Since first breaking out on Jan. 7 and rapidly spreading throughout the region, the blazes have killed at least 25 people and destroyed upwards of 12,000 structures, scorching a vast expanse of more than 40,000 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Michael Hunt, public information officer for the Oakland Fire Department, said the first OFD team hit the road for Los Angeles around 11 p.m. on Jan. 7. As of Monday, the department had sent down 19 firefighters, including three engine companies, one water tender and three more senior department officials to help organize command efforts on the ground, Hunt said.
“We were already in touch with Cal OES when the winds were first forecasted,” he said.
Many significantly smaller Bay Area fire departments have also been assisting with the effort, including the single-station department in Albany, which has a total of just 21 firefighters.
Albany Fire Chief Jim Boito said three of his firefighters headed to L.A. last week in a brush truck — a rig designed to fight wildfires in rough terrain — joining a multi-unit task force battling the Eaton Fire.
“Their first charge is always to save lives and then property. All the resources went into saving lives. The crews down there are working great,” Boito said, adding that crews there are working 24-hour shifts with 24 hours off for two-week deployments.
Boito started working for the Albany Fire Department in 1996, with the devastating 1991 Oakland Hills fire still fresh in the Bay Area’s memory. The coordinated response to that fire, the largest urban wildfire at the time, was complicated by the fact that many different responding agencies couldn’t communicate with one another because their radios didn’t broadcast on shared frequencies, he said. Firefighting efforts were further hampered because some of the nozzles on the hoses used by some of the departments that came to help fight the blaze weren’t compatible with fire hydrants in Oakland and Berkeley.
In the years that followed, federal, state and local leaders examined the shortcomings of the collective response, coming up with detailed plans to prevent that level of miscommunication from never happening again. The effort led to a revamping of the state’s mutual aid system that had been in place since 1950.
“The problems we experienced in the ’91 fire have all been alleviated,” Boito said. “We learned some lessons.”
Among the lessons learned from the Oakland Hills fire was the need, during extreme fire emergencies, to summon not only other nearby departments, but also those farther away, and to have equipment ready and waiting for them.