Fire scenario: When the big one hits Truckee

[Editor's note: The following is a fictionalized account of what a major fire in the Truckee area might look like, the damage it could cause, and the fire suppression measures that would be used to fight it. Truckee Fire Chief Mike Terwilliger identified it as one of the worst-case scenarios possible in this area.]

All it would take is one spark.

A cigarette thrown out the window by a passing motorist on Highway 267, a dirt bike backfiring in the area behind Martis Creek Lake, or an abandoned backcountry campfire that jumps its fire ring.

It is late August and the temperatures have been hovering in the mid-80s for almost a month. The Truckee region has not had any rain for two months and prevailing winds out of the southwest have been blowing steadily. In these conditions, any spark in the area east of Martis Creek Lake would spread quickly.

The scenario starts at 2 p.m. at the base of the southwest-facing slope leading up to Glenshire. It is an area covered with tall grasses, sage and bitter brush, with a canopy of Jeffery pine overhead - all volatile fuel sources. The southwest exposure of the slope means the hillside receives intense solar radiation all day, making the fuels explosively dry.

From the start, such a fire would pose a serious threat to the Glenshire subdivision, a threat compounded by the winds and the limited access that firefighting personnel would have.

The fire spreads quickly. Racing up the slope and quickly consuming dozens of acres, it sends up a large plume of dense black smoke that can be seen from Lake Tahoe after 30 minutes.

The smoke would be noticed quickly, either by people recreating in the Martis Creek Lake Recreation Area, motorists driving along Highway 267, or by volunteers at the nearby Martis Peak Fire Lookout.

After the fire is reported via 911, information would be sent to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) Grass Valley dispatch center, which would dispatch the Truckee Fire Department (TFD) and local CDF resources automatically.

Initially, three fire engines and an officer from Truckee Fire would be joined on the scene by the two local CDF fire engines, a CDF officer and two U.S. Forest Service fire engine companies.

Calls would go out to all other firefighting resources in the area and CDF engines from the western slope of the Sierra Nevada would respond, along with hand crews from Washington Ridge, a bulldozer and two air tankers with an air attack supervisor and one helicopter.

The chief officers from Truckee Fire and CDF would meet at the fire and formulate a plan of attack.

Meanwhile, the fire, which has already spread to 15 acres, continues to burn toward Glenshire, fueled by strong winds out of the southwest.

In conditions like these, the fire officers at the scene would recognize the danger to homes in the area and quickly put out a call for mutual aid from all local firefighting agencies. The order will be for five strike teams of engines, or 25 engines total, to protect homes in Glenshire and Juniper Hills. The engines would come from local agencies such as the Northstar Fire Department, Donner Summit Fire Department, Squaw Valley Fire Department, North Tahoe Fire Department and possibly the Meeks Bay and North Lake Tahoe Fire Departments, as well as CDF strike teams from the west slope.

With strong winds and dry fuels, the fire would continue its march up the hill until it hit Glenshire, a subdivision containing many homes with wood shake roofs and wood siding. Many Glenshire homes have very little clearance from trees and shrubs, and few homeowners have cleared the recommended amount of defensible space around their houses.

With the extreme danger to homes, fire officers would likely order the evacuation of at least the southeastern portion of Glenshire - likely the area south of Glenshire Drive and west of The Strand.

The Truckee Police Department would dispatch officers to go door to door notifying people of the evacuation order and ensuring that people got out safely. Only those areas that fire officials think will be affected will be evacuated in order to reduce congestion and keep the roads clear for firefighting crews and equipment.

If possible, fire information would be broadcast on local radio station KTKE 101.5 FM and Truckee Tahoe Community Television Channel 6; however, all evacuations will be done face-to-face to ensure that people who need to leave get the message in time.

By 4 p.m., the fire has spread to 350 acres and has reached the first homes in Glenshire. The fire is already generating its own wind, sucking air from Martis Valley and blanketing the region in a cloud of dense, black smoke.

More firefighting resources are arriving from western Nevada, Placer and Yuba counties, and firefighters are doing their best to minimize the damage to property within Glenshire.

Burning embers from the advancing fire are falling throughout the subdivision, starting spot fires ahead of the main blaze.

Air tankers drop fire retardant on Glenshire and firefighters attempt to use Royal Crest and Royal Way as fire breaks to stop the flames there.

By 5 p.m. the fire front has reached half a mile wide and homes within Glenshire are burning.

Firefighters give priority to trying to save homes that offer the greatest chance of success, so homeowners who have cleared a defensible space are more likely to see an engine stationed in their driveway.

Other factors will also play a role in determining which houses burn.

Those with wood roofs or pine needles built up on the roof and in gutters will be less likely to survive. Homeowners who have stacked wood piles or other debris near their house are also likely to come home to devastation.

By 6 p.m. the winds have died down and the temperatures are starting to drop from the midday high. All available firefighting resources in the region are in Glenshire, protecting homes and trying to halt the fire's spread before it reaches the heart of the subdivision.

Firefighters are starting to get a handle on the blaze and the roads within the subdivision are starting to slow the fire's spread.

At this point, ground crews have dumped 10,000 gallons of water on the fire and 100,000 gallons of fire retardant have been dropped by air tankers.

Imagine that firefighters are able to contain the fire when it reaches Donnington Lane on the north and The Strand on the east. Still, almost 50 homes southwest of those streets have been destroyed. Another 50 are badly damaged, and every tree, bush and shrub has burned.

In addition, three other Glenshire homes have suffered extensive fire damage due to embers blown by the wind ahead of the fire. All three homes caught fire when embers landed on pine needles built up on their roofs.

The fire will continue to burn for days, with hotspots flaring for the next week or so, many of which will be the remains of homes.

Homeowners are let back in to survey the damage in a couple of days when firefighters have suppressed the flames. The area continues to smolder for the next week and homeowners are told to be on the lookout for flare-ups.

Fire engines and hand crews remain throughout the week, putting out hotspots.

Despite the damage, in many ways the residents of Glenshire have dodged a bullet. Often during fire season, firefighting resources are spread thin due to other fires in the area. In this case, all available engines, personnel and air support were able to respond, minimizing damage and loss of life.

Also, this fire spread slowly. As Chief Terwilliger points out, "It would be worth mentioning that the Martis Fire burned 14,000 acres in about 6 hours in the same fuel type under extreme conditions, and this fire would have burned to Hirschdale under that scenario in the same amount of time."

Fortunately, no one was killed in the scenario. However, it's likely that a number of pets would not have survived the fire, and more than $20 million worth of property would have been damaged.

Homeowners whose houses survived the fire would now look out on a charred landscape reminiscent of the land left barren by the Martis Fire.

Barry,

Ending the story there and using the other grafs as breakouts sounds good to me. I think the best thing is to leave the grafs attached to the bottom of this story.....Jamie Bate 5/19/04

Truckee Fire Chief Mike Terwilliger: "I have not painted this picture to scare you, I did it to wake you up. We have a history of fire here; most recently the Cottonwood Fire, Crystal Fire, Hirschdale Fire and the Martis Fire. All burned with the intensity to destroy multiple homes should they have been in the path. The Donner Fire and Glenshire Fire of last summer started on poor burn days, so we got lucky. The fire department has information on how you can develop a safe home ignition zone to protect your property. Quite frankly, hardly anyone is doing it in Truckee and only time will tell. If my imaginary Martis Fire No. 2 starts some summer it will be too late to start cleaning and you will really wish you had. You need to do it now."

While we chose the Glenshire subdivision to illustrate our mock fire scenario, fire officials in the area stress that almost every neighborhood in the Truckee region could face a similar situation. Some communities, such as Tahoe Donner and Lahontan, have identified the potential for a major fire in the area and have taken steps to address the danger by putting in fire breaks around their neighborhoods. However, even in these communities, homeowners should realize that fire breaks are not 100-percent effective and making one's home defensible and fire safe is the responsibility of the homeowner.