BONNY DOON — Residents up here call it “Battle Mountain.” And despite evacuation orders and condemnation from fire and law enforcement officials, scores of Bonny Doon locals and their supporters are refusing to back down from a guerilla-style fight to protect their homes from flames.
Many are organized into loose networks — ranging from small groups of neighbors with light gear to dozens of people equipped with tractors, generators, chainsaws and trucks packing sizable water tanks hooked to fire hoses and gas-powered pumps.
“Our job right now is to go find spot fires and put them out,” said Jonah Torres, of Bonny Doon, patrolling roads with friend Chris Fink. “We came out Monday, and we’ve been at over 15 different fires that we helped secure structures or cutting line and stopping it.”
A 200 gallon water tank filled the bed of the pair’s Toyota Tacoma, equipped with a spool of fire hose and a gas pump capable of blasting water well over a hundred feet.
The friends said they’re part of a group of about 50 closely coordinated people that includes a radio dispatcher, roll-call sheets, listening posts and multiple predetermined meeting points and defensible evacuation areas. “Within that group, there’s at least 20 professional firefighters that are leading logistics and ensuring that we have safe routes out,” Torres said.
Said Fink, “Not just professional, but they have experience fighting fires here — the Lockheed Fire, the Martin Fire.”
Torres agreed. “They know the lay of the land, and we look up to these folks to lead the way,” he said.
By some estimates, more than 200 people remain in a remote Santa Cruz Mountains community that’s usually home to close to 3,000. Most residents heeded evacuation orders as the CZU August Lightning Complex neared Tuesday night, before flames swept through large areas of Bonny Doon and leveled numerous homes. Many didn’t.
Hours spent driving winding roads through thick smoke and smoldering trees — stumbling across roving amateur patrols, along with large and small groups dug into properties — lends credence to the claims that the number of people still living on the mountain, surrounded by significant wildfire activity, is in that range.
Labeled irrational, irresponsible, or worse in some corners in the wake of an initial flurry of press coverage, those left on the mountain are more frequently hailed as heroes by their own evacuated neighbors who speak out on online community groups.
But Cal Fire officials insist any amateur fire brigades and neighborhood patrols here aren’t prepared for what they’re up against and impede the effort to control a blaze of historic proportion. Ignited by numerous lightning strikes early in the morning Aug. 16, flames have since consumed an unprecedented 73,000 acres and destroyed 141 structures and counting across Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. About 64,000 people are under evacuation orders.
Defiant residents, fire officials have said, aren’t just risking their own lives, they are risking the lives of the firefighters who may have to bail them out if they find themselves hemmed in by flames and unable to escape. Cal Fire’s CZU Unit said it has staged multiple rescue operations in evacuated areas, though the specific circumstances aren’t clear.
Areas of the North Coast and San Lorenzo Valley also have at least some residents in evidence days after evacuation orders were issued.
In Bonny Doon, the majority who remain appear to be a mix of homesteaders, neighbors, friends and an eclectic mix of others committed to defending these properties in open defiance of evacuation orders.
The claim that a group of 20 professional firefighters is working together with residents couldn’t be immediately verified. But at least some firefighters are among the groups — volunteers, retirees and professionals who live in the area or say they came because of personal relationships or a conviction that more should be done to defend these homes. One veteran firefighter working alongside residents declined to speak on the record.
As they fell trees, clear brush, hose fires and dig out lines, the residents who remain seem to understand they are taking on a level of risk most would balk at in the name of defending their properties and surrounding land.
Danger to anyone left on their mountain was underscored as weather moving up the coast Sunday threatened to bring back the kind of dry lightning and heavy wind that ignited so many fires across California a week earlier. It was unclear by publication time to what extent the Santa Cruz Mountains were impacted.
Ryan Coonerty, the Santa Cruz County supervisor who represents the area, called it “critical” to leave evacuated communities in advance of the impending weather in an emailed message to constituents Sunday.
One of those still on the mountain Saturday was Matthew Hahn, 40, of San Jose. Hahn said he worked for years on wildland fire crews fighting the Station Fire in 2009 and other incidents while incarcerated. He came to support those left in Bonny Doon because he knew someone who lived in the area and he heard residents needed help.
Hahn said he expected to show up and find scattered residents needing help clearing defensible space. Instead, he was surprised by the level of equipment and know-how he said he encountered.
“There was nobody (from Cal Fire) up here when I got here Thursday,” Hahn said. “The only people keeping the houses from burning down was us.”
Cal Fire officials working the CZU complex didn’t respond to an interview request about the residents’ claims, placed through a spokesperson.
Cal Fire Division Chief Mark Brunton, however, credited his crews with making progress Sunday, and noted no structures were lost overnight in Bonny Doon. “It’s been continued progress throughout there, albeit slow,” Brunton said. “Fire is widespread through that community, and so our resources have been doing a great job of point protection — getting in and among those structures, putting any control lines they can, suppressing any fire they can around those structures.”
Cal Fire’s continued shortage of personnel working the CZU incident is no secret. Officials call out that reality on a daily basis even as they commit to do the best with what resources they have. Not far away in California, after all, rage two fires among the three largest in the state’s history, the LNU and SCU complexes — a disastrous confluence caused by a lashing of lightning that set off hundreds of fires across the state Aug. 13.
But the CZU fire is its own beast. In ordinary times, officials have said at least 10 times as many personnel would be working to control its spread. Dry weather, dense brush and forest, and thick smoke further hinder their efforts.
As of Sunday, 10 engines, four hand crews and at least three water tenders were stationed in Bonny Doon, according to a Cal Fire information officer. Likely more equipment than residents saw earlier this week, that presence remains minimal compared to drastically smaller fires of years past.
In 2008, for instance, the Martin scorched 520 acres and destroyed three homes in one corner of Bonny Doon. At the height of that relatively tiny blaze, 67 engines, 29 hand crews, 11 water tenders, eight air-tankers and five helicopters were assigned to fight the flames.
One headquarters for Bonny Doon’s grassroots fire brigades is near the center of that 2008 fire — Deerhaven Farm on Martin Road. There, 10 acres of clear land are surrounded by three tiers of fire line interspersed with fuel breaks, and the flames more than a decade earlier greatly reduced nearby fuel.
The property is well resourced, even for a rural homestead. Multiple generators provide power power and pump water from its well system and three 5,000 gallon tanks.
Stocked with lots of food, gas, water, beer, toiletries, pet food and other supplies, the lavender farm serves as a daily gathering place as well as an initial evacuation plan for people in other areas if things get too hot. About a dozen trucks loaded with fire hoses and carrying or towing water cubes come in and out of the farm each day.
Perhaps adding emblematic significance, the property is also the site of a one-story firehouse and fallout shelter from the 1950s that still stands adjacent to its owners’ home.
“That is the original Martin fire station,” said Dave Jessen, who owns the farm with his wife, Mary. “Now it’s been resurrected.”
The Jessens have been preparing for the return of wildfire for years, since the Martin Fire leveled their house twelve years ago. When they rebuilt, Dave Jessen said, it was with wildfire in mind.
Their roots to the community and to fighting fires are Bonny Doon are deep. Mary Jessen’s father was Bonny Doon’s volunteer fire chief.
“We’re just carrying on something that’s been going on for generations on this mountain,” Dave Jessen said.
Another group had about a dozen men in evidence down a narrow street off Bonny Doon road. A third group of unclear size is reportedly centered around Smith Grade. Others were seen working in their yards.
Cal Fire and law-enforcement officials have repeatedly pleaded with the residents to leave the evacuated areas and give them space to work, a plea reinvoked at press briefings Sunday.
Brunton, the Cal Fire chief, said he understands and sympathizes with people fighting to save their homes. But the evacuation, he said, is for their own safety. “No offense to anybody, but most are not trained, professional firefighters,” Brunton said. “And although they think they’re doing the right thing, and they think they’re doing a good thing, they’re inadvertently putting themselves in harms way.”
It’s also not clear how long many of the residents can keep their supplies stocked even if they remain unharmed and wanting to stay. Officials are further clamping down on access through roadblocks in the wake of numerous reports of looting, making resupply runs an increasing challenge.
Elsewhere on the mountain, a retired firefighter who asked to be identified only by his first name, Bob, agreed that the amateur brigades were saving numerous homes that would otherwise have gone up in flames. Another retired firefighter lives across the street from him, he said, and is also defending the neighborhood along with several others.
Why wouldn’t he leave his home in the hands of Cal Fire crews, and fate, and rebuild with insurance money if necessary?
Some things acquired over a lifetime can’t easily be evacuated or replaced, Bob said. And with clear land, experience, a fire hose, pump, helping hands, four ways out of the neighborhood and and a 25,000 gallon pool, he said he’s willing to take his chances — to a point, at least. “We’ll put out as much as a forestry rig,” he said.
Responding to a common criticism of getting in the way of Cal Fire crews, Bob offered a version of a common refrain: “If they want us to get out of here, and get out of their way — get out of the way of who?” he said Saturday. “I’ve only seen one fire engine the whole week.”
Multiple Cal Fire engines could be seen driving through Bonny Doon’s main arteries, in one case battling a spot fire, on Friday and Saturday. And other residents still on the mountain acknowledged the department’s engines have been more in evidence, and more responsive, as their ranks modestly swelled with crews from across California and neighboring states.
The community’s layout does present challenges to widespread patrols and effective structure protection. Small residential clusters are peppered out across more than 10,000 acres of land. Bonny Doon has a church and a school, but no true town center.
Technically, staying in an evacuated area even to protect one’s own home is a misdemeanor offense under state law. Despite objecting to their presence, however, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said he has no plans to arrest these residents. His deputies are focused on catching looters, some of whom he said have been reported by the residents who stayed behind.
“I think the community’s heart is in the right place, and they want to help,” Hart said, responding to this news organization’s questions at a press conference Sunday. “And I’ll give them this, that they understand that area and know that area better than anybody.”
What they don’t know, Hart said, is the kind of wind and fire condition expertise that Cal Fire as an institution brings to the table. Or when fire officials may be planning to light backfires, engage air resources or use other tactics their presence could thwart.
“I understand why they are there, but they could very well be doing as much damage as they are good if they’re getting in the way of Cal Fire’s mission,” Hart said.
At Deerhaven on Friday night, a sizable crew helped the Jessen family beat back flames said to have approached as high as 40 feet in some areas as they chewed through trees near from the property. Fuel breaks were left blackened, curbing the flames as intended. The fire lines stood. No structure was damaged. The entire property emerged looking almost entirely unscathed.
No matter how high the flames or how scant the resources their sympathizers can smuggle past increasingly impervious roadblocks, the Jessens said their farm is where they plan to stay.
“Where are we gonna go? What are we gonna do?” Dave Jessen said. “We’re gonna defend our homes. And if we die doing it, that’s OK.”
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