Sonoma County fire sends huge response to help battle Clayton fire in Lake County

When flames swept into downtown Lower Lake Sunday afternoon, Cal Fire officials put out an emergency call for whatever firefighting equipment and bodies anyone could spare.

Sonoma County fire officials responded, sending more equipment and firefighters than officials typically feel comfortable releasing.

Close to 100 Sonoma County firefighters and paramedics and 30 or so engines, water tenders and ambulances rushed to Lake County to help at the growing Clayton fire.

“Lake County was on fire,” said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner Monday. “We’ll throw you as much equipment as we can.”

Gossner couldn’t remember when the county has sent so much equipment beyond its borders. It was a bigger response than locals gave to the massive Valley fire last September, when flames decimated several communities and at least four people died.

“We were so hot in our area, we had to protect our backyard,” Gossner said of the situation last fall. “This was different. We had fog rolling in.”

The local strike teams were on the fire lines through the night Sunday, including in downtown Lower Lake and in a Lower Lake neighborhood where flames jumped from house to house and propane tanks exploded.

“It was a war zone,” said Sonoma Valley Battalion Chief Spencer Andreis, who is leading a strike team. “These guy were bouncing from house to house, property to property. They gave it a valiant effort. If it got too far involved we would move to the next one. It was a triage process,” Andreis said. “We saved a lot. Unfortunately we lost some too.”

Sonoma County Sunday already had given two strikes teams of 10 engines and more than 30 firefighters to Lake County. And a third strike team still was at the ongoing Monterey fire. That typically is it for what local fire bosses will let leave the county in case something happened here.

But Lower Lake homes and businesses were burning and Gossner issued a plea to Sonoma County’s 35 or so fire chiefs to assess what they could spare. He got a quick response, including from small agencies not always able to help such as Mountain volunteers, Occidental fire district and Rohnert Park Public Safety.

Several local agencies sent multiple engines. The largest, Santa Rosa, gave four engines or almost half of its on-duty engine fleet and about 20 firefighters. Gossner said reserve engines were put into use.

In another unusual move, a strike team of five local ambulances headed east to help and ran 911 and emergency calls. They returned to Sonoma County Monday morning.

“It was a big day for Sonoma County to help Lake County,” Gossner said.

Strike team assignments to fires in the state typically are for two weeks. Sunday’s emergency request was for 48 hours max and by Monday afternoon two strike teams already were on their way home.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.