‘Extremely lucky’: Mt. Tam wildfire highlights disaster risks
A smoker who started a fire at Bon Tempe Lake last month could have ignited a long-feared conflagration that would engulf Mount Tamalpais. But fortune smiled on the county, said Don Wick, chief ranger at the Marin Municipal Water District.
“I’m a true believer in luck, and we had luck that day,” said Wick, who helps oversee the 22,000-acre watershed.
The blaze started just after 9:30 a.m. June 16 along the eastern shore of Bon Tempe Lake, about 3 miles south of Fairfax. Fire investigators later determined the blaze was accidentally caused by a 90-year-old man who was smoking near the lake in violation of smoking prohibitions in the watershed.
Fortunately for fire crews, conditions were in their favor. Temperatures were cool in the mid-morning and the wind was blowing in from the north, directing the fire toward the lake shore rather than up the grassy hills and to stands of dead trees nearby.
District rangers were also notified soon after the blaze started by a resident who had seen the fire and traveled to a nearby ranger station to report it.
“We were extremely lucky,” Wick said. “Had the winds been kicking the other way it would have pushed it to the dry grass on the hill. There were a lot of things that were on our side.”
About 50 minutes later, the fire was contained to 2 acres. By the time the Cal Fire helicopter from Lake County arrived, the blaze was out.
But had the fire occurred later in the day when wind gusts picked up, or had a resident not been in the area to report the fire to nearby rangers, a different story could have unfolded.
“In this case, we caught it at a couple of acres but all of these things have the potential for significant loss in this county,” said Chief Jason Weber of the Marin County Fire Department. “It just takes one spark. If it’s smoking out in public or fireworks or other careless behavior, it can really ruin people’s lives or even take their lives.”
Mount Tamalpais has not had a major fire in nearly 80 years. The lack of fire has allowed vegetation and trees on the mountain to build up and encroach new areas through the decades.
The risk of a major wildfire has also been substantially worsened by diseases such as sudden oak death, the proliferation of highly flammable invasive brush and extreme weather patterns, all of which have been exacerbated by climate change. And the last decade has been dominated by years of drought, including one of the worst droughts on record.
“We’re kind of a sitting duck, if you will,” Weber said.
The close call was enough to stoke the concerns of nearby residents, prompting the Marin Municipal Water District to schedule discussion for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to review what happened and to consider how to respond.
“The reality of it is we dodged a bullet,” said Fairfax resident Tom McAfee, “because had this happened six hours later it probably would have spread to the vegetation and to the trees next door. It was a tremendous danger.”
Fairfax resident Peter Anderson, 80, was the first person to arrive at the scene of the fire.
Anderson, who hikes near the lake three to four times a week with his partner, was on a trail near the shoreline when he saw smoke and heard a weak call for help. After running about 100 feet off the trail to the top of a knoll, he found the 90-year-old man lying on the ground.
“His clothes were on fire and he was surrounded by leaves and grass that were burning,” Anderson said. “The fire just exploded. It was expanding in all directions, but mostly in the direction toward the lake.”
After snuffing out the man’s clothes, Anderson said he attempted to snuff out the flames on the nearby tree before turning around and seeing the man’s clothes had reignited.
Smothering the flames once again, Anderson said he feared they both would be trapped if the winds shifted directions. Anderson said the man was able to stand and the two made their way to the Lake Lagunitas trailhead after about 10 minutes. The whole time, Anderson said he had no cell service.
Fire crews began arriving soon after, and the injured man was transported to a burn clinic for treatment.
“He was in shock but he was able to talk to me,” Anderson said. “If he had not been able to get up I don’t know what I would have been able to do.”
The man’s name has not been released. Weber and Wick said they did not know the condition of the man and said it was unlikely he would be cited or charged.
Anderson, who previously served on the water district’s citizen advisory committee, has renewed his calls for the agency to increase ranger staff and patrols on the mountain.
“We’re up there every day almost and I talk to others every day. We never see the rangers,” Anderson said. “It’s not the rangers’ fault. They have 20,000 acres to monitor and they are inundated with 3 million visitors or more per year.”
The district employs six rangers, down from 12 in 1995. Of the six rangers, two are out for health issues, Wick said, leaving four to patrol a watershed with an area nearly three-fourths the size of San Francisco.
“We’re stretched pretty thin,” Wick said.
The district is looking to hire a seventh ranger, despite having had to dip into millions of dollars of reserve funds to cover losses from two years of drought and the coronavirus pandemic, said district board member Larry Bragman.
The rangers are required to have several training certifications as wildland fire responders, emergency medical technicians and sworn law enforcement officers.
“We are definitely listening and trying to respond responsibly to the public concern,” Bragman said. “They’re not easy positions to fill because they’re really kind of triple-trained.”
The fire also has also raised the issue of cellphone service in the watershed. While there are cell towers in the area, several locations have spotty or no service at all, making it difficult for visitors to report emergencies.
“My thought is we can probably work with them to get some mapping of the cell coverage in the watershed so we can figure out what we have,” Bragman said. “The other thing could be that we could possibly look into the feasibility of installing boosters in the watershed that would enable us to get coverage in any holes that we think might need that type of coverage.”