Eight Units Fight Brush Fire on Highway OO

Including Pacific, it took eight fire companies more than four hours Thursday, June 28, to knock down a brush fire in very steep terrain on Highway OO in Pacific.

The Pacific Fire District received the call at 2 p.m. Thursday when temperatures were in the 107 degree range.

St. Clair, Eureka, Boles, Metro West, Monarch and Valley Park assisted Pacific, bringing additional trucks capable of carrying water up the steep terrain.

Firefighters had to be rotated in and out in order to cool off, officials said.

“The main problems were the heat and the terrain,” said Ken Prichard, Pacific fire marshal. “There was no way to get to it with the tanker trucks and it was so hot the men had to be pulled out to take a break.”

The fire covered about five acres, officials said. There were no homes or animals endangered near the fire.

Brush trucks, brought by the other fire companies, took water from the large tanker trucks, 100 to 250 gallons at a time, which was taken to the fire.

“In all we used about 10,000 gallons of water to make sure it was out,” Prichard said.

The fire was made worse by piles of treetops left on the ground from a previous logging operation, he said.

“They take the logs and leave everything else on the ground,” Prichard said. “That’s why it took so long to make sure it was out.”

The fire was declared out in four hours.

By 6 p.m., firefighters had extinguished the last embers in treetops and other debris left on the ground by loggers.