetitive cycle of wildfires in Sothern California has seen chaparral completely disappear from areas, replaced by grasslands. WILDLIFE WILL RETURN Dave Matthews, public safety coordinator for the Diablo Vista District of State Parks, says that another part of the natural process is wildlife returning to their habitat. He says deer and foxes were reported in the burn areas soon after firefighters left. “Animals, like plants, have adapted to fire and repopulate rather quickly,” Matthews said. He added it is only in “very extreme” circumstances that any human efforts are used to repopulate animals or other species after a fire. Drivers on Marsh Creek and Morgan Territory roads can see many oak trees still standing in
Photos by Scott Hein/Save Mount Diablo
THESE TWO PHOTOS OF SAVE MOUNT DIABLO’S VIERA PROPERTY on the east side of North Peak, taken from the same vantage point, show the pristine land in the spring of 2009 and the fire ravaged mountainside on Monday, Sept. 16.
Heroes, from page 1 stepped forward to help members of their community. As SUVs towing trailers out of Morgan Territory passed gigantic fire trucks, bulldozers, and equipment heading to fight the Mt. Diablo fire, and American Red Cross representatives huddled with local officials in preparation for opening emergency shelters if needed, locals rallied to support one another as well. RESIDENTS RESPOND QUICKLY Clayton resident Jane Gerow saw the fire start on her neighbor’s property Sunday around 1:30 p.m. “It started directly across from my house,” she said. “It went up to the top of the mountain and over the ridge and down Morgan Territory … My neighbor saw and started yelling and alerting everyone.” As CalFire kicked into gear with the sound of sirens racing up Marsh Canyon Road towards the spreading fire, residents started making plans, some loading horses into trailers to head out. “They told us there was a voluntary evacuation on Sunday, but it was calmed down by then,” said Brooks, who has more than 15 horses on her property along with other livestock. Meanwhile, other residents, intent on getting their horses to safety as the fire grew, gathered at the Park ‘n Ride lot near Peacock Creek, where they were greeted by locals ready and eager to help. Chris Barnhart of the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Riding Association was leaving the grounds with 13 horses.
“It’s just incredible, the way everybody came together and helped each other,” she said. “The mayor’s son stopped by with water, Clayton residents brought us food, tanks of water for the horses. It made me cry, they were such generous people.”
WATER AND PET FOOD At the library, city officials gathered with American Red Cross and other emergency workers to set up a shelter for evacuees. Their efforts, however, turned out to be mostly unneeded, as one local after another arrived to offer everything from lodging in their own homes to bags of dog and cat food for the pets of those fleeing the fire. Virginia Fraser arrived with her cat, Emma. A resident of Curry Canyon, Fraser was a block captain, and on seeing the black smoke and flames around 2 p.m., helped alert neighbors before leaving herself. “I thought it’d be a nice quiet day, sitting there reading the Sunday papers,” she said. “Then boom, all this.” Bonnie Slatkin, walked over to the library with her dog Surfer, and offered food or the use of a room in her homes for evacuees like Fraser. “I thought I’d just come down and see if there’s anything I can do to help,” she said, echoing the sentiment of a number of others with the same idea. Another family gathered resources and brought scores of sandwiches to the fire house for the personnel working the fire. Meanwhile, information was at a premium. As the fire was not within city lim-
Mayor, from page 1 over the horizon of our beloved mountain; we wondered just how big and exactly where the fire was. Was it a small grassfire or was it the fire we all dread, like the one in 1977?Alarmed by the flames cresting the ridge, it was clear to all that it was a big fire. “What’s happening? Are we in danger? Should we get ready to evacuate?” Clayton, like all local governments in California, operates under the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), the system required by California Government Code Section 8607(a) for managing emergencies involving multiple jurisdictions and agencies. SEMS has been established to provide effective management of multiagency and multi-jurisdictional
emergencies in California. By standardizing key elements of the emergency management system, following SEMS establishes a hierarchy of command or management, facilitates the flow of information within and between levels of the system, and facilitates coordination among all responding agencies. MUTUAL AID Since the fire was in the unincorporated area outside the Clayton city limits, addressing the fire was CalFire’s responsibility. While our regional ConFire and other regional departments helped coordinate the initial response, there can only be one agency in charge and it was CalFire for this wildland response. All personnel took direction from CalFire. Our
its, city officials received periodic updates from CalFire personnel, and passed it on to residents through television and social media outlets. On Monday, however, as the fire seemed to wane and fire officials temporarily gained the upper hand, an information blackout ensued as the incident command changed hands from Contra Costa Fire Protection to Cal Fire and the command center moved from Station 11 in Clayton to Camp Parks in Dublin. Suddenly, around 6 p.m. Monday, the winds changed, and the fire that seemed to be on its way to being contained flared back up and raced down the hill towards ranches and people on Morgan Territory Road. “It looked like a volcano,” said Brooks. “The black smoke, and the red, and you could see the flames.” Everyone from firefighters to residents to even members of some visiting news crews picked up hoses, and helped get horses and other animals to safety on higher ground. Long-time resident – and former firefighter – John Khashabi owns his own fire truck, and helped hose down his neighbors’ roofs. With the flow of information from CalFire temporarily cut off, the task fell to social media to pass along status updates. NEED FOR INFORMATION The anonymous Mayor of Claycord found his own website, Claycord.com, an information hub. “I didn’t even realize that was going to happen,” he said of the hundreds of
Clayton Police Department and the Highway Patrol also responded to help as requested and directed by CalFire. CalFire requested and received aid from many of its firefighting stations and other agencies throughout the state. The role of a local elected official in such an emergency is limited. Our job is to stay out of the way of the operation while staying informed, and helping to relay information to our community. We are necessarily not in the direct line of command. That job is left to the professionals. After receiving a call from City Manager Gary Napper, I joined him at city hall to gain accurate, up-to-the-minute news that I could then relay to area residents. Gary manned phones on Sunday, taking calls from the ConFire Public Information Officer and Clayton Police Chief Chris Thorsen to assess what our city, as
Page 11 areas consumed by the fire. Both Shafer and Matthews say that the majority of the oaks will survive and those that don’t will eventually fall and make for new habitats for small animals and critters. Matthews blames “survival of the fittest” in explaining the status of the oaks. Before the 1977 fire many pine trees on the mountain were diseased. Following the fire seeds germinated and the overall pine tree population came back very strong. Doyle adds, “The Coulter Pines were badly infested with pine beetles and went up in huge flames. Dr. [Mary] Bowerman and I noticed
that while many areas were so hot it sterilized the soils, new groves grew in more abundance but further down slope. Only a few of the pre-fire trees survive below Twin Peaks now. However some Coulters seeds were distributed by birds in new locations such as the east side of Donner Canyon where there were none before.” Matthews suggested Summit Road, the Visitor’s Center at the Summit or Curry Point as the best places for people wishing to get a good view of the fire area. And by next spring those may have glorious colorful views starting to emerge.
MDIA joins Mt. Diablo State Park in fire damage repair Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association is teaming with Mt. Diablo State Park to repair and restore the areas damaged by the Morgan Fire. MDIA is asking “those who cherish Mt. Diablo State Park” to help fund much of this work. Donations of any amount are appreciated and will be used for the designated purpose of helping the park recover and repair. Work includes repairing and replacing park structures, picnic areas, trail signage and fencing. Related work also needs to be done to repair park facilities that have suffered from neglect due to the lack of state funds. MDIA will make opening donor’s wallets a little easier: With a $100 donation or more, donors will receive “The Mt. Diablo Guide,” the newly revised guidebook to the park, including all new color photographs and updated maps and illustrations. With a $250 donation or more, donors will receive “Mt. Diablo, The Extraordinary Life and Landscapes of a California Treasure,” a fine-art photography book by photographer Stephen Joseph and writer Linda Rimac Colberg. With a $500 donation or more, donors will receive their choice of either both books or one of the popular Mt. Diablo bike jerseys. Donations by check should be made out to MDIA and sent to the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, P.O. Box 346, Walnut Creek, CA 94597. Include shipping address so the gift can be sent. To volunteer or become a member of MDIA, visit mdia.org or email volunteer@mdia.org.
comments his blog attracted, passing heads together, see what had been done along real-time news updates and offers right, and what they’d learned for the of assistance. “It started out like any next time fire lights up the sky over Mt. other fire. I’ve covered many other fires Diablo. Of all the lessons learned, however, over the years, and there was nothing to say this one was going to be any differ- Mayor Julie Pierce said the community’s stepping forward was no surprise. ent.” “The level of generosity in this At a friend’s house when the fire started, the “Mayor” made his way closer community never ceases to amaze me,” to the fire, where he continued to receive she said. “They are just consistently the updates on progress, sent by everyone best people you could ever ask for in a from locals manning scanners, residents community. They care about each watching the flames burn towards their other, they take care of each other.” “It really is the exact definition of a homes, and even an occasional firefightcommunity,” Pierce said. “They come er on break from his duties. “l felt like I had an obligation to be through every time.” there for the people who need the information,” he said. At last, after what seemed like an eternity but was just hours after the fire burned ferociously to Morgan Territory, threatening to jump the road in several places, the announcement was made that the fire had been contained. Around 3 a.m., residents began returning home, reversing the earlier sight as they passed fire trucks and equipment rumbling down the street and out of Morgan Territory. EVEN NEWS REPORTERS ON THE SCENE were called on to help. KCRA’s Richard Sharp was manning a gar-
City officials gath- den hose moments before the live broadcast on ered to put their Monday night.
the affected neighboring jurisdiction, could do to assist in the emergency response effort. As we got new information, I relayed it to our community via social media and emails and answered calls from residents and the media. LIBRARY AS HUB Responding to the initial evacuation of the Curry Canyon area off Morgan Territory Road, we opened the Clayton Library meeting room for an Evacuation Center to be staffed by the Red Cross. We took calls from residents and organizations who volunteered lodging for evacuated horses and small animals. We used our contacts with local media to correct initially inaccurate information that was broadcast in the emergency alerts. Our police department and later the Highway Patrol and city maintenance personnel manned the road closure barri-
cades at Marsh Creek Road/Regency Drive. The initial incident command center was at our local Fire Station 11 before being consolidated to Camp Parks in Dublin to fight the fire, which was kept mostly on the southern and eastern flanks of the mountain. Area residents showed their gratitude to the firefighters by inundating them with spontaneously donated food and water. Our Clayton CERT teams assisted at the command center and were deployed at various locations to help. There were a few hiccups, quickly corrected, which will help us train for the future. As the fire progressed it was sometimes frustrating to not be able to get imme-
diate information about the status. CalFire issued somewhat regular reports and held briefings for the media. Since our city was not the primary local agency, we were not always the first to get information. When information flowed, I posted it to Facebook, which proved to be an effective outreach. Local area and former residents around the country were grateful for the latest information. Many thanks to all the wonderful firefighters, emergency first responders, volunteers and city employees who pitched in to put out the fire and safely manage the emergency. As always, you can reach me at JPierce@ci.clayton.ca.us. Tell me what you think.
For more photos, see page 20