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Redwood City —When Bryan Whitaker led a Cal Fire strike team as it rolled toward the raging Eaton and Palisades fires in Southern California in early January, he knew what lay ahead.
“I have been on most of the biggest fires we've had over the last 10 years, from most recently the Park Fire (671 square miles burned, 709 structures destroyed) to the Camp Fire (240 square miles burned, 18,804 structures destroyed),” Whitaker, a Cal Fire captain based in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, said in a recent interview. “So I've seen it. I’ve definitely witnessed it.”
As the strike team arrived amid the ruins of neighborhoods in the Palisades, Whitaker would come across homes that seemed relatively untouched by flames. The scenes confirmed his belief that taking what might seem like small steps before a fire ignites could be the difference between saving or losing a home.
“Zero to five feet from your house, get rid of anything flammable – the bark and plants and stuff that is decorative. Think of putting in rock or concrete,” Whitaker said.
“It just takes an ember in the bark and now the bark is burning, and the next thing is the side of your house is burning. These are things we see when we get these wind-driven fires that are throwing embers everywhere.”
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