Martis Fire remembered

Morgan C. Cooper and Christopher A. Austin awoke in the wee hours of the morning on June 16, 2001 to the smell of smoke and the crackling sounds of a restless camp fire that had jumped its rock ring boundary in their Juniper Hills area camp.

According to a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection investigation, the two 18-year olds leaped up and began stomping on the fire that had quickly spread more than 10 feet in two directions outside of the fire's pit.

Cooper and Austin spent the next two hours trying to extinguish the fire before packing up and leaving the area sometime between 6 and 7 a.m. They thought they had successfully extinguished the fire.

Shortly after the two men left their campsite, the California Department of Forestry responded to a report of smoke in the area. Upon arrival they found a 30-by- 30-foot spot of slash they suppressed with an 18-inch wide hand line and approximately 2,600 gallons of water.

The incident would later be dubbed the Juniper Fire, and some four hours after first responding, CDF left the scene. They too thought they had successfully extinguished the fire.

But the seeds of the Martis Fire had been planted, and more than 14,000 acres and $18 million later, fire crews were still mopping up the hot spots of one of the fiercest blazes the Truckee River Canyon has ever seen.

Low snow, high danger

Human error was, however, only the spark that created the Martis inferno.

"It was the driest I've ever seen this area in June," Truckee Fire Protection District Chief Mike Terwilliger recalled. "The Truckee Meadows was as dry as it had ever been in over 120 years."

According to Western Regional Climate Center records, the winter of 2000-2001 in Reno was the driest in 129 years and the following May was the hottest since 1888.

The central Sierra received roughly half of its average annual precipitation from October 2000 to September 2001.

So, while winds were light on Sunday, June 17, the forest was dangerously dry.

"The Martis Fire was a fuels-driven fire, but once it got into the canyons, it created its own winds," Terwilliger noted. "But the trees were so dry, it didn't need any wind to get started."

The fire raced along the southern and eastern walls of the Truckee River Canyon from Juniper Hills toward Floriston at a pace that even experienced firefighters said they had never seen.

The Martis Fire took 3,200 firefighters a week and a half to suppress, and most of the damage was done in a matter of hours.

One CDF "Hot Shot" crew member said that shortly after his troop was dropped along the Truckee River on Sunday afternoon, he witnessed one large ember turn into a two-acre blaze in just over a minute.

The Martis Fire was reported in the morning of June 17. By afternoon firefighters were fighting to save Floriston, some even sitting on roofs of the homes in the town some four miles away from where the fire started.

The blaze consumed approximately 12,000 acres in its first six or seven hours. In addition to the scorched earth, the toll included a cabin, a mobile home, three vehicles and the closure of Interstate 80.

Floriston, however, was saved.

The fire stopped in the upper reaches of Bronco and Grey canyons only because the trees above 8,000 feet had a higher moisture content.

"A lot of people don't know that. But [the fire] just quit up there. Plus, it hit different stands of trees. There are a lot of aspen groves up there," Terwilliger noted.

Never a threat to Truckee

From the beginning, Terwilliger was quick to point out, the fire never threatened Truckee.

"The fires that start on the Sierra Crest always burn towards Nevada. If I thought it was a threat to Truckee, I would have had 50 engines in Glenshire," he said.

The Martis Fire started just east of Truckee, virtually on the town limits boundary off Martis Peak Road.

At its peak intensity, it was considered a threat to Reno and communities in the foothills west of the city.

Of the 14,000-plus acres that burned, approximately 60 percent was in national forests, mostly the Carson Ranger District.

As bad as the damage was to the forest and the wildlife, many believed it could have been much worse had the timing or location of the fire been different.

"You want to see a fire move into wilderness areas instead of towards homes," Terwilliger said. "But if it had been August, it would have burned all the way to Reno."

Notifying public

Much of the rehabilitation of the canyon has focused on stabilizing soil on the slopes. Those efforts got a big shot in the arm from Truckee River Day volunteers.

Hundreds of volunteers worked with the U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Game to jump-start both the restoration of the land and the species that inhabit the area.

Efforts have included re-seeding of the area with native grasses, planting mountain mahogany and building nest boxes for wood ducks.

The fire also precipitated the purchase of a new message system for Tahoe Truckee Community Television.

During the fire, the station, also known as Channel 6, aired a handful of live shows from town hall that included updates from officials of the various fire agencies that were fighting the blaze. It also ran continuous scrolling updates.

Still, some officials realized during the fire that their ability to get information to the public in timely manner was limited.

As a result, several agencies, including the Truckee Fire Protection District and the Town of Truckee, are pitching in to buy a new presentation system that will allow them to access the channel and put information on the screen from a computer.

"We want to make it the primary notification system," Terwilliger said. "If someone sees something weird going on, we want them to tune into Channel 6."