SFist is reporting the outbreak of a large fire on Angel Island. The fire has already burned about 10 acres and is about 25 acres wide at this time. It’s apparently about 20% contained. SFGate also has a story about the fire: Angel Island fire ‘a shocking sight’.

And in the Los Angeles area, the Marek fire continues to burn. This fire is about 20% contained and is expected to get worse, with the acceleration of the Santa Ana winds in the area.

We are quite literally 10 days short of a year since the terrible fires of last year. Let’s hope that this year does not bring a repeat of the events of last year.

And if you are in the area of either of the fires, please check in and let us know you are all right.  

Programming Note: I will be on KRXA 540 AM at 8 tomorrow morning, as usual, to discuss this and other topics in California politics

I took that picture 30 minutes ago, of the Basin Complex Fire that is raging on the Big Sur coast about 20 miles south. The fire jumped a containment line last night and is now threatening the village of Big Sur. The entire area is now under an evacuation order, and the 850 or so residents are now gathered at Carmel Middle School or with friends and family in the area.

The Big Sur community has always been tight-knit, and grew even moreso in the late 1990s after El Niño rains washed out Highway 1, closing it for months. One result is a rich online network of sites providing information and resources about the fire, such as Xasáuan Today’s fire news and Sur Fire 2008’s community information.

The Carmel chapter of the Red Cross is taking donations for the shelter and other needs.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was here earlier today surveying the fire damage, and John Laird had this to say:

Governor Schwarzenegger’s visit to Big Sur today is a significant indicator of the impact the Basin Complex fire is having on the people of the Central Coast and California. The people and businesses of the Big Sur community have shown courage, resourcefulness and generosity as this difficult fire has unfolded.

Today and in the weeks ahead, as I continue to work hard on the budget in Sacramento, I will stay focused on ensuring funds are available to fight this fire. And as we consider next year’s budget, I’ll continue to advocate for the funding increases for air attack resources, as approved by the Assembly Budget Committee.

California’s firefighters are stretched thin by the fires, and Arnold has called the National Guard to help relieve the burden. Another example of how we need to be nation-building here at home, not using the National Guard to occupy Iraq.

Finally, it may be an individual home fire, but you’ve probably heard by now about the fire that destroyed Darcy Burner’s house east of Seattle. $60,000 has been raised so far to help her meet her $150,000 goal for July, so that she can attend to her family needs this month instead of worrying about raising money for her campaign for Congress in WA-08.

Darcy Burner has been there for the netroots – on net neutrality, on the Responsible Plan (which she initiated), and will be there for us on many other issues. I had the pleasure to meet her and do some volunteering for her campaign in 2006, and it was a bitter disappointment that she did not win. Certainly the loss of her home is a bigger disappointment – but just as she came back from the 2006 loss, so too will she come back from this one. Let’s give her some help in doing so.

I’ll be on KRXA 540 AM in Monterey at 8 AM Thursday morning to discuss this and other California-related topics

As you might remember from last fall, California conservatives tend to prefer low taxes to adequate fire protection. As Northern California is ablaze – with two huge fires burning out of control in the Big Sur mountains to the south of me – attention is again focused on providing adequate fire services. And as Democrats and Arnold Schwarzenegger debate the best way to fund it, conservative Republicans continue to fight the very concept. From the San Jose Mercury News:

Hoping to buy more fire engines and helicopters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing a statewide surcharge on property insurance of $6 to $12 a year. Another lawmaker, state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, wants to charge a $50 yearly fee on the 900,000 homeowners living in rural areas to fund fire prevention….

The new engines were recommended by a state task force after massive wildfires in Southern California in 2003 killed 24 people and burned 3,600 homes.

The governor’s proposal would add a surcharge on property insurance for all commercial and residential structures statewide. In ZIP codes designated as “high-hazard zones” for earthquakes, fires or floods, the fee would be 1.4 percent, about $12.60 a household per year. In “low-hazard zones,” the surcharge would be 0.75 percent, or $6.75 a year.

The main debate between Kehoe’s and Arnold’s proposals is who should pay for the costs of fighting fires in the urban-wilderness interface. I like that Arnold’s plan would have higher rates for those in higher risk areas, but would still require all property owners to pay something. The fact is that even the brush fires are not exclusively a threat to folks who chose to live in fire-prone areas. Much of California is a fire-prone area, even the urban areas.

Last fall, the Santiago Fire in Orange County came within 1/4 mile of my grandparents’ home in Tustin and within a mile of the home where I grew up and where my parents still live. It’s on the coastal plain, not in the foothills, not in the brush. But a fire that gets started in the brush can easily get blown into a densely populated area. And of course, the large fires require departments from across the state to respond, but someone’s gotta stay behind. Since most fire departments in California are understaffed – such as here on the Monterey Peninsula – it is imperative we add the necessary equipment. And let us not forget the threat of earthquakes.

Of course, to conservative Republicans none of this matters, because omg it’s a hidden tax increase!!

Taxpayer groups and many Republican leaders oppose it.

“It’s not fair to the general taxpayer in an urban area,” said David Wolfe, legislative director for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “They are subsidizing people who are choosing to live in high fire danger areas.”

Critics also call the plan a ruse to cover up firefighting cuts Schwarzenegger suggested in his January budget proposal that contained 10 percent cuts of every department.

“Our state budget is $110 billion. If we can’t dedicate enough money for basic public safety, then what the hell is government doing with our money?” said Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Murrieta.

Remember that conservative Republicans pulled the same thing in Orange County in 2005, helping defeat a measure that would have channeled more of existing funds into the OC Fire Authority, which found itself shorthanded last fall when the Santiago Fire broke out.

It is common sense that we properly fund our fire services. Whether it’s Kehoe’s or Arnold’s plan we adopt, the conservative Republican attitude of “you’re on your own” must be firmly rejected.

Much attention has been focused on the lovely town (I’m serious!) of Vallejo as it faces bankruptcy. In a harbinger of things to come for many California cities and counties, Vallejo’s general fund has been hit hard by the housing crash, leaving the city strapped for cash.

A city contemplating bankruptcy has many options. So it’s sad to see Vallejo – and smaller towns like Pacific Grove – blaming workers for their problems. In doing so, they repeat the same destructive policy espoused by Orange County Republicans – choosing to blame public employees and their unions for problems instead of supporting higher taxes, even at the cost of catastrophic disaster.

The first article on the Vallejo cash crunch in the Chronicle set up the dynamic, as city officials blamed workers for the problem:

[Councilwoman Stephanie] Gomes and others have blamed much of the city’s financial woes on police and fire contracts, which she says comprise 80 percent of the city’s $80 million budget.

The starting salary for a Vallejo firefighter is about $70,000 a year, among the highest in the state. Ten firefighters earned more than $200,000 each last year, including overtime, city officials said.

“Of course we value our police and firefighters and the risks they take, but their salaries are simply too high,” Gomes said. “They can afford to live in Marin and Napa, and it’s the very hard-working, blue-collar residents of Vallejo who are bearing the repercussions. It’s unfair.”

Ah, those greedy firefighters. How dare they ask for a middle-class income? What gives them the idea that they can extort such wages?

Firefighters say their earnings are high because the department is so short-staffed they’re forced to work huge amounts of overtime.

Since 2001, 30 firefighters have retired or left the department, and only three have been hired, said Vallejo fire Capt. Jon Riley, vice president of Fire Fighters Union Local 1186. And after rumors of bankruptcy began circulating, 14 more retired, fearing that their benefits and salaries would be cut, he said.

“We’re having to work an extraordinary amount of overtime,” he said. “We make great salaries, but if you’re not able to see your family, what good is it?”

Firefighters typically work 48-hour shifts with four days off between shifts. Many Vallejo firefighters are now forced to work 96-hour shifts with two days off, he said. Sleep deprivation, divorce and child-care complications are common, he said.

“I’d say morale has hit rock bottom,” he said. “But we’re still committed to providing the highest level of service to the citizens of Vallejo.”

Oh. They mean to tell us that firefighting is hard, grueling work, and that they should get fairly compensated for protecting the community?

To most of us, the firefighters’ stand is common sense. Fire protection is something you just don’t skimp on – unless you’re Orange County conservatives (more on them in a moment). And it’s not as if the firefighters are unwilling to help:

Firefighter union President Kurt Hanke told the council that the union reached an agreement late last week with city negotiators for wage cuts that would have reduced Vallejo’s deficit to zero. But he said Tanner on Monday vetoed the deal….Leaders of public safety unions say the salaries of police officers and firefighters are high because they must work large amounts of overtime because of staff shortages. The unions have offered to cut the employees’ pay if more officers and firefighters are hired.

Instead Vallejo’s leaders prefer to play hardball and blame public safety employees for the city’s crisis. And unsurprisingly, nobody in Vallejo seems to be discussing a tax increase to stave off these crippling cuts – which will not only compromise public safety, but further damage the city’s economy. Firing workers and cutting everyone else’s pay is not exactly going to help Vallejo’s restaurants and small businesses weather the storm.

Lest we think this is just a Vallejo problem, the blaming of public workers for city problems is something found statewide – a last-ditch, extremist strategy to avoid a tax increase. Here on the Monterey Peninsula, the small town of Pacific Grove has been facing a $2 million budget deficit, and recently responded by enacting drastic cuts to city services, including fire and police. Last fall the city proposed a modest tax hike to close the shortfall – which prompted users of a local discussion forum to denounce the workers in some rather absurd terms:

Why does our small town have so many firemen? I always see them parked somewhere or doing drills by the high school but not much else. Is there a reasonable explanation that I am not aware of?

How many fires does this tiny town have every year? How many tall buildings?

This town is so overstaffed by Bay Area standards (or other responsible standards) that it is truly disgusting. At least some layoffs are in the works, but the point is, PG should ALWAYS be run lean. There is not enought here to justify so many salaries.

It would not hurt to recruit people who actually have a real track record of successful leadership and money management. If you keep hiring inbred failures, you are going to continue to see a lot of red on the balance sheets.

That’s what I mean about our many firemen. I think they need to cut some of them loose. It’s silly when you go to the PG website and look at all the names for the fire dept. They are about as busy as the Maytag repairman!

In fact, a study of fire protection on the Peninsula showed that the city’s fire department is actually understaffed, but that wasn’t enough to convince folks to approve the tax – instead it was easier to blame supposedly lazy, greedy workers for the city’s crisis.

Where might all this lead? The cautionary tale is that of Orange County, where conservatives and Republicans high-fived each other in 2005 when they defeated a measure to shift already collected tax monies to help produce more fire coverage. As I explained it back in October:

Orange County Republicans campaigned hard against Measure D, a 2005 ballot proposal that would have diverted $80 million in surplus public safety funds from Proposition 172 to help properly staff Orange County fire departments. The failure of Measure D leads directly to the OCFA’s inability to quickly contain the Santiago Fire when it broke out Sunday evening….

To Steven Greenhut and the Register editorial board, the firefighters’ union is merely a greedy parasite on the public, using bureaucratic rules to claim they need more fire crews in a cynical ploy to line their own pockets.

Such is the natural outcome of an obsession with low taxes. In order to defend the untenable position that taxes must never go up no matter the need or the situation, anti-taxers have to lash out at anyone or anything that might undermine their position. If that includes public safety workers, so be it. If that means cutting back police and fire protection, so be it. To the anti-tax zealots, every man is an island unto himself.

Orange County’s experience last fall suggested otherwise. Let’s hope that Vallejo, Pacific Grove, and the rest of California learns the lesson and, like Salinas, looks to new revenue sources to provide for essential services.

The AP has the goods, it seems:

Ca. Fire Documents Conflict With Reports
By AARON C. DAVIS – 1 day ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Several aircraft were able to fly in strong winds on the first full day of last month’s Southern California firestorms, contradicting officials’ earlier claims that the weather had grounded virtually all aircraft, according to documents released Saturday.

Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state was tracking for firefighting efforts remained grounded that day, and high winds were not listed in the documents as the reason.

The documents obtained by the AP and other news providers under the California Public Records Act answer some questions while raising others. They also reveal a more detailed and at times different version of events than previously provided by the state’s top fire and emergency officials.

For example, state fire officials last month said high winds had grounded virtually all aircraft in the first two days after the flames broke out. Therefore, they reasoned, it would not have mattered whether additional state fire spotters had been available to ride in the military choppers.

The documents show that although pilots were hampered by strong winds, a dozen air tankers and five helicopters flew more than 70 hours Oct. 21, the first full day of the firestorm. Those aircraft would have been flown by pilots who – unlike military pilots – are trained specifically for fighting wildland blazes and would not necessarily have required state fire spotters.

The papers also reveal that the number involved in the aerial attack was a fraction of the tankers and helicopters available in the state during the fires’ opening days.

Twenty-eight of 52 aircraft the state tracked for firefighting efforts remained grounded. The total would include a combination of aircraft operated by the state, U.S. Forest Service, the military and private contractors.

They remained on the runway not because of high winds, but because state officials had not requested them or they were being kept in other parts of the state in case fires broke out there, according to the documents.

Again and again and again, we’re reassured after a given disaster that the government “did all it could,” that while “mistakes were made,” this disaster “could not have been forseen,” and that they will start thinking about how to prepare for “next time.” And yet when the news trickles out, long after the spin cycle has passed, it reveals that for all the subcontracting and bloviating and excuses, the government simply is not taking its job seriously.

So let me ask this now, to the ether:

What are the capital region’s local governments and the California state government planning to do if the Sacramento or San Joaquin river levees bust out this winter?

What are the Bay Area governments and the California state government planning to do if the Hayward fault slips and wrecks the Bay Area?

What are the SoCal local governments and the California state government planning to do if this year’s fire season stretches into yet another year of tinder-dry drought?

Because if they aren’t thinking about it now, and actually plannning out how to respond in real time to a bad situation instead of just issuing a report and calling it a day, we’re all going to take it on the chin collectively when they look into the cameras like deer in headlights when things go wrong.

It is only a matter of time with these sorts of things. We cannot prevent disasters from happening, but we do have some say about our response to them.

And if you botch something as simple as not allowing fire fighting planes to fly when SoCal burns, or you sit on your hands for hours while tens of thousands of gallons of carcinogenic bunker fuel glugs into a delicate coastal environment, at least have the decency to break out your wakizashi and announce your resignation on camera, instead of offering up lame excuses in hopes that noone will find out what you botched.

originally at surf putah