 Good morning. This is the 6 a.m. Press Conference for the CZU complex. My name is Jonathan Cox deputy chief with Cal Fire San Mateo Santa Cruz unit and line officer on the incident As always if you could just mute your telephones and any devices you might have And take any conversations away from the press conference area We also ask that you keep your masks on at all times during this press conference And we will have a moment at the end to ask questions of all the representatives up here as well as some time for one-on-one Conversations after the conference is over Just a quick update this morning for the six o'clock numbers the CZU lightning complex is now 80,000 80 thousand one hundred and thirty seven acres in size We're staying at nineteen percent containment and there are still 24,000 plus structures that are threatened by the incident Unfortunately this morning we can confirm that there are now 538 structures that have been destroyed in this fire eleven of which are in San Mateo County 527 of those structures destroyed are in Santa Cruz County There is a website as Chief Deputy Clark mentioned last night the Santa Cruz County has put up showing People where and and what those addresses are online Tonight as of this morning. We have one thousand six hundred ninety seven personnel assigned to the incident and for Overview and an update on what the actual operations that are going on out in the field Cal Fire Incident management team three opposite section Chief Mark Good morning past couple days, we've been able to make a significant progress on our firefight We've been able to establish more lines continue to improve those lines that we have established and getting another day closer to Extinguishing this fire as you can see we have some on the maps and the black line With that signifies is that we have the fire extinguished We're holding it we have lines established around it and and we feel very very confident that that has been secured And again, that's up there in what we call division the Gulf and kilo. That's an area that is Critical so that we did have any spread To the northeast and in threatening Santa Clara County So we button that up and that's in a petroleum off of type status Moving along in the north zone again the ton of park. We do have some active flame on the ridge We do have the lines established as you can see on the map and they're slowly let that fire creep down as part of our strategy So that we can get in and fully extinguish that fire I anticipate within the next couple days and with weather expecting that that we should be successful in that that endeavor It puts more black landing on the map Moving down of we can we're continuing with with some full extinguishment of the fire throughout the western person fire Community Davenport we're looking at with our infrastructure looking at re-energizing that with power here with it today if not sooner and and then again Our lines pulling those lines above that community and taking advantage of the weather to to start full Extinguishment of any sort of fire sitting above that community down to the south again Our control lines are holding to the south as well as obviously your secondary line And so we do have a really good protection for the community of Santa Cruz and the UC campus Moving up the nine corridors, which has been a challenge for us with the communities of Felton Ben Lohman Boulder Creek Davenport Over here then we've been able to get some more good control lines up above on the the fire We're continuing to work and approve that we've got some good line and Blackened the line extinguished the fire above a good portion of Felton today's operation has been critical They've been preparing and working on this for the past two days really and what we have a plan on doing is Later this afternoon early evening is to our lines been constructed We have the preparations in place to do a burn operation Which will black-and-line bring the fire up to the fire that's hung up onto the the rich top That will eliminate that that issue and what that will do is create a very nice barrier Throw that the fire around the community of Felton that will then button up that part of the fire above Felton So that is excellent news. It's gonna take a couple days once we do that to continue to mop up Get off the hotspots and then render that safe and get our utility companies in there to to do their job As we finish that we'll be moving up towards been moment and that line will actually come to the south end of Ben Lohman So that line will not only protect Felton, but the bottom end of Ben Lohman as we continue to continue to progress Above Ben Lohman and into Boulder Creek. We're continuing to work diligently up there We have a lot of resources above Boulder Creek from Cal Fire and our other allied agencies They're working diligently putting in the line again very difficult terrain and working among a number of structures And we're gonna have a lot of success and in the coming days We're looking at trying to get that completed just like we are in these other communities so we're marching north and preparing as we go ahead of time and Implementing those operations that strategy Binding in looking really good Again, he's taking process a lot of homes in there. We're working around all those homes getting control lines put in Extinguishing fire around structures and then the big thing is opening the roads into the interior of the fire With all the trees that have come down The power line so forth. We've been able to Establish a group that's gone in starting yesterday getting deep into some of these road systems Some are a little bit more work than others, but that group is working in doing that We're working with County roads and a variety of other agencies to get in and then once we get in we render it safe Getting the utility companies in right behind us so that they can start Repairing and putting back that infrastructure We're doing the same thing on highway 236 Working with Caltrans and doing the same kind of operation so we can start opening that and getting interior to these other areas Once we can also get interior our damage inspection teams can get in and start doing their jobs So we can get that taken care of as well. So it's a multifaceted effort is part of this extinguishment process From our air program the air is looking very favorable with the weather So we're going to be flying once again our aircraft the past few days We've topped out the amount of hours we can fly on our aircraft every day We're we've been dropping more and more water as of yesterday They dropped from our six copters 256,000 gallons of water in one day that's pretty significant. We're timing out our aircraft that's significant and Every day we're seeing more and more and that's in the support of our ground troops taking care of those hotspots and so forth to this point Our copters have dropped over 1.6 million gallons of water since the beginning of this event So we're using all the tools that we have available to us to work on it seems to inspire and getting everybody's back Their lives back to normal. Thank you Speaking next from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's office is Chief Deputy Chris Clark. Well, good morning In terms of some positive news again continuing with That that you know the the theme of not a lot of people running around same situation last night Thankfully as there was the night before and and yesterday So again going into our now our third operational period without an arrest and even last night We didn't we had no citations. So we're seeing a lot of people that are That are really doing what we're asking them to do and kind of staying out of those areas as you Just heard Chief Brunton mentioned, you know getting those resources in to repair the roads to prepare Power lines and things like that which are obviously pieces of The plan to repopulate those areas and to make sure that that happens quickly So last night as I mentioned At the last press conference 66 officers running around last night making sure that basically everything is safe Again, we're going to continue that today with with 70 deputies and officers 30 from our agency 20 from inside the county with our allied partners here from different agencies Inside Santa Cruz County than 20 mutual aid from over the hill Last night we responded to 14 calls for service six welfare checks And I'm going to touch on a couple of those here in just a minute and eight suspicious people So fortunately last night though, we did get a welfare check For a 63 year old woman who it was last spoken to On Mondays her friend last talked to her Monday evening hadn't heard from her in a couple days And so she called us and we went out to her home and Felton and unfortunately found her deceased We believe it's natural causes at this point which which caused her death There was no signs of foul play no signs of forced entry anything like that Which would give us any suspicion that anybody did anything to her or caused her death But but nonetheless really kind of a sad note as far as that's concerned and then Secondly a welfare check for someone who potentially had so they did this person evacuated from the area In in Boulder Creek, they had been you know, they'd done what we asked them to do they left the area And we're staying with a friend up until up until Monday. And so they left sometime Monday evening Their friend called us today during the night last night to say they hadn't heard from them because there was a conversation This this person wanted to go back try to sneak back in to the evacuated area to their home And so right now we're we're actively looking for that person to find out kind of where they are And make sure that they're okay So, you know, I just reiterate a couple things one is that we want to get you back home We really do but there are dangers to sneaking back into the evacuated area That I mean if you just you just don't know I mean you might not know the terrain You might not know the area you could get lost and then you know We want to we want to help you but what it what it does is it it divides our resources in the sense that you know We're we're going to you know, we're going to send people to to find you in this case That's exactly what we're gonna do and and then and that's okay, too We want to make sure this person's okay. I just want to discourage people from from from doing that You know so that it doesn't divide our resources, but nonetheless if we find this person I will definitely let you know and that's what we're doing right now on Another piece of that is is again if you if you if you haven't heard from a friend and that's how these two calls came in I would encourage you that if you haven't heard from someone And you think that they remained in the evacuated area or potentially we're returning. Please give us a call At our dispatch number. That's 831 471 1 1 2 1 8 3 1 4 7 1 1 1 2 1 give us a call and we'll do exactly what we did last night You know we do security checks on homes to make sure nobody's Breaking in but at the same time we want to make sure that people are safe and accounted for and so if you haven't heard from a Friend definitely give us a call And then lastly just to touch on the the website that you heard chief Cox mentioned and I mentioned it last night You know we can completely understand that you'd want to know kind of the status of your house Especially if you think it's in a fire damage area, and so I just wanted to reiterate that website again That's Santa Cruz County forward slash fire recovery forward slash damage assessment map dot ASP X That's Santa Cruz County forward slash fire recovery slash damage assessment map dot ASP X it'll give you some information put your address in there And I'll tell you whether or not your house has been damaged. It's okay or Or hopefully not Destroyed thank you up next from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office is Detective Blank's wave Good morning no changes for San Mateo County But we do want to say thank you to everybody who donated the diapers baby formula and school supplies at the San Mateo event center For those of you who are interested in helping out in other ways You can also make financial donations to plenty and pescadero as well as the Red Cross We also want to say how grateful we are for all the support that we're seeing from the community whether it's online messages or a couple restaurants have donated food including Alice's restaurant up on skyline and 84 and It's just incredibly motivating our first responders and support staff see these messages and these comments We've seen signs as well out in the community and we can't tell you how much it means to us right now So thank you very much for all that support and gratitude. It's heard and felt Speaking next on behalf of all of the agencies and unified command is Cal Fire Incident management team 3 IC Billy C Good morning. Obviously yesterday We had great success out on the line We had clean air able to fly our aircraft our folks were able to get in there and develop some perimeter control around this there was a lot of there was a lot of Smoke production in the air that was very visible from the highway 17 corridor When we get clean air like that and it's visible the fire is just slowly moving down the slope In and behind around the structures of Felton and bit moment. It's very visible from this area Obviously, we have a lot of firefighting forces on the ground and today you heard the operational plan We're going to be doing later this afternoon some burning operations to control that fire on our terms We're going to be working diligently to secure that line over the next 24 to 48 hours and bring that down very safely and slowly Into what we're going to consider a primary control protecting these communities locking that off with that said obviously When the smoke starts to clear all the residents get very restless about trying to get back in and Want to know when the evacuation orders and warnings will be lifted We're going to be working with our counterparts in the law enforcement agencies To develop a strategic plan to start bringing folks in we've already started to identify areas That we can potentially start looking at lifting some evacuation orders and move them to evacuation warnings So please be patient It's a process. We're going to work through it Obviously our biggest concern when we start bringing folks back in and Lifting some of the orders is making sure that we build a good strong foundation for all those residents Meaning that we have good roadways for them to travel on we have secured all the utilities and make sure it's safe And make sure we have water for them so they have the essential necessities to live with so that's Pieces that we're going to continue to work on Identifying those fixing any issues and getting these folks back to a sense of normalcy as soon as possible. Thank you And our final speaker this morning from the local Cal Fire unit Cal Fire unit chief you're working Good morning As you see we're starting to make some progress though. It's slow and the thought it is it is happening for those that Are using the website for Santa Cruz County to determine if your property has sustained any damage or has been destroyed I just want to make a preface that take note that our damage inspection is still ongoing And it has not fully been completed yet Because your house may not be represented on that map is having damage or being destroyed As the damage inspection continues to move forward those numbers may increase And we'll represent those properties that are added to that each day so Be mindful that just because it's not there today doesn't mean it might not be there tomorrow So for those folks that have a sustained damage or need assistance There's a couple of areas that I'm going to give you right now that Can be of assistance to you and that's you can go to the disaster assistance.gov website That's a disaster assistance.gov And there's some resources there for folks that are in need and then also you can download the FEMA app from the Android and Apple platforms Once again, that's the FEMA app if you don't have the ability to download that application You can call FEMA directly and that's at 1-800 621 FEMA That's 1-800 621 FEMA and there are some assistance there for those that may have small businesses That need assistance. You can also go to the small business administration That's the small business administration and there are resources available to you to help you with that effort Once again, the troops on the ground and the instant management team that are here along with our cooperating agencies Both the sheriff departments from San Mateo and Santa Cruz County are working diligently and as quickly as possible To make the environment as safe as possible for us to repopulate the areas That are affected So please bear with us as we move through this We're moving as fast as we can and we're going to do our best attempt to get this wrapped up and get you guys back home All right, how can I answer any questions you might have? Yes, the questions related to the firing operation happening around Felton and Chief Brunnen can So the the burnout operation that we're going to be doing it's something we typically do it's a common Strategy that we utilize and basically when we're working in a in-hospitable train or very large fires We can essentially construct a line and we use fire as a tool to eliminate the fuels between that control line and the oncoming fire It's very controlled. It's a very planned event We are very fortunate on this event by by happenstance that you have the individual that we have running that operation Along with two others of including myself or have the highest qualification in the state of California Excuse me to conduct burn operations So by chance we happen to have all those people in the right place and and we do this on a very regular basis So it's something we're very comfortable with it's nothing that we do have hazard. We it's a very planned event We have a lot of resources when we do this event We put our best resources and we have to take them from the other parts of the fire and put them into play We do that because it is we take it seriously and especially when we're working around Communities population centers so I can assure you you have some of the most highly qualified the most highly experienced individuals there to run this firing operation at the top The four top personnel that are running this you have well over a 100 years experience of firefighting experience while in firefighting So we don't take this lightly. We take this very seriously And we're going to be conducting these operations over the next couple days in a very methodical very planned process because it is going to be the best tool to to You know to make sure that we put in good line and That we're able to finish this this operation off because of the terrain the fuels Having to adjust our strategy it is going to be our best tool so Although it does make people nervous and introducing a fire into the environment especially from the outside But I can assure you that that you have the best people available doing that job Certainly it's it's going to be basically from Fulton Empire grade road moving into and through a portion of the state park and just to the south of the community of Ben Lohman, we have control line established in that first phase That will be conducting the burning in the late afternoon of the evening We're utilizing our instant meteorologists and our fire behavior analysts to help us put the plan together And and do it at the best possible time. So we have the best possible results From the operation. So yes, it will be visible because you will see increased smoke production. But again, it's a very controlled situation and Yeah, but you will see more smoke Are those lines helping? I mean it's still burning acres, but it's not exploding from say 79 to 90,000 It's like a thousand a day. So is it slowing it down? Correct So question being that is is it slowing the is the main fire slowing in progress? It isn't explosive, correct It's not explosive. We're not seeing the the runs the fire runs that we experienced a week ago The weather has changed. It's mitigated the intensity of the fire This weather pattern is is fantastic because it raises the humidity's The fuel moisture is gained slightly. So considering the Conditions that we have with the drought and the dry fuel moisture It's the best possible case and it's the best possible time for us to burn as we start getting into the weekend It is going to dry out a little bit more So any fire that is there? We'll see a slight bit of intensity of the fire But nothing that we've seen over the past Week by any means can you talk about the progress of damage inspection? Right now we have a total of 12 damage inspection teams in the field daily they're Basically working on the perimeter of the fire right now and areas that we have access into Obviously the interior of this fire is very difficult to get to there's many many roadways Several structures within side the perimeter of the fire where we're working diligently with heavy equipment Falling teams and our resources to get those areas cooled off opened up impossible obviously there's Going to be some time to get to several areas within the perimeter of this. There's a lot of burned out bridges and damaged bridges Roadways are going to have to be rebuilt in some areas so we can get those folks in but i'm working today To identify basically a percentage of this incident that the damage inspection team Has validated their information and will be able to continue to provide not only The the details as far as how much is damaged, but what percent of the entire incident has been inspected Any other questions with regard to scott's valley uh for the residents Is there a timeline when that Maybe repopulated when they may be able to come back in to south whether stable sure the question is related to When scott's valley might see repopulation and i don't know if the sheriff will be able to speak to that or So obviously you heard a lot about the operation today If we can successfully Go through the next 24 to 30 hours get the perimeter established in there Um over the course of the next 72 to 120 hours. That's anywhere from four to five days out We will look at hopefully bringing some sense of normalcy back to this area Obviously it's all dependent upon the weather conditions How successful we are out on the ground itself But we are have detailed plans to strategically start moving folks back in when it's safe to do so So I don't want to Guarantee an exact time frame, but we are working diligently to make sure when we do it It's safe and effective and efficient and we bring that normalcy back to these residents Yeah, the question is related to the missing persons reports and how the two additional change the factors and i'll let the sheriff say so Sure so in terms of missing people uh the the gentleman that we're looking for today would bring our total from uh from uh up to six So six missing people that we were looking for We found two yesterday and then this brings the total up to six No actually the decedent the person that passed away actually was not part of that was not one of the missing people that we were looking for So we didn't have any information that when she wasn't technically missing until uh until uh Yesterday when we got the call of the of the welfare check to go check on her that's when we found her deceased So we weren't actually we weren't because she was being Um because she was in contact with her friend. She wasn't technically missing So there were seven yesterday you were located That's correct. So seven missing persons cases as of yesterday we located two of them And then uh and then again last night had we had the report of the the missing man's we're looking for him So that brings the total to six With um with the national guard finishing their califier training of their first task force Do we know yet how those resources are being deployed around the state? Yeah, uh the question is related to how the deployment of national guard resources are deployed across the state and gc connects to that The 12 hand crews that uh, we're training down in the San Luis Obispo unit of cal fire Uh are being deployed to the Sonoma Lake Napa unit with that said we anticipate to see some of our type one crews released from that incident And strategically moved into here so we can continue to uh construct some of the technical line on that highway nine corridor We've been into discussions with both our uh north region operation center And the other IC's on incidents and we're going to be strategically Maneuvering resources throughout all the incidents to meet the needs of all the incidents Obviously, there's a lot of hand line construction and technical construction that needs to go Um on the highway nine corridor. So we've asked for our type one crews to be inserted in there For a specific amount of time so we can accomplish that mission There is a second group of national guard Personnel there are going through training right now and they should be available here in the next five or six days Can you explain what type one means? A type one is just a level of training and a level of experience as well as they've met the standards for line production So usually into a medium sized brush field. That's a minimum a minimum of 20 foot per person And they have the leadership and qualifications on the crews Thank you Randy Gordon from KBC Z Boulder Creek community radio. Um Can you tell us um about the uh operations to uh to to build those lines along the highway nine corridor? And whether or not they're putting any structures in jeopardy Sure, the question is related to the the line being constructed on the highway nine corridor And any concern about structures that may be in that area chief probably be able to So as I've said before the the line construction be along the nine corridor Is is very difficult compared to what we typically see What happens we have steep terrain heavy fuels We have a number of structures in and amongst that area Some on some very precarious areas that have been built So it makes it a challenge in it in order to put that line in some of it We put in with with the bulldozers some of it a lot of it We cannot because of what I just explained So we've been utilizing hand lines to do that What we've done so far is we've done Line that is only checked up the fire basically Slowed it its progress and then hurted it around the structures Especially in the upper part of the valley the lower part We've been able to continually construct lines So we're kind of pioneering if you will ahead ahead of the Up the valley and then we come in behind improve that line Get it really solid and and then when we have to do burn operations It has to be very well meticulously done So that it'll sustain holding that fire With the crews that chief see mentioned the more the type one crews getting those in that's what their expertise is As he said it's based on complexity. That's why they're a type one crew Their typing is not done lightly. So we're bringing in these individuals And we have only had a small handful now that we will bolster our ranks We'll be able to put in more line. We will be able to get around those structures. We will end in that line Construction will be put in more rapidly and all the way up Through the highway nine corridor. So it's a little spotty as we go further up the the corridor, but On the lower part it's it's becoming bolstered. We have goods all the line put in And we're going to continue to do so as the days come and we get the resources in All right, everyone up here will be available for questions one on one afterwards I just want to say thank you to obviously the community and all the for all the support and patience As we get this incident mitigated We will have another press conference this evening at 6 p.m. Same location. This concludes the 6 a.m. press conference. Thank you