8/22/2020 Brain Storming Fire Fighting Strategically. Should we consider tasking any existing Department of the Federal Government or modify an existing branch of the Department of Defense with the task of mounting high numbers of assets, quick response capabilities to CONTROL forest fires? Notice the operating word here being Control forest fire.

It wouldn't be cheap.

We could divide the country up into several territories. Maybe even use air bases that would change status over to strategic response bases.

So the West Coast would have 4 or 5 air strips under Federal management. When these assets are called into action at some predetermined level of need, they would swarm assets to the fire and control it quickly with an unending stream of safe intervals between aerial tanker drops, one after the other like a long railroad train with large numbers of aerial tankers hitting the fire.

If the assets deployed are great enough in depth, why couldn't we still manage our forests, letting some stuff burn, but offering a wall of protection against populated areas. The forest management priorities could be maintained.

Remember, everybody was saying let it burn until the Yellow Stone fire came over the mountain and approached the park headquarters. The west coast is sort of at that same point.

I'm focusing on aerial response where I at least have some background. Others I assume would discuss ground crew considerations.

Comments?

Pleasanton Weekly this is conflicting information. South of 580 & East of 84 is the entire city of Livermore. Please get your facts straight before posting alarmist headlines

Thank you for your comment, SallyAnne. As the headline and article clearly state, the evacuation warning applies only to unincorporated areas within that general freeway/highway bound. The incorporated cities of Pleasanton and Livermore are not included, as stated above.

Yes, SallyAnne, headline is correct and content was updated very timely given the level of detail needed for areas in potential danger. Again, It did say unincorporated and there is a map and that’s all we needEd right then.

Thank you Pleasanton Weekly for alerting us and doing a great job detailing this ever changing story that could affect so many!

Let’s keep the comments positive! In these remarkably trying times (especially when we are dealing with unpredictable wildfires/weather and people’s lives) we need to rise above.

Let’s say a prayer for the tired firefighters and those in harms way. Let’s show some compassion and love!

Rich Buckley –
Having a much larger coordinated effort for fighting West Coast fires is a great idea. But, doesn't this sort of task and responsibility already fall under the wing of FEMA? And rather than set up a new system to switch over air bases, why don't we have a better-coordinated system for intra-state cooperation of planes capable of water or retardant drops? We do get some good coordination from other states and Canada and even Australia, but look how long it takes; CAN and AUS were just coordinated yesterday to come and help. The lightning fires have been burning for over a week.

It appears Cal Fire has extended the evacuation order northwards.

As the fire is now approaching more heavily populated parts of Pleasanton and Livermore, it'd be great to get frequent updates!

The Cal Fire info is hard for normal folks to interpret, but a map like the one above really helps get a decent message out.
Web Link

Otherwise we have to decode ambguous statements like these:

"South of Welch Creek Rd. to the fire perimeter and the Alameda/Santa Clara County Line" - but Welch Creek Road runs partly north-south. Which part of the road is being referenced by the order?

"South of West Corral Hollow Road to Stanislaus County line"

Cal Fire clearly has their hands full, so this is a great place for skilled journalists to ask the right questions and get the key information out to the public.