Vegetation Fire on Sherman Island

Sherman Island Vegetation fire sends smoke into county, Coast Guard says

DELTA — A grass fire on Sherman Island is sending smoke wafting southward into Contra Costa County, the U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday.

The fire was first reported around 12:30 p.m on 4-11., said Coast Guard Lt. Amy Marrs. It was originally thought to have been coming from something on the water, but a Coast Guard unit from Rio Vista and fire personnel from Sacramento County confirmed it was a vegetation fire.

Smoke had been reported in Pittsburg coming from north of the Dow Chemical plant on Loveridge Road.

Solano County fire crews are putting out the grass fire, Marrs said.

A large cloud of black smoke hung over Pittsburg and other parts of the county, Health Services spokesman Randy Sawyer said. Observers reported bits of blackened debris swirling in the air along Harbor Street and Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg.

"We're also getting ash fallout in the Pittsburg and Bay Point area," Sawyer said. "There are tires on the island and they may also be burning."

Health Note: People with pre-existing respiratory problems were advised to stay indoors to avoid the ash, Sawyer said, although no formal "shelter-in-place" warning was issued.

Note: There was confusion Friday about which fire department was responsible for fighting the blaze. Dispatchers for Contra Costa and Sacramento counties said their fire departments were not involved. Solano County sheriff's department dispatchers, who dispatch for several Solano County fire departments, said no Solano county agencies were involved.

Sawyer said it was his understanding that the Suisun City department was attempting to reach the fire. It was not clear Friday evening if they were at the scene.

Update: Jurisdiction is still a question -

Delta island fire fuels jurisdiction friction

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As far as anyone knows, no injuries or structural damage resulted from a Delta island fire last week that sent plumes of smoke and ash into Contra Costa County and as far west as Berkeley.

The noontime blaze April 11 on Sherman Island, believed to have been fueled by tule weeds, appears to have burned itself out last weekend.

As far as anyone knows.

But no one knows for sure because no one set foot on the island to fight the blaze or to check for any people who might have been there. That means no one knows its exact location or how much area it burned.

In the past week, representatives of fire agencies in proximity to Sherman Island told the Times that they did not send crews to the fire, which tarnished air quality so much that county health officials told East Contra Costa residents to stay indoors.

In a "Who's on First?"-like chain of statements, each agency contacted said the island is out of its jurisdiction and under the purview of another. That agency, in turn, said another department was responsible.

Because of the geography of the island — it's located at the intersection of Contra Costa, Sacramento and Solano counties — it could be that nobody is wrong. But something clearly is not right.

Sherman Island is in Sacramento County, but Sacramento County fire agencies said it is in Solano County's jurisdiction. The fire most affected Contra Costa, but the county fire district said the responsibility to fight the blaze belonged to Solano County or Sacramento County.

"That was not in our area," said Contra Costa fire Battalion Chief Dave George.

According to the Solano County Sheriff's Department, which dispatches several Solano and Sacramento county agencies, the island is under no jurisdiction.

The closest fire district to the island is the volunteer Isleton Fire District. Those firefighters are dispatched by the Solano County Sheriff's Office. "The fire was in no man's land," a Solano County sheriff's dispatcher said. "No one had jurisdiction."

The statewide firefighting agency, CAL FIRE, which did not respond to the island blaze, could not shed much more light on the situation.

"This is very odd," said CAL FIRE spokesman Daniel Berlant. "To have a little island cause confusion where no one knows whose (jurisdiction) it is."

Fire response is divided among federal, state and local jurisdictions, Berlant said. When an area is not specifically accounted for — a relative rarity, he said — responsibility for an area defaults to the local level.

The fire on Sherman Island, Berlant said, is the first time he has heard about a conflict on the issue.

One agency did go to the fire scene, albeit briefly: The Coast Guard sent a 25-foot boat from its Rio Vista station to check it out because of initial reports that a boat was on fire, Petty Officer John Cilley said. But once officers determined the flames were part of a brush fire, Cilley said they left and contacted Solano County fire officials.

No one ever came. In this case, beyond some temporary air-quality hassles, nothing more serious came of it.

Berlant raised the point that even if it was clear which agency was in charge of responding, those firefighters might have let the fire burn out if the cost of fighting the fire outweighed the damage it could have caused, especially since people and property were out of harm's way.

"You have to ask, 'Did the positive impact outweigh the negative?'" he said. "

And cost is a huge negative."