Fire In Golden Gate Park

San Francisco, May 16- I went to Golden Gate Park this afternoon to escape the heat. I ended up spending an hour or so cooling off on a bench in the shade along Metson Lake. This is across Middle Drive from the Polo Ground, where large scale preparations for tomorrow’s Bay to Breakers were going on. On my way out I walked my bike along the lake towards the drive.

Along the way I heard a strange sound just east of the lake. I walked towards the sound and soon was looking down a ridge towards a crackling grass fire consuming a not inconsiderable flat area. On the far side of the burning area a cluster of stumps sat, one of them aflame.

Since, as always, I didn’t have a cell phone, I hurried on along to alert somebody who did. But then, in the distance, I heard a siren. I stopped at the edge of the drive, hoping it was responding to a call about the fire.

The siren got louder, and then I saw a red hook and ladder heading up the hill. I waved to it and pointed in the direction of the fire. It drove right by me.

Undeterred, I hustled after it. Further up the drive the vehicle was pulled over. There I came upon a handful of other bicyclists. One of them must have called the fire department. A number of other fire department vehicles, including several more hook and ladders, soon arrived as well.

I returned to the ridge where I could look down on the blaze again. It was getting bigger. A large column of white smoke was rising. After a while the curious and concerned joined me, capturing images on their cell phones and digital cameras.

By this time some pine and cedar branches were catching fire, as well as shrubs and other low growing brush. Fortunately the winds were light, so it wasn’t like entire trees were going up fast.

But there were many large eucalyptus trees just beyond the fire area. If the fire were to reach them, then we might be talking conflagration.

Several firefighters appeared from a dirt path on the far side of the fire. They surveyed the scene and then left. Soon one returned dragging a single fire hose along. The fire was still gaining strength.

Eventually the firefighter got some water coming out of the hose, but it wasn’t much, and pressure was very low, clearly not up to the job.

Then we heard but didn’t see a firefighter shout, “We’re out of water!” Presumably the water source was a tank on one of their vehicles, since no fire hydrants were in sight.

One of the people watching the scene told me he’d seen the column of smoke from Marin.

After a park ranger joined us, another man told him he’d seen some teens in the area of the fire not long before it started. He suspected foul play, he said, because they’d been boisterous, and then he heard one say, “I want to see it.”

The fire started coming up the ridge. It quickly combusted a stump and log, causing billowing black smoke to blend with the ascending white. Parts of several more trees lit up near us. Flames went up a pine tree on the floor where the fire had started, but flickered down after a while.

There still was little to no water getting on the fire.

Then the firefighters backed one hook and ladder up to Metson Lake. After some initial difficulties, they got a large diameter hose into the lake, and began pumping water out of it into several more narrow fire hoses.

Once there was an adequate water supply, properly pressurized, the firefighters began to get the fire under control, and subsequently put it out.

But the charred ground, brush and tree parts left behind tell the tale of how easily a problem like this can flare up and get out of control—right in the middle of San Francisco.

The fire department ended up getting the job done, but didn’t seem to be trained for a situation like this, and had to improvise. And hot dry weather and people carrying flammables don’t go together too well for fire prevention.

Towards the end of the fire, a man asked me what was going on. After I explained, he said, “I was at the de Young. You could smell the smoke outside it and see embers coming down. But everything in the park was just playing soccer and stuff, like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.”