Rangers help to Locate and Extinguish a Fire at Saratoga Gap
On June 3rd 2021 at around 6pm calls began coming in to the Santa Clara County Emergency Dispatch, citizens in the valley could see a column of smoke rising from an unknown location in the hills in the area of Saratoga Gap.
Santa Clara County Fire Department began responding to search the area for the source of the smoke. Attentive Midpeninsula Regional Open Space staff were monitoring the emergency radio frequencies, recognized that there could be a fire in the open space preserve and began responding as well.
Midpeninsula Fire Trained staff were able to locate the source of the fire and direct the responding fire engines to the scene and advise on the best access routes and conditions. Once the fire department was on scene of the fire Midpeninsula Rangers and other fire trained staff were able to integrate seamlessly with both Santa Clara County Fire and Cal Fire Firefighters and construct a hand dug control line around the fire’s perimeter to stop its spread and extinguish the flames.
Midpeninsula Rangers patrol open space lands every day and can provide crucial information to other emergency responders that aid in timely access to remote locations. This information and intimate knowledge of the land can save time that could mean the difference between life and death in crucial situations.
A combination of well constructed and maintained fire roads, a managed fire break, and staff on scene to provide crucial access information meant that the fire was not able to grow to an unmanageable size and was extinguished rapidly. If any of these factors were not in place even a small fire such as this could have become a mega fire consuming much of the open space land and threatening residential homes in the area.
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If you support having skilled and trained Rangers ready to respond to public safety emergencies such as this that occur within and surrounding Open Space Lands please contact your elected board members and ask them to return to the negotiations table with the Rangers to offer a benefits package that is consistent with their public safety role.