More than 275 firefighters from across Northern California were called to duty to control and perform mop-up operations for a wildfire that started on Angel Island the evening of Sunday, October 12.
303 of the 740 acres on Angel Island were engulfed in flames over the three days that the Angel Fire burned. Map courtesy of Marin County Fire Department.
By BC STAFF
Published: November, 2008
Previous Preparations Proved Invaluable, Providing Quick and Targeted Response to Save All Historic Structures
Burning approximately 300 acres of Angel Island State Park, the Angel Fire lit up the night sky with a spectacular orange and red glow visible to anyone with a view of the North Bay. The fire burned for three days until it was finally fully contained on Wednesday, October 15.
The state park was closed on Sunday night when the wildfire swept over the park, interrupting power and leading rangers to evacuate around 50 campers. The blaze scorched nearly half of the island’s 740 acres before it was contained. All historic structures on the island were successfully protected by firefighters, but one wooden water tower was destroyed early Monday morning.
When California State Parks reopened Angel Island State Park a week later—on the morning of Monday, October 20—most of the property was available to visitors for recreation and tours. Perimeter Road was reopened, and all activities that take place below the road have resumed, including visits to historic sites, the visitor center and museum. Tours by tram and Segway, as well as bicycle rentals, have also resumed. Activities above Perimeter Road, however, will remain unavailable for the time being, in order to ensure the safety of visitors and the protection of cultural and natural resources. Camping permits have also been suspended and refunds are being made to campers through November, when State Parks will reassess the situation.
We are grateful for the swift fire response from Marin County and CalFire that saved all historic structures, said Dave Matthews, Sector Superintendent. It is to the credit of firefighters and our maintenance crews for ensuring our structures were well protected.
The successful fire fight was also to the credit of the State Parks Landing Craft-Mechanized (LCM) that was used to ferry fire trucks to the island. When the first fire trucks arrived on scene, flames were within a few hundred yards from the historic 1863 Camp Reynolds Civil War encampment. The island is known for its historical buildings, including wood-framed structures dating to the Civil War, a historic immigration center that was the west coast equivalent of Ellis Island, and Cold War-era military installations.
Forester Kent Julin of the Marin County Fire Department attributed much of the success in protecting the State Park’s valuable cultural and historical resources to vegetation management efforts conducted over the past decade, including numerous fuel reduction projects and eucalyptus tree removal. Without the fuel reduction, Julin says, it is likely that the fire intensity would have been much greater, increasing the likelihood that structures would be destroyed.
Forester Julin and State Parks personnel emphasize that fire is a natural part of the landscape on Angel Island. Fire is beneficial to most native plant species on the island, and though wildfire has a short term negative impact on wildlife, in the long term, wildlife benefits from increased forage and a healthier landscape. According to Superintendent Matthews, This was definitely not a tragedy. Matthews was very happy with the response of the crews fighting the blaze, and noted that the Park will naturally rejuvenate itself.
Marin County Fire Department, California State Parks, Tiburon Fire Protection District and other local agencies had conducted extensive pre-fire planning and readiness drills to prepare for a large wildfire on the island after an incident involving a 25-acre wildfire in 2005 revealed that changes to the existing system needed to be made. Radio communications were improved to put State Park officials in direct contact with firefighters, which improved response time. Also, measures were put into place to get firefighting equipment on the island quicker. There is only one fire truck permanently located on the island; approximately 20 additional pieces of firefighting equipment were needed and had to be brought to the island. The pre-plans and training were used successfully in 2007 to extinguish a small wildfire, but they proved to be essential and were implemented much more extensively during this recent Angel Fire.
Marin County Fire Officials identified the area of origin along the east side of the Island. Fire investigators determined the cause of the wildfire was human in nature. The fire department will continue its investigation to determine a specific cause of the blaze.
