Santa Cruz Firebreak Connecting Hwy 1 and 9
Here is a compilation of updates on the Santa Cruz 2020 Lightning Fire FIREBREAK, as shared on social media by people on the ground. I have tried my best to find the original source for each post. Each photo includes links to the original social media post. Use these links to learn more about each photo or video and to join in the discussion.
Sunday, August 23, 2020
CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Mark Brunton, AUGUST 23, 6am briefing: This is our contingency line that is planed between Hwy 1 and Hwy 9. This gives us a nice buffer, a fire breaker if you will, that protects the city of Santa Cruz as well as the UC campus there. When you see these types of Xs there, that means we have a constructed line in place. We have been in the process of also constructing a line perpendicular to that, which runs up into the Bonny Doon area. Connecting the dots there to give a level of protection, so the fire can’t sweep to the south.
He added in the 6pm briefing, “We have our control line that we established a couple of days ago that runs between Hwy 1 and Hwy 9. That’s still a good line. We’re improving that line, and have put in a secondary line behind that. That is being completed as we speak. Should be completed this evening. So that’s really good for the community of Santa Cruz and the UC campus.”
Late Sunday night, Battalion explains in another video, “This is a four blade wide dozer line. That gives us a really good ‘catcher’s mitt’ and firebreak to provide protection for that community, as well as the UC campus. Over the past day, another, secondary control line has been established just above that. And that ties in and gives us a nice secondary line.
So, if the fire were to somehow get past the first line, we have a secondary line to catch it. We’re feeling really confident in that. They are firing up a small burning operation within that area this evening, and once that is completed, that’ll give us a very solid deep control line to help stop any spread to the south and threat to those communities, so feeling very comfortable with the protection of the UC campus as well as Santa Cruz.”
Screencap from an August 23, 2020 YouTube video [cued up here at the 1:40 mark]
Learn more about the types of symbols used on this map on my “Mountain Fires” post.
#SCULightningComplex this is the fire break that has been bulldozed on the upper West side of Santa Cruz ending at high Street. This is where firefighters are possibly going to defend Santa Cruz from the fire. #SCULightningComplex 1/4 Posted 10:39 AM · Aug 23, 2020 by Chris Krohn
2/4 Posted 10:39 AM · Aug 23, 2020 by Chris Krohn
3/4 Posted 10:39 AM · Aug 23, 2020 by Chris Krohn
8/24: Can anyone validate this?
Via comments on Chris Krohn’s Aug 23, 2020 post:
Q. Where is this relation to the UCSC arboretum?
A. based on the collective museum sign in the pic, I believe it's here
UPDATED: 1am August 24, 2020. Posted August 23, 2020 by Deborah Elston on Nextdoor.com:
Message from Santa Cruz Fire Department Chief Jason Hajduk
“For now the only portion of the City that has any evacuation is the UCSC campus and their property at the end of Delaware. As you can see in the green shaded areas the bulk of the neighborhoods in our WUI were contacted. You can also see the critical water infrastructure facilities that were hardened. We have also made sure that NetCom and Dimeo Lane have defensible space. For the suppression folks you can see the dozer lines to the west and north of our City. Currently the fire is still hung up on Empire Grade at the quarry. Weather is coming into tonight that may test the lines or create new fires. Regardless of what happens tonight with the weather I know we have done everything in our power to keep the City safe.”
KSBW 8 confirms the firebreak location:
“Firefighters have worked to prepare the city by creating a fire break from Twin Gates to Highway 1 to the west, and from Twin Gates to Highway 9 to the east.
In addition, they created defensible space around the City of Santa Cruz water system’s key westside storage tanks, westside and Felton pump stations, and the Graham Hill Water Treatment Plant.
Bob Pallares posts August 21, 2020, “Cal fire made a fire break West of Santa Cruz. other side of the gully by the open space. on the edge of the evacuation zone up to empire grade”
Over on r/SantaCruz, redditors discussed the exact location of the firebreak.
The only official word I have heard is that there is a firebreak near twin gates going from Highway 1 to Highway 9 - combatwombat65
Pretty sure it’s right here: Near 3900-3946 Empire Grade, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 https://goo.gl/maps/u81XHFpWLJpzaS388 && pretty sure this is is more or less https://i.imgur.com/GuznQt0.png - lurch99
August 22, 2020
Reports the Mercury News:
Crews worked Saturday to create a second firebreak to stop the fire from spreading south to the University of California Santa Cruz campus, and add control lines around threatened communities such as Boulder Creek.
“A really big win for us yesterday, fantastic job by our folks,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton. […]
Bulldozer crews were cutting a “last line” of defense from [Hwy 1] east to Highway 9 to protect the UCSC campus, as well as the nearby city. Scott Bullock, a Santa Cruz resident and 14-year area CalFire veteran, said he’d been working the fire since Sunday and the devastation he’d seen in Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon would linger for a long time.
“This unit has never seen anything like that, not even close,” he said.
SANTA CRUZ, CA – AUGUST 22: Scott Bullock, a Cal Fire forester, directs dozers creating a second firebreak behind UC Santa Cruz as a defense against the CZU August Lightning Complex fire in Santa Cruz, Calif., Saturday, Aug., 22, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
DOZER lines in progress!
photos by Professor London @SociologyatUCSC Posted 4:53 PM · Aug 21, 2020 by dana, UCSC Sociology Professor. She reports back on August 22, “i am told by one of my colleagues who lives just off high/empire near the west entrance that multiple lines were cut yesterday. some were 6 dozer line widths across.”
“In addition to this long fire break north of @ucsc and @CityofSantaCruz, from Hwy 1 to Hwy 9, that was finished yesterday, a second line is being built for added protection. Great work by dozers and hand crews!” posted 7:32 AM · Aug 22, 2020 by NativeSantaCruz