Bead 20: Fired Up

On Sunday, July 16, about 30 miles downslope of Yosemite, a flame was ignited in the steep, chaparral-cloaked ridge system flanking the Merced River.  Nobody knows the origin of the flame, but all the locals know what happened next:  It ran amok, quickly swelling into the Detwiler Fire and gobbling up a sizeable portion of Mariposa County.

A full week later, the fire is less than half contained, meaning fire lines must still be established around most of its perimeter.  It has burned more than 75,000 acres.  Although many of the evacuation orders have been lifted, there are still hundreds of people in limbo, living in shelters in Oakhurst, Mariposa, Planada, Sonora, and Groveland.  And then there are the 60 families facing long-term limbo, having recently learned that their homes were destroyed.

Facing the Detwiler Fire from the top of Miami Mountain, July 20

On Thursday, July 20, Congressman Tom McClintock held his monthly satellite office hours meeting in Oakhurst, staffed by one of his field representatives, Matt Reed.  At that point, all evacuation orders were still in place.  The entire town of Mariposa was evacuated and adrift.  At least one person attending the office hours was an evacuee.  Others had not yet been evacuated, but were close enough to the Detwiler front to be nervous.  And people were angry.

"Where is McClintock?" a woman from Bootjack demanded, nearly yelling.  "Why isn't he on the ground?"  She glared at Matt over her tablet, which she was using to shoot video of the meeting. 

Matt explained that, in fact, Tom McClintock's office was very involved in the Detwiler Fire.  They had reached out to Mariposa County's elected officials, offering help at the federal level.  And they were researching the air tanker issue. 

The "air tanker issue" refers to the use of a single Boeing 747 jet, dubbed the SuperTanker and owned by a man named Jim Wheeler, to drop retardant on the Detwiler Fire.  The SuperTanker can drop almost twice as much retardant as the stoutest air tanker currently in service, making it an attractive option for fires, like Detwiler, that threaten to snuff out entire communities.  Perhaps because of its price tag, an estimated $250,000 per day, the U.S. Forest Service hasn't approved use of the SuperTanker yet.  Until it does, Jim Wheeler won't be able to work the Detwiler Fire or any other fire in our country.

But it's not like Detwiler doesn't have air tankers on the job.  The Internet is a murky place, and I've had trouble determining the exact number of tankers in use.  I do know that at least two very large air tankers, or VLATs, have been working the fire.  In fact, one of the VLATs set a company record on July 18 when it flew ten missions in less than six hours, dropping 108,000 gallons of retardant on the fire.  The SuperTanker can evidently drop 19,000 gallons in a single mission.  But to me, that's not a deal-breaking difference.  And I don't see why one man's flagging business venture has become Tom McClintock's "air tanker issue"--unless he is secretly trying to portray the U.S. Forest Service as incompetent and out of touch.  Oh, right.  He is.

Of course, at the July 20 office hours, I didn't know any of this.  Matt's vague explanation of the air tanker issue suggested the Forest Service wasn't permitting the use of any large air tankers on the Detwiler Fire.  We were made to feel that once again, bureaucracy was taking it out on the little guy.  

You can imagine that the air tanker issue, as presented by Matt, might have been quite upsetting for the evacuees in the room, and those who feared evacuation.  But to their credit, they kept their dissatisfaction trained on McClintock himself.

I asked a woman who had identified herself as an evacuee what, specifically, she would like to see from McClintock.  She answered calmly, and with clarity.  First, she wanted his presence.  He needed to come to Mariposa County and show its residents that he cared about them.  Second, she wanted to know that he was communicating with all the involved agencies--with Cal Fire, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and PG&E.  Finally, she wanted him to address people's concerns.  People were facing loss of income from the fire.  And some had lost their homes.  What did McClintock have to say about that?

Facing the Detwiler Fire from the top of Miami Mountain, July 21

Since the Detwiler Fire started on July 16, Tom McClintock has published two speeches on his website.  Both showed up on July 19, by which point the Detwiler Fire had burned 45,000 acres, and several homes had been lost.  Governor Jerry Brown had already declared a state of emergency.  The first of McClintock's July 19 speeches pertained to our federal spending deficit.  He cautioned his fellow House Budget Committee members that raising taxes above their "natural limit" would only drive us closer to economic collapse.  The second speech was an assertion to the House Budget Committee that the best way to lift people out of poverty was to wean them off their entitlements.  Also, corporate taxes strip ordinary Americans of their money and jobs.

Right.  So, nothing about Detwiler.  Nothing about Mariposa County residents, unless he meant to include them in the impoverished class he is trying to help by downsizing federal aid programs and slashing corporate taxes.

As it turns out, Tom McClintock did finally make his way to Mariposa County.  Earlier today, he visited a command center, where he met with Mariposa County Sheriff Doug Binnewies and Cal Fire officials.  He even shared a few photos online to prove he was there.  But I think many of those impacted by the Detwiler Fire would say:  too little, too late.

With a population of 17,410 souls, Mariposa County is home to only around 2 percent of Tom McClintock's constituents.  You would have to multiply the county's population by 10 to equal that of Elk Grove, the Sacramento suburb in which McClintock himself resides.  Mariposa County has no incorporated cities, and no permanent traffic lights.  But Mariposa County matters.  That was our primary message for Matt on Thursday, and that is what we hope will get through to Tom.

Facing the Detwiler Fire from the top of Miami Mountain, July 22