Lebec Grass Fire Burns 100 Acres

  • Helicopters and fixed wing tankers dumped fire retardant and water on Lebec grass fire Thursday, July 10.

    Helicopters and fixed wing tankers dumped fire retardant and water on Lebec grass fire Thursday, July 10.

By Patric Hedlund, Chuck Noble and Gary Meyer

LEBEC-While over 400 fires still raged in other parts of the state Thursday, July 10, Sean Blaisdell was startled to notice a grass fire near Lebec Oaks Road and Lebec Road at about 3 p.m. He dialed 911, then rushed to his office as the fire covered the entire hillside within a few minutes. It was moving toward Los Padres Estates homes.

Fred Rose of Lebec wrote to an internet network that he was searching for information about the fire, with little luck. The public information officer for Kern County Fire Department was in Monterey County, working on a team dealing with evacuations in that region.

Back in Lebec, information for residents may have been sparse, but firefighting resource thrown at the blaze were massive. About 150 personnel were dispatched. Most responding personnel were from Kern County, with Kern County, Los Angeles County and Cal Fire helicopters, plus at least one air tanker. An Office of Emergency Services engine and an engine from Bakersfield City also responded, according to Chris Stroub, who stepped forward as the interim Kern County Fire Department Public Information Officer. Engines included #55 from Mettler, #56 from Lebec and #57 from Frazier Park. Engine #58 from Pine Mountain moved forward to Frazier Park to provide backfill cover from there to Pine Mountain.

At 8 a.m. Friday there were still 20 Kern County firefighters on scene in Lebec putting out hot spots within the 100 acres which were burned.

Captain Tom Fletcher from Pine Mountain’s station #58 said the deployment was one of the most massive he’d seen for a grass fire, and that throughout California "in my 30-year career, this is the largest number of personnel and equipment active simultaneously in the state of California that I’ve ever seen."

This is part of the July 18, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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