Green Valley Fire: Fire Breaks Out Next to Acalanes
Blueprint Photo/Natalie Pecci
By Gwyneth Lee, Print Feature Editor
The Contra Costa County Firefighters received a call at 4:57 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 with news that three small spot fires broke out along Pleasant Hill Road. By the time they arrived on scene, the fires had merged into a single vegetation fire.
The fire district began staging to protect homes in the immediate vicinity as the fire approached.
“We were in about a mile away from some homes,” Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Prevention Captain Victor Daniel said. “We initiated a second alarm structure protection, which basically means that in addition to our firefighting efforts, we made sure that we were going to protect any homes and other structures that may have been in the area to ensure that those didn't have any direct fire impingement.”
Although the fire was not a direct threat to the homes, firefighters fought flames near properties as a precaution. They also called Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to check for potential risks to the power lines.
“As a precaution, anytime that there's a potential threat of power lines, we call PG&E to come out,” Daniel said. “But to my understanding, there was no direct power outage at that time.”
At 5:20 p.m., the fire was contained and approximately three acres in size. The fire district extinguished the fire using a combination of helicopters carrying buckets of water, as well as ground crews utilizing hose lines. Many residents gathered nearby after seeing smoke or hearing sirens.
“The fire trucks came pretty early [and] the helicopter had made multiple rounds so far,” Lafayette citizen Harleen Gahlla said. “First [watching the fire up close] was scary, but then seeing ... the quick response and how quickly the fire was under control, it feels pretty good.”
Several environmental influences caused the fire to spread farther.
“Wind will drive the fire quicker than normal, as well as the vegetation itself being fueled as the fire burns as it expands,” Daniel said. “The area and the terrain [also] created some issues because it was somewhat on a hill.”
While these factors may have contributed to the expansion of the fire, the Fire Investigation Unit is searching for the exact cause.
“The next step is to conduct our investigation, which our fire investigators will be doing, to determine what the cause may have been,” Daniel said. “And then ultimately, what will happen is we'll take that information and use that to develop new initiatives that may help us address the concerns of wildfire.”
*Blueprint would like to acknowledge that Natalie Pecci also contributed an interview to this story.
