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Below are excerpts from the meeting:
CalFire Deputy Chief for Madera/Mariposa/Merced Counties Kevin Smith mentioned the first call came in for the Bridge Fire on Friday, September 5, 2014 at 12:39 P.M. He said the fire was established under the William Sell Bridge on Highway 49 south in Mariposa County.
The CalFire Deputy Chief said there is not an area in Mariposa or Madera County that this Cal Fire Division has control over that has more potential than where this fire was established. This area includes Lushmeadows, Yosemite National Park (four air miles away) and communities in Madera County.
At around 3:00 P.M with the fire at around 150-200 acres evacuations were put in place for about 700 residences. They had six type 2 or 3 air tankers (standard for CalFire) on scene but also requested three of the Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT's (DC-10 and other Type 1 aircraft). The VLAT's have only been approved in California since 2006. Originally they were stationed out of San Bernardino County and Victorville. One or two are now stationed at Castle Air Force Base in Merced County and were also used on the Junction Fire in Oakhurst a short time ago. They are under contract with the Stanislaus National Forest. The Cal Fire Deputy Fire Chief said one can only imagine the destruction that may have occurred without the availability of the VLAT's.
The VLAT's had dumped over 100,000 gallons of retardant (equivalent to soap, very biodegradable) on the right flank which was the key strategic point for keeping the homes protected in Ponderosa Basin. The VLAT's bought them time to bring in the bulldozers and hand crews and fire engines. The Sierra National Forest was not burned.
No structures or vehicles were burned but eleven PG&E poles were lost.
Mariposa County Sheriff Doug Binnewies said he could not be more pleased with the communities response and county governments response to the fire. The Sheriff said there was potential for tragedy with this fire and 354 homes were under immediate evacuation orders. As the evacuations orders expired on Saturday evening all but eight homes were cleared from being evacuated. New Life Christian Church in Bootjack was set up for the Red Cross Evacuation Center and the Central California Animal Disaster Team was set up for the animals at the Fish and Game Hall in Bootjack. Twenty nine people used the Red Cross Center overnight.
County Fire responded with six staffed engines and two water tenders for the first day. Although no homes were lost several residents had scorching around their homes.
CalFire has a goal to keep over 90% of fires to ten acres or less. They do that with a very aggressive initial attack with the hopes of spending dollars up front saves dollars down the road. On the first day they brought in 93 fire engines, 24 bulldozers (10 of which were local private dozers) and 24 hand crews along with the aircraft overhead.
The Fire Management Assistance Grant will reimburse most local and state government costs for this fire.
