Evacuations under way as wildfire rages in Santa Cruz Mountains

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^ | 5-22-08 | By Mark Gomez

[EggsAckley]

Firefighters are evacuating residents near a wildfire that is burning out of control this morning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire has burned about 500 acres.

Sheriff's deputies from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties are in the process of evacuating residents living in a three-mile stretch near Mount Madonna Road, according to Chris Morgan, a fire prevention specialist. Morgan estimates there are at least 20 homes in the are being threatened by the fire.

"Our main priority is evacuations, getting people out safely," Morgan said. "Then we can start working the perimeter of the fire."

[Timeout]

Felton? Ben Lomond? How’d those get in there. From what I’m seeing it’s way east of there, not even close to 17.

Scared me. One of my best friends lives on Summit Rd...near the summit. Prayers up for all in its path. Sheesh, if it’s not mudslides.....

[lainie]

Over 2,000 acres now

[lainie]

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=263

Summit Fire
Incident Information

Date/Time Started: May 22, 2008 5:30 am
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE
County: Santa Clara
Location: Summit Road Cross Maymen Flats, South of the town of Loma Prieta
Evacuations: In progress for Eureka Canyon Road area, Ormsby Cutoff Road and Summit Road.
Injuries: 0
Cause: Under investigation
Cooperating Agencies: County, OES, CHP, Sheriff
Fire crews: 4
Engines: 25
Conditions: Temperature: 50-75
Wind Direction: E N/E
Wind Speed: 37
Relative Humidity: 20
Phone Numbers (408) 779-0930 (Summit Fire Information)

[BurbankKarl]

I was listening a couple hours ago and a whole subdivision appeared wiped out...they couldnt find the person calling 9-1-1 stating they were trapped.

[editor-surveyor]

Thanks!

When I first saw the news description of where it started, I thought that it might have been close to carry okie’s place, but it is way east of there.

[lainie]

Did it come to pass? that’s awful!

[editor-surveyor]

White shirt and tie under a turn-out jacket?
He must be important ;o)

[BurbankKarl]

He is a capt from San Jose...mutual aid. He has a desk job. On the mtn top cuz cell phones dont work down at the scene...along with the radios...

I will try to get more info...KGO showing burned out areas....looked like the wind is really picking up

[BurbankKarl]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/feature?section=news&id=6158710

KGO TV Live Feed

[BurbankKarl]

SCANNER: All NoCal mutual aid responders to take sb 17 to fire scene....no staging....immediate need

[lainie]

12 confirmed homes lost, is what I just heard on that feed. :(

any word yet on an origin?

[hedgetrimmer]

Do you know about this website?

http://www.firedispatch.com/

select santa cruz county from the upper left corner.

click on the speaker icon under fire_red and you can listen to the scanner.

[hedgetrimmer]

Ormsby Cutoff Road is the road county supervisor Ellen Pirie had barricaded because the county thought is was too dangerous for the residents to use. It effectively cuts off the escape route when bad stuff happens up there.

She’s running for reelection, but she should be running from the citizens she’s put in danger. She is one politician that needs to be voted out, more roads have closed under her direction than under any other time in Santa Cruz county history.

[ArmstedFragg]

Thanks for the ping. Looked at the streamer, not looking too bad. Flame heights are pretty reasonable, that 20% humidity is helping them. Looks like they got some pretty good spotting this morning, though. What the wind does overnight will be the key, if it reverses to the moist on-shore flow that’ll help ‘em a lot.

From the looks of the San Jose PIO picture, they’re not having any trouble getting mutual aid help there. CalFire’s putting it at 65 engines and fifteen dozers already.

We’ve had a couple of really dry hot days down here on the south end, with half a dozen small fires each time. No wind so far, thank God! Today we got rain and lightening. But we’re looking at an early season just like you are. Light fuel is already completely dried out. Our County Supervisors have just contracted for a couple of “Scoopers” for the season, but they won’t here until September, which... if things continue they way they are... means they’ll make good platforms for shooting photos of the rubble.

The only encouraging thing about the situation here in San Diego County is that more than half the old-growth fuel has gone up in the last six years. Some of that Santa Cruz mountains stuff probably hasn’t burned in fifty or more.

[lainie]

Thanks for that link.

[Syncro]

Nothing you describe is at that link

Got one that goes to a page with Santa Cruz in the upper left corner and a speaker icon under fire_red that I can access?

Thanks

[lainie]

Interesting. Look for local coverage of that angle. It’s something worth following up.

[IM2MAD]

Here’s an interesting Google link.
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

Go to the box under the map and click on the link which will take you to Google Earth fire incidents. I don’t think the current one is on it yet.

[lainie]

That is interesting. Thanks.

I’m following these two via RSS feed:

http://www.inciweb.org/feeds/rss/incidents/s/5/
http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/

[hedgetrimmer]

You can select Santa Cruz county from the drop down menu in the upper right corner of the page. My mistake.

Once you select it, it shows all the active fire calls.

On the table that is displayed with the fire calls, in the second column from the left, it show the words Fire Red for the type of call, and there's an audio icon just beneath that you can click on to get the scanner.