BOULDER CREEK, Calif. (KRON) – Repairs are underway to a critical water pipeline, damaged by the CZU Lightning Complex fire in Boulder Creek.
The pilot broke off from firefighting in Oregon, to help airlift the badly needed pipe to the fire ravaged work zone, high in the Santa Cruz mountains.
The work is happening on Ben Lomond Mountain above Boulder Creek, where 7 miles of pipeline was destroyed by the fire.
The only way to get the replacement pipe up there was by helicopter.
At the controls of the helicopter was veteran pilot Glenn Smith, who has been fighting wildfires in Oregon.
Smith said, “The pipes burned up in the fire so we were happy to come down and help them put new pipes in. We’re from Southern Cal, but we were up in Oregon doing fires up there so then we got the call to come down here and help out.”
The heavy duty polyethylene pipe will replace 7.2 miles of pipe destroyed by the CZU lightning complex fire. Cutting off the water supply to thousands of customers of the San Lorenzo Water District.
More worrisome though, was the potential for contamination from the burned pipe, leading to a ‘do not drink’ order, says San Lorenzo Water District’s Rick Rogers.
“The vast majority of our customers are in a good area, we only have a small area of about 500 connections, in high reaches where the fire system impacted the water system most are on a do not drink.
Bottled water is available until the all clear is given. The water is back on for most customers, but some residents, fearing more fire, were a little unnerved when they first heard the helicopter flying so low over town.
Boulder Creek resident Gabriel Petersen said, “I thought maybe there was another spot fire, all the neighbors are going what the hell is going on.”
The Vietnam era Huey helicopter made eleven round trips in 52 minutes.
Pilot Smith, who has been doing this for 40 years, says it was a little more tricky than dumping water on a wildfire, giving credit to his ground crew.
Smith adds, “Well these guys made it easy. They had everything done ahead of time, it was well prepped. The citizens helped us out, they evacuated their houses, they let us close the streets off and they evacuated the whole area. Made it go pretty fast for us, otherwise it would have been a lot more difficult than it was.”
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