Other Alameda fire personnel still serving off-Island

On Sunday, Sept. 3, four Alameda firefighters, a part of the Office of Emergency Services (OES) Engine 409 team, returned to Alameda after a 14-day deployment to the Smith River Complex in the Six Rivers National Forest near the Oregon border. The four firefighters were a part of a larger California OES Strike Team 2802A that were sent to the complex to help extinguish the Smith River Complex Fire).

As of Sept. 5, the wildfire, which spans 85,429 acres is 19 percent contained, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), which provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners.

“Several days of minimal fire activity have allowed crews to refine a full-suppression plan that involves using both direct and indirect suppression tactics,” NWCG stated on its website. “Where it is safe to do so, crews have been and will continue to extinguish hotspots directly on the fire’s edge.”

Other East Bay firefighter personnel also returned home from battling the blaze. Members of the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, El Cerrito Fire Department, Mountain View Fire Department, and Santa Rosa Fire Department all returned home recently.

According to Alameda Fire Department (AFD), several personnel remain away from Alameda as they battle blazes nationwide.

AFD Captain Grant Miller remains assigned to the Deep Fire as a Heavy Equipment Boss on the U.S. Forest Service – Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Big Bar, Ca. According to NWGC, the 4,198-acre wildfire is 60 percent contained, as of Sept. 5.

AFD Apparatus Operator Kevin Tidwell is still deployed to the South Fork Complex as a public information officer to theSouth Fork Fire in Humboldt County. The wildfire spans 3,929 acres and is 62 percent contained.

Lastly, AFD Captain Geoff Gray was recently deployed to Florida for Hurricane Idalia as a Medical Unit Leader for a FEMA Incident Support Team. Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida on August 30 as a Category 3 Hurricane. It tore into Florida at the speed of a fast-moving train last Wednesday.