Cal Fire ramps up staffing as dry lightning looms
Briana Mathaw
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) – CAL FIRE is on alert tonight, keeping a close eye on the threat of dry lightning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The risk is considered low, but crews remain ready just in case. And for people who’ve lived through past fires, even the smallest chance is enough to start preparing.
People in the Santa Cruz Mountains are watching the forecast closely.
“It really kind of gives me PTSD because of what happened with the fires here before,” Kurt Hoerzing, who lives in Boulder Creek, said.
CAL FIRE officials say they are staying prepared.
“It’s forecasted, the potential for dry lightning. And it’s actually a very low probability right now. We did have some lightning strikes yesterday afternoon, down off of Big Sur out in the ocean. But the possibility is still here, and we’re preparing for it,” CAL FIRE CZU Unit Forester Richard Sampson said.
Crews have ramped up staffing and positioned resources in case conditions change.
“We haven’t had any strikes up in the San Mateo or Santa Cruz unit, so we’re not actually looking, but anywhere in the unit potentially could have a lightning strike. In preparation, we’re looking at pre-positioning resources. We’ve staffed up additional firefighter hand crews,” Sampson said.
“If we do get lightning, we’re usually watching the area for about 4 to 5 days,” Sampson said.
While conditions are not yet at their worst, the peak of fire season is approaching.
“We’re not quite at the critical like we would have in October, but we’re approaching. It’s been actually fairly damp, mostly in the lower elevations with the summer that we’ve had, and everything’s still actually fairly green,” Sampson said.
“But come October, and depending on what the weather does in October and into November, we could be in the critical levels. And so we’re monitoring that,” Sampson said.
For communities like Boulder Creek, even the possibility of lightning sparks serious concern.
“It really kind of gives me PTSD because of what happened with the fires here before,” Hoerzing said.
“Our first thought is always fire, because that’s like the most significant impact,” Brian Kwong, who lives in Felton, said.
“I remember at night you look out and you see these flashes in the distance. No rain, but just flash, flash, flash. And then you wake up the next morning, it’s like, oh, there’s like 50 fires everywhere,” Kwong said.
Locals know how quickly things can escalate, especially with dry brush and heat.
“There’s a lot of dry brush here. You have some dead trees dying, and then it heats up. And we know that with the CZU fires, it burned pretty quickly,” Hoerzing said.
That’s why defensible space and preparation remain critical.
“Defensible space can play a pretty big role in terms of how a fire spreads,” Kwong said.
“I cleared my whole area around the house, cleared out, cut the trees down, all the brushes and stuff like that,” Hoerzing said.
CAL FIRE says if they do see lightning, they’ll monitor that area for four to five days, watching for any fires that might smolder before flaring up.