A brush fire burning on Monday morning on an unincorporated island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has charred 212 acres and prompted some evacuations by ferry.
The blaze was reported about 1:30 a.m. on 2,172-acre Bradford Island in East Contra Costa County.
Due to most of the island being composed of peat wetlands, along with its remote location, crews had difficulty bringing the level of resources necessary to battle flames of that magnitude, East Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Steve Aubert told KCBS Radio.
"With peat dirt, those fires burn underneath the ground for a number of days and weeks, so realistically the only way to extinguish those types of fires is actually flood the island completely over with water and let that extinguish the fire at that point," he explained.
The island is outside any fire district's jurisdiction and fire officials are letting the blaze burn since it's surrounded by water on all sides.
An estimated 15 to 25 people live on the island. The fire district helped three people evacuate via a ferry that normally only operates during the day.
The remaining residents chose to stay and fight the fire on their own.
"A number of people out there are used to the remote living conditions," Aubert explained as the reasoning for why most of the residents chose to remain. "There is no fire service out there, so when they need assistance for any type of medical reasons that is the only level of service that they get at this time."
He added that firefighters will respond in life-threatening cases.
No injuries have been reported.
Related
