Firefighters shift into second week in Sonoma County battling lightning-sparked fires

At the top of Koch Road, overlooking the smoldering, rugged forestland fueling the Walbridge fire in northwestern Sonoma County, Tom Gonnella felt fresh.

Never mind that he and others had spent the past five hours cutting through swaths of trees and brush to create a barrier to the northeast of the advancing flames.

Gonnella, 62, a volunteer Occidental firefighter for the past 47 years, had spent the past 24 hours off duty. It was a welcome contrast to his life one week ago, when he was part of a skeleton crew that stayed awake for 48 hours battling the hard-charging Meyers fire north of Jenner.

“I don’t even know what day it is,” Gonnella said with a laugh.

Many firefighters could say the same after crews were stretched thin statewide in the wake of an extraordinary series of thunderstorms that touched off more than 500 fires, including including more than 60 in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano and Yolo counties.

Sonoma County Fire District Chief Mark Heine said some of his crews worked three days or more before getting the opportunity to rest. Cal Fire officials said others worked as many as 96 straight hours in the early days of Sonoma County’s two fires ‒ the Meyers and the larger Walbridge fire, part of the LNU Lightning Complex fires that started last Monday and have burned more than 350,000 acres and destroyed more than 800 structures.

“They’re not getting a lot of sleep,” Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nicholls said during a Sunday afternoon media briefing, before adding that firefighters have since transitioned to a much more manageable routine: 24 hours on, 24 hours off.

For their own safety, firefighters are discouraged from nodding off while in the field, Cal Fire spokesman Jeremy Rahn said.

And the reality, Gonnella said, is the early hours and days of wildland fires can be non-stop action.

Gonnella, a plumbing contractor and Occidental bike shop owner, was sent to the Meyers fire on the Sonoma Coast. On Monday it was near full containment, but early last week it was burning out of control.

“The fire was ripping so much that you gotta just keep moving,” he said. “It’s adrenaline, and then you hit a wall.”

How do they push through?

“Ever heard of yerba mate?” Gonnella said, smiling wide, referring to the caffeinated drink.

Across California, more than 14,000 firefighters and other personnel are assigned to wildfires that broke out after the massive thunderstorms or that have sparked since. Due to the pandemic, state fire officials are bringing fewer reinforcements from the state’s force of inmate firefighters, a routine presence on most big incidents. But inmates on the fire lines are less numerous this year after widescale prison releases to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.

By Monday evening, total personnel assigned to the LNU Lightning Complex fires had grown to 2,194, and most of the firefighters were back to a rotating, 24-hour schedule, with the home base at the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga.

Rahn said crews get a 7 a.m. morning briefing, stock up with food, water, ice, and then hit the road, sitting through another briefing once they’re in the field.

They’ll stay there for the full shift, packing enough calorie-rich food to last at least that long, Rahn said.

The longer shifts reported in the earlier days of the fires are not uncommon on major wildland firefights.

“It’s very taxing when we get into those extended periods, and that is not uncommon when we have those initial attacks when fire growth is rapid,” he said.

In Calistoga, residents offered welcoming messages on nearly every corner fire firefighters coming or going.

“We Love Firefighters.”

“Thank you Firefighters.”

Gas-powered generators provided ambient white noise while powering RVs at this makeshift city within a city.

Outside of the Napa County Fairgrounds, entrepreneurs sold T-shirts memorializing the fire and promising to donate a portion back to Cal Fire, the world’s largest firefighting agency.

At the gate around noon Monday, a truck hauling 20 portable toilets beeped its arrival while backing into place.

Some of the units may end up in the field, at designated “drop points,” where firefighters go to resupply and for breaks.

When working high on a ridgeline, like the one northwest of Healdsburg where Gonnella was building trenchline, such amenities aren’t as close at hand.

The work is hard alongside the narrow, steep, gravel roadway on the upper reaches of Koch Road, which was still smoldering in the dried grass along the road. Firefighters, including two vans with inmate crews, were working to make sure it didn’t come back through into the trees, and then the houses and other structures on the west side of the road.

Gonnella struck a positive tone. It was the second wildland fire this week he was working with his 19-year-old daughter, Rose. Last year, the pair had fought the Kincade fire, county’s largest ever.

Pretty soon, Gonnella said, Rose is going to outwork him.

“She went through the fire academy, and now she’s hooked,” he said, adding, “I’m proud!”

You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667 or tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com.