Firefighters Battled Blazes While Their Own Homes Were Threatened

More than 1,300 firefighters are currently battling the SCU Lightning Complex fire — a group of fires near east San Jose and Gilroy in what Cal Fire officials are calling the second largest fire in California history. At a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the base camp in Alameda County Fairgrounds, Cal Fire incident commander Jeff Eich called the fire the most complex in his career.

Yet for some local firefighters, the fires this time around are different — they’re hitting closer to home. In some cases, firefighters' families have had to evacuate and some aren't sure if their home will still be standing when they return.

Oakland Fire Battalion Chief James Bowron and his 22-person team from Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda Fire Departments, have been battling the SCU Fire Complex since August 16, working 24-hour shifts every other day.

One firefighter on his team owns a home in Santa Cruz close to the CZU Fire Complex and is worried about having to evacuate when she returns.

“It adds another layer when it's this close to home,” Bowron said. As a supervisor, Bowron said it’s a struggle between keeping up the team’s morale and their focus.

A veteran on the force, Bowron said he knows what he signed up for. “Calm breeds calm, and chaos breeds chaos. So from a leader’s perspective, it's important to remain calm because I think that keeps everybody else calm,” he said.

Other firefighters say it’s difficult being dispatched to one fire when another is burning at home. Grant Haynie, a firefighter from Dixon, has been away from home for the past two weeks first battling the Lake Fires in Southern California and now the SCU Fire Complex. His friends and family back in Solano County have lost their home and some have had to evacuate due to the LNU Fire Complex.

“You want to go home and help, but because of the mutual aid system, you just have to suck it up since we’re here now and people need us,” Haynie said.

California’s mutual aid system, operated by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Operations, allows local fire departments to request help from departments in other counties and states.

While local and state fire agencies have pooled together personnel to fight wildfires statewide, the many fires across the state are spreading resources thin. At a press briefing on August 21, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he requested mutual aid from 10 other states as well as Canada and Australia.

According to Cal Fire officials, 60 engines from Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington have arrived in Alameda County to help firefighting efforts. An additional 26 engines from Montana and Utah are en route and expected later this week.

Brant Frazier, who is a strike team leader from Fort Worth, Texas, is one of the over 300 out-of-state firefighters who have been dispatched to battle the SCU Fire Complex.

Although Frazier has been deployed to fight California wildfires multiple times in the last couple of years, including the Woolsey and Carr fires in 2018, he said the terrain and 24-hour shifts can take a mental toll.

Frazier adds that the “tough culture” of firefighters makes it difficult for some to admit when they are stressed out.

“They don't want to look like they have any sort of weakness to their peers. So I think we probably could do a better job as an industry,” Frazier said.

Still, they are in “good spirits” because they know they’ll need to keep up the morale for the long run.

Kevin Brown, a firefighter from the Vallejo Fire Department, noted that one of the impacts of the pandemic has been that some cities have halted hiring. Brown said many fire departments hire in the spring or early summer, but the hiring processes didn't happen this year because of the financial strain on cities and counties.

"We're fresh right now," he said, but "give it a few more months and we'll have less people to rotate in to help out on these fires."

The SCU Lightning Complex wildfires that span Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties began in the early morning hours on August 16 sparked by dry lightning storms. The 18 to 20 individual fires have merged together and collectively burned 366,772 acres and were 20% contained as of Tuesday evening, according to Cal Fire.