Budget Crisis Casts Pall Over Bid to Fight Fire

With California’s budget mess complicating the effort, firefighters struggled to keep the season’s worst wild-land blaze out of the rugged Stanislaus River canyon Thursday--and fretted that they were risking their lives for payment by state-issued IOUs.

In its fifth day of burning out of control, the Old Gulch blaze had blackened more than 17,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in California in five years.

Fire officials said 57 structures had been lost--41 of them private homes. An estimated 16,500 people, nearly half the population of Calaveras County, were forced to evacuate their homes.

Fueled by hot winds and dry brush, flames 300 feet high licked the edge of the exclusive, gated retirement subdivision of Forest Meadows above California 4, then receded Thursday.

Thick, acrid smoke rose high into the air, ash showered towns miles away, and flames burned in the mountains and canyons a short distance from the fast-growing Mother Lode communities of Avery, Murphys and Sheep Ranch.

“It’s still an immensely dangerous fire with a lot of potential to do a lot more damage,” Jerry Geissler, state Department of Forestry’s chief in the Calaveras County area, said early Thursday.

But by late Thursday, the fire was reported to be 80% contained. Fire officials were cautiously optimistic that they might be gaining the upper hand when expected high winds failed to develop.

Full containment was expected at 6 p.m. today, with total control at 6 p.m. Sunday, said Heidi Jardine of the California Department of Forestry.

Meanwhile, more than 100 firefighters battled a new fire Thursday night in the Inyo National Forest, 15 miles southwest of Mammoth Lakes. The new blaze had blackened 500 acres by late Thursday and prompted officials to evacuate about 200 people from the popular Red’s Meadow and Devil’s Postpile camping areas.

“Right now, none of it is contained, but because it’s a rocky area there isn’t much that is fueling it,” Mammoth Lakes spokesman Jeff Irons said. “The hope is to get it under control before it enters the (Mammoth Lakes) basin.”

At the Old Gulch fire in Calaveras County, 500 engine companies, 75 bulldozers, 14 helicopters, 16 air tankers and 3,908 firefighters were thrown into the fray.

“Who knows, by the time it (the fire) is over there may be a (state) budget,” said forestry spokeswoman Lisa Boyd. As it is, “everybody is getting IOUs,” she said.

“This whole thing hurts morale,” CDF firefighter Curt Ohlau said of the budget crisis 50 miles away in the state capital and the scrip with which he is being paid. “No one out here likes working for nothing, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re putting our lives on the line, and those guys in Sacramento aren’t helping.”

Like Ohlau, firefighter Dave Rowe worried that his mortgage holder would not accept an IOU, and blamed the crisis in Sacramento on “years of out-of-control spending.”

“I don’t think the folks in government have had things under control for years,” Rowe said. “If I told you what I really think of them, you couldn’t print it in the paper.”

Despite the lack of a budget, Department of Forestry officials said they had all the material and manpower to fight the Calaveras County blaze.

But as the cost of fighting the fire topped $9.5 million, they feared that if more wildfires break out around the state over the weekend, resources would be strained.

Under agreements for mutual aid, counties statewide have dispatched crews to help battle the Calaveras blaze. But some counties committed only limited reinforcements, citing especially tight budgets, and the possibility that they will be forced to close fire stations.

“The budget crisis is causing us all to work a little bit differently,” said Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Dan Fraijo. “It’s just a pall hanging over all of us.”

While he sent a strike team to help in the Mother Lode, Fraijo held back other crews because of the fire danger in his county. He is concerned because most of the state’s air tankers and helicopters used to douse fires with water and fire retardant are being used in Calaveras County.

Earlier this summer, the Division of Forestry grounded six of its 21 air tankers used to bomb wild-land fires with water and retardant because of an anticipated 8.4% budget reduction.

“Right now, resources are adequate,” said spokeswoman Karen Terrill. “If we were to get another couple of large fires, that is when we would feel the reductions.”

In years past, fire departments in, for example, Sacramento County would have sent 25 engines to a large blaze so close to its border. But in this money-tight year, Sacramento County’s departments spared only nine trucks and crews.

“It’s an ugly situation,” said Curt Grieve, who coordinates Sacramento County’s response to fires when the state Office of Emergency Services issues a call for help.

As it is, budget proposals being pushed by the governor and Legislature would slice as much as $15.5 million from firefighting budgets in Sacramento County. That equates to a loss of 186 firefighters.

“You need to make sure your own constituents get the fire protection they’re paying for, and are not subsidizing other areas,” Grieve said.

Complicating the problem, Calaveras County’s population grew by 54.5% during the 1980s, making it the state’s fourth-fastest growing county. Much of the new housing was built in the path of old fires. But while housing construction boomed, local funds for fire fighting did not keep pace.

“They choose to live in a very rural setting, but they have very minimal resources,” Grieve said. “I’m just not so sure that they’re going to be able to rely on subsidized protection in the future.”

For the most part, large vendors honored contracts to supply food to weary fire crews, even as they grew nervous at the mounting number of IOUs they were collecting.

“There’s a little bit of concern,” said Robert Blagg, whose Redding-based catering service supplies 6,000 lunches a day to the Mother Lode fire crews. “It makes me a little nervous.”

But smaller shop owners were less accepting. There have been several reports of mom and pop businesses refusing to take state scrip. Department of Forestry officials issued a notice to fire crews heading into Calaveras County to carry extra food rations and fill their gas tanks at state yards, rather than risk being turned away by gas station operators and restaurant owners.

“It has turned out to be an inconvenience rather than a serious problem. But the incidents have increased,” Terrill said.

Budget crisis or not, Don Rogers, owner of Murphys Dog House in the largely evacuated Gold Rush-era tourist town of Murphys, handed out hot dogs for free to any firefighter who asked.

“I’ve just been giving the food away,” Rogers said. “We’re just feeding them. I’m not worrying about cash or an IOU. What are you going to do? The guys are sitting on the front porch. They just came off the line.”

Authorities are not forcing people to leave their homes. But on Wednesday, when they issued warnings to leave, thousands fled east into the mountains toward Lake Tahoe.

All along California 4, people pitched tents, and filled campgrounds. The Bear Valley ski resort became an enormous refugee center for 3,000 people. The management at the Bear Valley Lodge announced that it would lower its room rates from $100 to $20 for evacuees.

Emergency crews virtually cleared out a Save Mart at Angels Camp in buying supplies, loading up trucks and driving in a convoy to Bear Valley, arriving before dawn. In all, the Red Cross was making provisions to house 8,000 evacuees at fairgrounds in Sonora and Angels Camp, as well as at Bear Valley and the Mount Reba ski resort.

At Bear Valley, Bill Pollard, 48, who fled from his home in Avery, figured that there was a 90% chance his house had survived the night.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” he said. “That’s part of living in paradise. You just have to learn to accept it.”

Down the road, at Lake Alpine, evacuee Jackie Fisher, 53, was parked in her pickup truck and about to let her dog, Casey, take a swim. She had filled her trunk full of family pictures, papers “for Uncle Sam,” some snacks, and a bottle of bourbon--”the staples of life.”

“What are you going to do--just wait and see what happens,” she said.

One who stayed to fight for his home outside Avery was retired Orange County firefighter Bob Thomas. Along with his son, Scott, several hundred feet of used fire hose, and a well filled with 1,000 gallons, he managed to save everything but a ton and a half of hay.

“It basically surrounded us,” a tired Thomas said Thursday. “For a while there, I thought we were going to lose it.”

Times staff writer Eric Malnic reported from Calaveras County, Dan Morain reported from Sacramento. Staff writer Mark Arax also contributed to this report from Calaveras County.

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California Wildfires

Flames from the Old Gulch fire in Calaveras County jumped California 4 and continued to threaten the Gold Rush towns of Sheep Ranch, Murphys and Avery on Thursday. Among the developments evacuated was Forest Meadows, a planned adult community typical of the new construction that has attracted thousands of retirees.