A vehicle fire erupted in the Brooktrails subdivision west of Willits on this evening, but swift action by civilians and firefighters prevented it from spreading into the surrounding vegetation.
The fire was reported around 6:35 p.m. near the 1800 block of Tulip Place, according to scanner traffic. Initial reports indicated that the vehicle was engulfed in flames and there were concerns the fire could spread to nearby vegetation. This prompted a full wildland dispatch, deploying both air and ground firefighting resources to the scene.
A civilian who witnessed the incident said the fire was extinguished within approximately 10 minutes after Willits and Brooktrails firefighters arrived at scene. “Homeowners with their garden hoses were also out there, putting water around on the vegetation before the fire department showed up,” he said
That’s awesome when a community comes together to help with something that could of been so devastating to their community. Great job everyone and local fiferfighters. Great picture of the start of a possible disaster but a
great outcome for this community!
I helped put that fire out it was nuts with a bunch of blast going off as it was getting bigger
Brooktrails is a sketchy place for anyone to live…
A disaster waiting to happen.
For those that are giving “thumbs-down” to Joh Doe’s comment, I suspect that you all have little awareness of the DRASTIC and everpresent severe fire danger of that particular area.
Couple that with the single paved access road (and risks for street cars of taking the 2 gravel road options out, if people even know the way), extreme limits of water access there, the extraordinary overgrowth of trees, and dense layout of homes, and it becomes very clear why all the local and regional Fire Managers have lost some amount of sleep over it, because they all know it’s just a matter of time until a worst case scenario presents.
Imagine a 3-5mile+ long line of slightly moving single lane traffic trying to evacuate towards Willits in a raging wind driven firestorm.
Such a development in such a place would never be approved by CalFire today.
The original developers and County Supes, who approved it, weren’t required to deeply consider these serious issues.
Any Brooktrails homeowners want to share how hard it is to get fire insurance there?
And how expensive it is?
This is not a new concept in any way.
We have a airport with Cal-fire as well as a well-equip firehouse right in the heart of the neighborhood. Fire insurance on our $400k house is not bad at all compared to surrounding areas. We got evacuated from the Oak Fire in Sept 2020 and had no issues getting out of the neighborhood. Several vehicle and house fires have happened since and the fire crews are on top of it. I would imagine the worst case scenario would have to be in 100+ degree weather, while other major fires were happening (low humidity), and on a very windy day.
I feel pretty safe living in Brooktrails knowing there is a runway and fire dept right next to me.
You make some very good and interesting points.
However there is a measureless difference between a fire and a monstrous firestorm.
Driven by low humidity and sustained winds of 50+ mph with stronger gust that can easily create spotting for up to a half of a mile.
Another thing to consider is that it doesn’t have to occur on a extremely hot day it can happen at night or the wee hours of the morning with temperatures in the 60’s.
With that worse case scenario in mind you can forget about an air attack and it also makes the ground assault limited and creates more confusion for the people trying to flee.
J D,
No desire to dispel your sense of confidence & safety. But, assumptions are no basis for real safety measures.
Brooktrails/Sherwood area causes the same level of fact based catastrophic fire concerns among city/county/fire officials as does the Western Hills of Ukiah.
Brooktrails Township Fire Dept is primarily a Volunteer Fire Dept. They are great, but suffer the funding, staffing, equipment woes felt by all volunteer fire depts.
“Brooktrails Vacation Village” hasn’t seen significant fire since the IRONLES #2 fire in 1944 burned what is now almost the entire Township footprint including the airport. Back in the days of Diamond D Ranch when suppress all fire at all costs was at it’s peak. No white people were even imagining prescribed fire, only Native folk were so forward thinking then.
The most recent major fire in the area was Strong Mountain in 1950.
The fuel loading up there is immense, all the way up Timberline and past the Gates.
Is like living inside a box of strike anywhere matches….is just a matter of time.
The open valleys where cows and sheep have kept the forest from encroaching are the only real fire “safe-ish” areas.
Some very informative details have come to light by way of an Airport Manager in our area.
The Willits Municipal Airport (028) does NOT have any of the required infrastructure to support Calfire Air Tactical Operations (Fire), NONE.
Very limited NAVAIDS
Runway is only 2705′ long x 75 wide.
Not long enough for the Grumann S-2F3AT Turbo Trackers (small fire bombers we see almost daily).
NO Jet fuel.
No retardant storage or pumping.
Minor maintenance/No real Servicing capability.
For Helicopters ONLY, since they never carry Retardant, Calfire can temporarily pop-up their own Mobile support infrastructure for fueling and some light maintenance to many varing locations within short flight distance to fires/fire camps. Except for the new “Firehawk” (has a belly tank), they all fly much slower than the planes when loaded with a water bucket.
This was the only Calfire Flight Operations witnessed at Willits Airport during the Oak Fire.
Ukiah Airport has ALL the required infrastructure to support Calfire Air Tac Operations & Command.
Wider array of NAVAIDS
Has local Radar and within range of Sonoma County Airport Radar.
4423′ long x 150′ wide.
Direct radio line of sight (very high quality signal) to Calfire MEU on Ridgewood for Repeaters.
The Oak Fire did NOT cause evac of all of Sherwood and Brooktrails area.
More of a contrast than a comparison.
If Willits Airport is your own personal evacuation path because you have a plane there, then I see the personal benefit but not an actualized community benefit for firefighting.
Helicopters can set up in most any wide open space with road access for the support trucks.
BT Evac Plan
https://www.btcsd.org/_files/ugd/08349b_c4808416aadd4f54ba1a918e1eb31dc0.pdf
Interesting tidbit, Ukiah Airport is pushing to extend the runway to 5100′ or beyond to the South.
This would allow quite a few larger planes, particularly C-130’s.
They are large swiss army knives of the sky, move much faster (370mph max) than the existing Calfire Ukiah fleet, and would drastically alter the Calfire Air Tac playbook available in a wider region by extending Range (2360miles), Time Aloft per flight, and multiplying the single flight Retardant Payload by 10X (42,000lbs) VS the S-2F3AT (4,200lbs), 280mph max, range 1350 miles.
Yes they saved my house and theirs. I live not200 ft away directly above the fire. Thank you neighbors and thank you to our super efficient firefighters. Praise you and my friend who heard it on the scanner!