Sacramento fire officials are preparing to send a third strike team to Southern California tonight to help firefighters battling a devastating wind-fueled blaze near Sylmar.
Greg Mugartegui, assistant chief with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, said tonight that officials are expecting the third team to be requested shortly and that the 22-person contingent is expected to be on the road later this evening. It will join two other teams from the Sacramento area that already are in Southern California and may not be the last.
Mugartegui said officials may request a fourth team if conditions continue to worsen. The unit expected to roll out tonight is comprised of firefighters from Sacamento, Metro Fire, Folsom and Cosumnes Fire.
He added that even if more teams are requested officials in the Sacramento area will have adequate fire coverage to handle any emergencies in the region.
"We are totally covered up here," he said. Word of the third team heading south came after another Sacramento-based unit that had expected to be recalled from duty on the firelines in Santa Barbara County instead was diverted to Sylmar, north of Los Angeles.
That contingent of five engines and 22 firefighters was told they probably would be used to protect structures from any encroaching wildfire, Mugartegui said.
Also lending a hand in Southern California was a strike team of Office of Emergency Services fire rigs composed of area firefighters and engines from Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, Sacramento Fire Department, Cosumnes Fire District and Folsom Fire Department. Those firefighters are on a 24-hour shift doing mop-up work on the Montecito fire in Santa Barbara County, where winds have abated.
Mugartegui said that the OES regional coordinator has inquired into the availability of more fire engines and firefighters from the Sacramento area. Mugartegui said local departments are able to send more strike teams from the region if neccessary.
"We have resources available we can send that will not impact the local area," said Mugartegui. "We will also send some apparatus if the request comes in."
The same weather condition that spawned Santa Ana winds in Southern California failed to cause high winds in the Sacramento region. But it did bring higher than normal temperatures.
The normal high in Sacramento for this time of year is 64 degrees. But today the high is expected to near 80 degrees. "We are unseasonably warm," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Mathews. "We have a very strong upper level ridge over the area giving Sacramento unseasonably warm and dry conditions. Temperatures will be cooling off, returning to near-normal in the mid-60s by Wednesday as the ridge breaks down."
No rain is forecast for the Sacramento area. In addition to the lack of wildfire-producing high winds, the North State was helped out by rainfall at the end of October that helped to dampen grasslands and oak woodlands in the Valley and Sierra foothills.
Call The Bee's Bill Lindelof, (916) 321-1079.
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