Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Sends Strike Team To Aid Oak Fire

LIVERMORE, CA — The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department has sent one engine out with four personnel to help combat the Oak Fire, which has devoured nearly 17,000 acres around Yosemite Park and forced over 3,000 people to evacuate their homes and businesses.

The department Sunday sent an OES strike team provided by the state firefighting agency that is used for mutual aid. Crews from departments all over the Bay Area have been mobilized to fight the fire, which was 10 percent contained as of Monday according to Cal Fire.

Assigned stations are rotated upon any kind of deployment, LPFD Battalion Chief Eric Roach told Patch. For the current fire, the designated strike team is from LPFD Station 4 in Pleasanton. The state can keep the engine as long as it needs, but personnel are rotated every 21 days. Given the size and rapidity of the Oak Fire, which is California’s largest this year, Roach imagined the Pleasanton firefighters will be on the scene for at least a week, and possibly two.

Roach said strike teams are often gone throughout the summer and into the fall, sometimes to the detriment of local staffing.

“It generally happens quite a bit during the summers, once fire season really starts kicking off here - late July through August, September, and now even into October it’s not uncommon for us to send several strike teams out, especially to the county, which has multiple fires,” he said. “Once the state has one or two major incidents like this one, they really start drawing on resources…Our own staffing levels ratchets back. We’re a little short-staffed due to injuries and vacancies.”

Roach said the department has seen staffing issues on and off since COVID, but a new academy has recently, which has helped. “We’re kind of in a wait-and-see before we commit to sending out big-picture resources to the state.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday that the state had secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from FEMA to allow local, state and tribal agencies to apply for 75 percent reimbursement of fire suppression costs.

An Air Quality Alert is in effect throughout the Bay Area through Wednesday. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District said that air pollutant level are not forecasted to rise above the 24-hour health standard, but anyone who smells smoke should stay inside with the doors and windows closed until the smoke clears, and set air conditioning to recirculate mode to keep air outside from entering in.