It’s only a matter of time before grass fires start becoming a regular thing for fire crews throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
And this year the Lathrop Manteca Fire District is taking extra steps to make sure that it’s prepared not just in extinguishing the blazes when they erupt, but also determining how they started.
The agency sent three personnel – Captain Tim Kovacs, Engineer Josh Burke, and Fire Inspector Josh Elliott – to a continuing education class with firefighters from other agencies to learn best practices in determining the cause of brush and vegetation fires.
Because of the speed at which vegetation fires grow and their propensity for destroying things like aerial fireworks that cause them, determining the cause can be a difficult task for officials but a crucial one – allowing officials to hold those that start them responsible while at the same time working to prevent future fires from taking place.
With a coverage area that spans 90 square miles – most of it rural – the Lathrop Manteca Fire District is tasked with protecting a large swath of San Joaquin County that is no stranger to fast-moving grass fires during the hot summer months.
Earlier this month the agency extinguished a blaze along the Highway 120 Bypass near I-5 that required the assistance of both the South County Fire Authority in Tracy and the Manteca Fire Department. According to the agency, fires in that area are usually caused by chains that are dragging behind vehicles causing sparks to fly, or catalytic converters that emit hot particles that end up landing in the dry brush.
Because of the ongoing drought – now classified as “exceptional” – worries abound about what will happen this summer when fireworks are once again being sold. The use of illegal aerial fireworks as well as safe-and-sane fireworks that are improperly used have been blamed for both structure and grass fires in Lathrop in the past.
Part of the class that was recently taken by Lathrop Manteca personnel included sections on how to identify fires started by fireworks.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
