Fire chief outlines Ranch Fire response, credits mutual aid and new incident-tracking software

Lincoln Fire Chief Anthony Mejia presented an after-action review Tuesday of the Aug. 4 “Ranch Fire,” telling the City Council the grass fire burned roughly 145 acres near Highway 65 south of 12 Bridges and was contained without injuries or property loss.

Mejia said the city dispatched normal resources along with mutual-aid units from Rockland and the county. He said the incident was complicated because the fire started in county jurisdiction, crossed into Rockland, then entered the city and began heading toward 12 Bridges High School. Weather that day was in the high 90s; wind was light, Mejia said.

The chief cited four principal challenges: values at risk (notably 12 Bridges High School), firefighter safety on a hot day, an incident area shared by multiple jurisdictions, and unavailable specialty resources because multiple vegetation fires were active in nearby Auburn at the same time.

Mejia credited mutual aid, Lincoln Police and Public Works with preventing greater damage, and emphasized that there were no firefighter hospitalizations or significant injuries. “We set boundaries early on the incident,” he said, and those boundaries held at a creek bed and prevented the fire from crossing Highway 65.

Mejia also highlighted the department’s recent adoption of an incident-management system implemented in January that tracked roughly 27 units during the Ranch Fire. He said the software — which replaced a largely handwritten tracking system — was a “big win” for situational awareness on a large incident.

Council members and the mayor praised command coordination and the quick negotiation that brought a Cal Fire helicopter to the scene when air resources were scarce. Mejia said he and Rockland Chief Dvorak operated together at the command post and that Lincoln maintained overall command through containment.

The chief urged residents to sign up for the Watch Duty app, which he said provides real-time incident alerts and live information from scanner and camera feeds. He also said the city will post a “Ready, Set, Go” wildland-urban interface preparedness document on its website.

Council members asked clarifying questions about whether the fire had jumped Joiner Road and about command and resource coordination; Mejia confirmed the fire did not jump the road and reiterated that mutual-aid coordination and the incident-management software were decisive in holding the fire to the established boundaries.