LA County Firefighters Attack Wagon Fire Which Threatens Agua Dulce

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On Monday, September 5, at 12:53 p.m., while many of us were home relaxing and enjoying the Labor Day holiday, more than 250 LACoFD firefighters were hard at work in the scorching heat battling the Wagon Fire that had the potential to destroy the community of Agua Dulce. What began as a structure fire became a much more dangerous situation; fueled by high temperatures and low humidity, the fire extended to the brush moving into State Responsibility Area. When our firefighters arrived on scene, the structure was fully involved and the fire had spread to the brush, threatening homes. Realizing that the structure response would not be adequate to fight the structure fire as well as the rapidly growing wildfire, LACoFD upgraded the response to a full second alarm brush assignment. The two leased Super Scoopers, fixed wing aircrafts that carry 1,620 gallons of water and 132 gallons of foam, and our heli-tanker, with its maximum capacity of 2,500 gallons of water and 77 gallons of foam, were also deployed.

Agua Dulce is a rural community in the County's unincorporated area; it is populated with several ranch-style properties, set among the rolling hills. According to Assistant Fire Chief Bill Niccum this is considered an "inter-mix zone," which presents unique issues for firefighters. Niccum said, "One of the biggest challenges was providing all that structure protection in the inter-mix zone….The challenge of an inter-mix zone compared to an urban interface is that inter-mix is generally a rural populated area where density is less, houses are likely to be older and may not be built to current code. Access is usually not paved and water systems can range from hydrants to water tanks fed by private wells."

A little more than one hour after the fire started, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies initiated voluntary evacuations for approximately 200 hundred homes in the area. Just minutes after, LACoFD upgraded the response to a full third alarm brush assignment and activated Incident Management Team #2. Emergency personnel on the ground, aided by helicopters and Super Scoopers, aggressively attacked the fire. Deputy Chief Mark Bennett explained, "Due to the rapid rate of spread of the fire and the fact that structures were threatened, we activated the Command and General Staff of Incident Management Team #2. The outstanding coordinated attack between the engines, hand crews, dozers and aircraft effectively stopped the forward progress of the fire in the first operational period."

Thanks to the exemplary work and coordinated efforts of all the cooperating agencies, including LACoFD, Los Angeles Fire Department, the Bureau of Land Management, CAL FIRE and others, the fire's movement was stopped in its tracks by early Monday evening. By early Wednesday morning, the fire was fully contained. When wildfires occur, firefighters work from the outside in to improve the control line surrounding the fire which means hand crews and engine company crews on the ground create a "cold trail" so that there is no possibility of the fire reigniting and extending into unburned fuel.

The Wagon Fire burned 345 acres but no lives were lost and very few structures were damaged. Niccum put it best, saying, "The community was supportive and grateful that we had the command structure and adequate resources committed that resulted in a minimal loss to Agua Dulce." Congratulations to everyone on another job well done! (Photos courtesy of KTLA.com, Los Angeles Times, and 89.3 KPPC)

Republished with permission of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. View original article here.



Author:Los Angeles County Fire Department