Community COMMERCE sports digest Wednesday Some airlines know pampering ...................................Page 3 .............Page 6 July 2, 2008 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Thursday: Partly sunny H 88º L 56º 7 58551 69301 0 Friday: Partly sunny H 80º L 52º 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 14 pages, Volume 150 Number 84 email: [email protected] FIRE IMPACTS Tankers can’t stay here All American Air attack based Fourth Picnic elsewhere while on for now smoke continues Thus far the annual community pic- By BEN BROWN nic at Todd Grove Park on July 4 is The Daily Journal scheduled to go forward, according to There are no Cal Fire air tankers city officials. The Chamber of based out of the Ukiah Municipal Commerce and the City of Ukiah have Airport this week but the fires are once again planned the All American still keeping the staff at the base Fourth of July Picnic in the Park. busy. Assuming the air quality is good In a normal year, two Cal Fire air enough, this free event will take place tanker planes would be working out from noon to 5 p.m. on Friday at Todd of the airport, but the dense smoke Grove Park. There will be live enter- from dozens of wildfires that has tainment with DJ Ken Steely, orga- invaded the valley has forced the nized games, bounce houses, a com- planes to other airports. munity participation mural, and food Base Manager Joe Ortegel said and craft vendors. The Ukiah the firefighting planes require a Municipal Swimming Pool will be minimum of three miles of visibili- open for free swim from 1 to 5 p.m. ty to operate safely. On Tuesday, For more information, call the City visibility was out to five miles but of Ukiah Community Services for much of last week it was as low Department at 463-6231. as half a mile. “No matter how bad things get, they have to think about personnel FIRE UPDATE safety,” Ortegel said. There are air attack planes help- ing to fight Mendocino County’s wildfires, but Ortegel said they are Fires 40 percent flying out of airports in Sonoma County and Chico where the visibil- Sarah Baldik/The Daily Journal contained ity is better. Joe Ortegel, Cal fire Air Attack Base Manager looks out onto the Ukiah airstrip Tuesday morning. Though they haven’t been flying The Ukiah Cal fire air tankers have been running out of Sonoma County for the past week due to The Daily Journal out of Ukiah, some of the air attack poor visibility in the Valley. The Mendocino Lightning Complex planes working on Mendocino fires spread very little Tuesday as more County’s wildfires have been land- rather than return to a home base tions to reload,” Ortegel said. spotting and dropping retardant on firefighters arrived on scene. ing there during the day, to refuel that is farther away. Ortegel said the planes haven’t fires in Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma As of Tuesday night at 7 p.m., the and pick up additional fire retardant “As long as we have the condi- been staying in Ukiah overnight and Napa counties. number of active fires still burning was because the smoke tends to become In a normal year the Ukiah air down to 40 in Mendocino County but more dense overnight and Cal Fire attack base responds to more than the fires had spread to 37,800 acres. does not want its planes trapped in 300 calls and the planes can end up Containment was up to 40 percent Ukiah until it can clear. dropping thousands of gallons of Tuesday night. Fire officials say that The work is sporadic, but Ortegel fire retardant. while the remaining fires continue to said crews reloaded two Grumman Fire officials have said this could increase in size as of Tuesday, they are S2 air tankers twice on Sunday. The be a particularly bad fire year due to doing so at a much slower rate. planes can fly to their targets, drop one of the driest springs on record Additional firefighters, some from retardant, and return in as little as which has dried vegetation for the as far away as Wyoming arrived on 15 minutes, he said. summer in a way not normally seen scene, bringing the total number of In between reloading jobs, until August. firefighters on the fire as of Tuesday Ortegel said the crew takes care of This is Ortegel’s second summer night to 1,515, backed by 132 engines, other projects around the base that serving at the Ukiah Air Attack 60 water tenders, 49 bulldozers, 15 can be hard to get to when the base. A native of Tuolomne in helicopters and one aircraft. tankers are on scene. Calaveras County he said he enjoys In the weeks before the lightning While some progress has been made working with Cal Fire’s firefighting strikes, Ortegel said the tankers airplanes. against the fires there are several large were flying several hours a day, fires that represent a moderate threat to “Working with aircraft is a homes and are still minimally con- unique experience,” he said. “I real- tained. Cal Fire air support firefighter ly think everyone should have it, it As of Tuesday morning, the Orr Kristen Bosorth, hoses off the gives you another perspective on Springs fire, burning 3,037 acres near thermo-gel retardant from an firefighting. the Orr Springs resort was listed as a air tanker at the Ukiah airport Ben Brown can be reached at substantial threat to nearby homes and Saturday June 21, 2008. [email protected] was only minimally contained. Also minimally contained was the Middle Fire burning for acres and 798 acres near the community of Rockport north County workers manning Cal Fire phones of Fort Bragg. The Hardy Fire, also burning in that By SARA HOUSE Each day, the call center receives area, reached 3,717 acres and was sub- For the Daily Journal briefings twice a day from the fair- stantially contained as of Tuesday When lightning struck the coun- grounds, where the fire department afternoon. ty over a week ago, sparking is located temporarily. This con- Both fires were listed as a moderate dozens of fires, it became clear that stantly updated information is then threat to homes. extra help was needed. Beyond fire- given to the callers. The volunteers On Tuesday, firefighting crews were fighting assistance, which came are trained, provided with an air planning a nighttime operation to start from many areas outside the coun- conditioned room, snacks, lunch break fires north of Laytonville in the ty, help also arrived from inside the and beverages. Because some of the Red Mountain Road, Bell Springs county. fires have been contained and in Road and Blue Rock area starting 6 Mendocino County staffers from recent days the smoke has lifted in p.m. Tuesday and lasting until mid- places like the Public Defender and some areas, calls have died down in night. District Attorney’s offices were the past two days. However, there The Hunt, Woodman and Burns flat recruited to the Sheriff’s office to was still an abundance of phone were all burning uncontrolled in that answer phone calls and provide calls being handled even on area. information to local residents and Tuesday and only about four to six the media at the Emergency people on a line each shift. Cal Fire said area residents should Operations Center in Ukiah. “It can be a very stressful envi- expect to see increased fire and smoke CEO Tom Mitchell offered the ronment to know somebody out in that area but that it would be photo by Sara House county services and the county’s Kathryn Cavness, of the Mendocino County District Attorney’s there needs critical information and patrolled heavily by firefighters during workers were more than happy to it all came to be at a moment’s the operation. office has been putting in extra time on crisis phone lines help- oblige. At least 75 officials and per- ing disseminate fire information. notice,” states Boudreaux. Nine areas in the county were still sonnel were called in to man the Jann Smith of the Mendocino under an evacuation order as of phones in four hour shifts, at all and still is, providing the best infor- in the area are updated every day in County Forestry and Fire Protection Tuesday morning but no areas had been hours of the day. Sometimes there explained that not only do the local added to the list in several days. mation to anyone in need of an addition to evacuation warnings were few calls, but most of the time update about the fires. The conve- and other fire information. This is people call simply to get informa- All of the Red Cross shelters in was stressful, with the pressure of nience of having county personnel the first time this system has been tion for themselves, but to ask Mendocino County remained on stand- constant phone calls from con- on the lines is that they know the used and the success so far has about ways they can volunteer or by Tuesday, fully stocked and prepared cerned local citizens and media. county well and are able to answer been phenomenal says Cal Fire. donate to the effort. As always, the to reopen as needed. These officials put their daily jobs questions with confidence and first “I am proud to live in county officials are there to provide The total estimated cost of fighting on hold, working middle-of-the- hand information.