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Trucks and personnel from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District help battle the CZU Fire in 2020. Courtesy Dan Coyle. 
Trucks and personnel from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District help battle the CZU Fire in 2020. Courtesy Dan Coyle. 
Trucks and personnel from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District help battle the CZU Fire in 2020. Courtesy Dan Coyle.
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District has sent resources to aid in fighting the Park Fire that ignited in Northern California on July 24, after being asked to send mutual aid on Aug. 1.
In total, the district sent two four-person fire engines, two strike team leader battalion chiefs, and several paramedics, according to Dan Coyle, Menlo Park Fire’s deputy chief. According to Coyle, sending mutual aid to large fires in other areas of the state also helps to prepare local fire departments for the possibility of a large wildfire closer to home.
The fire, which ignited in a park just north of Chico, has grown to 414,042 acres across four counties in Northern California as of the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 6, according to an incident update from CalFire. This makes it the fourth largest fire in the state’s history. The fire was 34% contained as of Tuesday morning.
Mutual aid requests in the state of California are dictated by the California Office of Emergency Services.
“The Governor’s OES runs, in my opinion, the most functional, efficient and robust mutual aid system in the world,” Coyle said. “The folks running these large incidents forecast the needs of the incident, and put in the request to OES, which then filters down to various regions in the state and then down to the local government level.”
Coyle explained that Menlo Park Fire only sends resources to help on these large incidents if they have enough staffing to maintain fire protection at home.
“We never drop our staffing here,” he said. “We always consider the fire protection here at home to be our primary focus, but we do help out whenever we can.”
The Menlo Park Fire crews, along with all of the other fire crews fighting the Park Fire are dealing with hot temperatures, and difficult terrain as they try to contain the fire.
Fire crews are dealing with hot weather and steep terrain as they try to contain the Park Fire in Northern California. Courtesy CalFire. 
Fire crews are dealing with hot weather and steep terrain as they try to contain the Park Fire in Northern California. Courtesy CalFire. 
Fire crews are dealing with hot weather and steep terrain as they try to contain the Park Fire in Northern California. Courtesy CalFire.
“I’ve been to a number of fires in that same area over my career … they are dealing with steep terrain, narrow roads, poor water supply,” said Coyle in an interview with this news organization. “All the water, for the most part, has to be trucked in with water tenders. There’s very few hydrant systems in those remote areas.”
Coyle said that resources from Menlo Park have been deployed to the eastern flank of the fire, near Highway 32, as well as the northern edge of the fire. The resources sent to the northern edge of the fire were mostly the smaller type 6 fire engines, which, as Coyle explained, are more nimble.
“They can get into some areas that the big fire engine can’t,” he said. “They’ve had a pretty active fire fight for the last five or six days.”
Coyle explained that one of the benefits of sending resources to a large wildland fire like the Park Fire, is that the Menlo Park Fire crews gain experience fighting wildfires.
“We get invaluable experience and training for a large fire if it were to occur here, such as the CZU Complex a few years ago,” he said. “And to bring back here, should we have a similar event, then it’s not like a new thing for them. They’ve already got a lot of experience.”
All firefighters in Menlo Park have some level of wildland fire training, according to Coyle.
“Essentially all of our firefighters and captains have the training required because we could have those same fires here someday, though hopefully not,” he said.
Menlo Park Fire found that those real world wildfire experiences, in addition to the required training, were crucial while fighting the CZU fire in 2020.
“We sent a bunch of our fire engines over the hill to protect the flank of the (CZU) fire that was facing San Mateo County,” said Coyle. “A lot of those folks drew on their experiences from going to the (Camp) fire in Paradise or the fire in (Lake) Tahoe a few years ago.”
Another benefit of sending local firefighters to aid on these large fires is that the experience and training they gain fighting these large fires is paid for by the state, rather than the smaller fire district.
“The cost of (sending firefighters) is covered by the incident, whether that’s the Forest Service or CalFire, or the (Office of Emergency Services) itself, so the fire district doesn’t lose any money on it,” said Coyle. “All the expenses are covered.”
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