Firefighters and air quality experts are cautiously optimistic that a plan to flood the stubborn Marsh Fire with 10 million to 20 million gallons of water could finally end a two-month nightmare for several eastern Contra Costa County cities perpetually shrouded in a fog of acrid smoke from the long-simmering blaze.
ConFire crews flipped on three additional water pumps Wednesday, bringing to five the number of pumps pulling water from nearby Mallard Slough onto the 200-acre property outside Pittsburg, which has been burning since late May. But several major questions remain, including how long it will take to sufficiently saturate deep layers of peat in the drought-stricken marsh, and whether it can finally bring a measure of relief to nearby residents.
“We are re-introducing water into this area that hasn’t seen it in quite some time,” said Capt. Steve Aubert, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, known as ConFire. “We’ll need more time to get water to all the different areas before it finally soaks in.
“We’re optimistic that eventually we’ll get enough water onto the property to be able to mitigate it,” he added. “We just don’t know how long it’ll take.”
The plan amounts to a Hail Mary by firefighters to finally snuff out a blaze that’s spent nearly two months creeping underground and chewing through the peat — decomposing organic matter that’s often found in marshlands, meaning it can burn low and slow.
The fire began burning in late May on land just north of Bay Point, when a homeless encampment fire spread to the nearby marshland. While crews managed to bring the flames under control relatively quickly, finally extinguishing the long-smoldering blaze in the marsh proved vexingly difficult.
The ground in the marshland was too soft and porous for firefighters to drive on, leaving them to fight the fire from the air. But that’s been frustratingly inefficient, because the blaze has branched out across the marsh — slowly eating away at peat is 5 to 10 feet deep in some sections.
All the while, the blaze sent up a steady curtain of smoke that’s choked the nearby towns of Pittsburg, Oakley, Antioch and Brentwood for weeks. A flare-up a week and a half ago further worsened air quality in the area.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has routinely issued health advisories for the eastern portion of Contra Costa County in the past couple months — recommending people with respiratory illnesses or difficulty breathing to remain indoors. The smoke has been most acute in the evenings and overnight, when offshore breezes from the coast die down, leaving the air to become stagnant with smoke, said Aaron Richardson, an air district spokesman.
The problem is so bad that a car show every other week that typically brings hundreds of people to downtown Pittsburg was recently cancelled, along with some youth sporting events, said Wolfgang Croskey, CEO for the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce. As a result, businesses in the area say sales slowed in recent weeks as people opted to remain home, rather than eat out at restaurants.
“It’s pretty frustrating, because business are still trying to recover from the closures they saw from COVID,” Croskey said.
ConFire is coordinating the fire response on behalf of the property owner, who will ultimately be responsible for the cost of the blaze, Aubert said. The fire district consulted with several local, state and federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, before the marsh was flooded with with non-drinking water from the Delta.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising firefighters on how to avoid impacting protected species found in Bay Area marshes — birds such as the endangered California clapper rail and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.
The flooding also prompted concerns about an increase in mosquitos across the area — a particular concern, given the seasonal presence of West Nile Virus in Contra Costa County. The Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District is working with the property’s owner to treat the area for mosquitos once the fire is out, said Nola Wood, a district spokesperson.
Early returns on the plan are encouraging, Richardson said. Smoke levels Monday night into Tuesday morning appeared to dip considerably compared to previous nights — signaling that the fire may be losing steam.
“It look’s like that’s having some positive effects,” Richardson said. “The smoke signature was smaller last night. And it looks like we’re headed in the right direction in terms of getting the fire extinguished.”
Still, Aubert cautioned that fire crews are far from declaring the fire snuffed.
“Everyone just needs to know that it’s a very challenging fire,” Aubert said. “It’s not just an easy, one stop answer.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com