Wildfire

Point Reyes Light  

Oct. 5, 1995

By Joel Reese
An illegal, unattended campfire on Mount Vision sparked a massive wildfire this week that continues to sweep along Inverness Ridge and has raged to the sea, destroying 45 houses and damaging 12 others.

Virtually half the Paradise Ranch Estates subdivision was consumed by flames Tuesday, with many homes on Sunnyside Drive, Buck Point, Elizabeth Place, Dover Road, Drake’s View Drive, and Sunshine Court completely lost.

By Friday, up to 1,200 firefighters had battled the blaze above Inverness Park and in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Only four minor injuries have been reported so far — all suffered by firefighters.

11,000 acres so far

By Friday afternoon, the fire had already raced through 11,000 acres of Bishop Pine and Douglas Fir forest and brush land, with the bulk of scorched acreage located between Inverness Ridge and Limantour Beach.

Fire officials estimated Friday that 80 percent of the blaze was contained, with the full containment not anticipated before midnight Friday.

However, officials were optimistic that the fire would not spread too much further east into populated areas of Inverness and Inverness Park. Battalion Chief Richard Hayes said Wednesday night that at least for now, the most intense part of the fire was headed southwest through the unpopulated National Seashore.

Inverness still okay
“The [Inverness/Inverness Park] area is more stable,” Hayes said. “The lines in that area are very well constructed, and [Operations Chief] Del Walters feels very confident they will hold… Inverness is not imminently threatened.”

All trails, roads, beaches, and campgrounds within the National Seashore are closed until further notice. West Marin and Inverness Schools, which were closed Wednesday, will be open Thursday.

An evacuation order for the Paradise Ranch Estates subdivision, plus Laurel, Vallejo, Balboa, and Portola avenues remains in effect.

The fire, which officials believe sprang from a small campfire, was discovered on the southern slope of Mount Vision Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Tiny at first, the flames quickly spread because of 50 mph gusting winds.

Dry, hot winds
“That’s one of the reasons the fire burned so severely — because of the winds and the nature of the weather,” said Marin Fire Marshal Jack Rosevear, noting the fire was also aided by low humidity. “These winds are so strong, and they’re dry, which causes more erratic fire behavior.”

Rosevear said the initial blaze was almost contained that afternoon within a one-acre area, but it jumped a canyon south and cut a “narrow swath” southwest across the ridge.

Tomales Bay State Park Ranger Carlos Porrata said the conflagration took off after hurdling the canyon.

“That’s where it started getting some really dry material,” he said. “As soon as it hit the Bishop pines, it was like an explosion.”

Ridge ripe for burn
Incident Commander Tom Tarp, who came down from the Lake/Napa counties area, said Bishop pines are “big, heavy, nasty stuff that drop a lot of things onto the ground which build up a lot of fuel.”

He added that there hasn’t been a fire on the east side of Inverness Ridge in about 65 years, which has led to a great deal of fuel build-up there.

At about 4 p.m. Tuesday flames reached the houses on upper Sunnyside Drive in the Paradise Ranch Estates subdivision.

With a few isolated exceptions, the fire within hours claimed the entire top half of the steep, wooded neighborhood.

Rosevear said County Fire Chief Stan Rowan ordered a “mandatory evacuation” of about 200 homes in the Inverness Park area at around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“The evacuation siren was sounded until the power went out,” he said.

Smoke billows south
Further south, smoke from the fire shrouded Bolinas and Stinson Beach, and could be smelled as far south as Santa Cruz.

After burning through Paradise Ranch Estates, the blaze abruptly switched course at about 1 a.m. Wednesday and headed toward the ocean, Tarp said.

During the coolest part of the night, the fire jumped across Limantour Road rolled downhill toward the ocean.

By setting backfires in the blaze’s path and bulldozing rings around the buildings, firefighters saved the Point Reyes Youth Hostel, the Clem Miller Environmental Educational Center, and several other structures.

“It just kept coming all the way down to the water,” engine driver Larry Devin of Novato said.

Flames trap firefighters
For a time, Devin and his team were trapped in the Limantour Beach parking lot, surrounded by flames. He and others in his crew reported that asphalt actually melted beneath their feet.

Wednesday afternoon, the blaze jumped the southern fire line and continued hurtling south. As of 4:30 p.m., it reached as far south as Woodward Valley Trail.

“The fire jumped past our initial attack force’s capabilities,” Tarp explained.

He noted that the high, erratic winds have made this fire difficult to predict.

“Normally at night, the wind dies down,” he said. “Last night, that didn’t happen… Last night the fire was burning better at 2 a.m. than it was in the afternoon.”

Statewide response
Aside from state, county, and West Marin fire crews, units from the cities of Novato, Tiburon, and Mendocino have helped in the battle. They have been joined by units from Belvedere and from Dixon and Vacaville in Solano County, plus crews from Humboldt, Butte and Napa counties.

Crews from Southern California were expected to move in Thursday.

Here too Wednesday were 108 fire engines, 37 hand crews, 16 bulldozers, two spotter planes, seven air tankers, and seven helicopters.

The aircraft, most of which were converted from military use, include a Lockheed Hercules bomber, Bell Huey helicopters, Grumman trackers, a Cessna 02 observation aircraft, and a C-54 converted cargo plane.

Aerial assault
The planes have dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of Phoscheck — a red flame retardant made up of fertilizer and red dye — that has been loaded at the Santa Rosa Airport. The planes have used so much of the material that they now must go to airports in Ukiah in Mendocino County and Rohnerville in Humboldt County to get more.

The circling helicopters dumped water scooped up from Tomales Bay.

Tarp estimated the current weather pattern, with desultory winds blowing toward the sea but with low humidity, have held.

Tarp said firefighting strategy on the east side of Inverness Ridge involves “direct attack,” with hand crews and trucks employing thousands of feet of firehose. Other fighters are digging firelines behind those spraying water.

Defense of park
On the west side of the ridge, Tarp said the fighters are taking advantage of “natural barriers” to contain the blaze.

Porrata said the National Seashore’s dairy ranches might serve as one such barrier.

“The ranches have been grazed, so the grass is low and there’s very little fuel,” he said. “That’s good. That’s very, very good.”

Meanwhile, by Wednesday afternoon, Paradise Ranch Estates was a picture of devastation. Upper Drake’s View Drive seemed a stark moonscape. Instead of homes stood an occasional blackened chimney. Trees were reduced to smoking branches. All that remained of cars were smoldering chassis.

Fire and flood
County Supervisor Gary Giacomini, who was at the fire most of Tuesday and Wednesday, said that some of the residents whose homes were damaged had just recovered from the flood of 1982.

“The saddest thing I’ve witnessed is individuals whose homes were savaged by the floods of 1982 and are now being consumed by fire,” he said. “These people are double snake-bit.”

Bolinas arborist Ray Moritz said the damage from the fire could continue into winter, as the loss of vegetation could lead to major erosions down the ridge.

“It will take a major effort to stabilize these slopes because we’re almost into the wet season,” he said. “Many trees are going to fall between now and the end of winter… This is a major ecological event, as well as a catastrophic event for people.”

Long-dreaded blaze
Even after residents of Paradise Ranch Estates last October installed a World War II air-raid siren to warn of fire, some said that a conflagration at the development was inevitable.

“There is a horrible fire danger on Inverness Ridge,” said subdivision resident Harvey Freed last year. “That place is a tinderbox.”

Former Planning Commissioner (and former Paradise Ranch resident) Jerry Friedman fought dense development in the subdivision, and noted that Paradise Ranch has been fraught with problems since its inception.

Some of the difficulties have included too many houses — many of which are made of wood — plus steep, narrow, and winding roads, and inadequate water systems, he said.

“This is a subdivision with horrifying problems,” he said. “It takes 20 minutes for a firetruck to get to the top [of the development]. That’s a long time when a house is in flames.”

Cable TV down
The fire also knocked out television reception for miles, as Horizon Cable’s off-air receiving station, satellite dishes, and antennae were located high up in Paradise Ranch Estates.

Horizon owner Kevin Daniel said his entire facility, which is located on Sandy Jacobs’ property at 200 Sunnyside Dr., is entirely melted.

The Federal Aviation Agency tower on Mount Vision suffered no damage, although its power cables were destroyed. FAA Public Affairs Officer Hank Verbais said the tower, which sends radio signals to commercial and military craft, is functioning — for now.

(Lori Eppstein, Jennifer Henderson, David Rolland, and Don Schinske contributed to this article.)