Been there.... done that.

Story, photos and video by Staff Sgt. Eddie Siguenza
California National Guard Public Affairs

Aug. 24, 2020

CACHE CREEK REGIONAL PARK, Calif. — To the engineers of the California Army National Guard’s 132nd Multirole Bridge Company, this mission is standard operations.

They’ve seen it before and they’re well trained to do it again.

Been there… done that.

But to the rest of the Northern California community, this is truly another life-saving event. In a matter of hours, nearly two dozen 132nd engineers constructed a 100-foot improved ribbon bridge (IRB) for emergency responders from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) — as well as other important assets — to fight the LNU Lightning Complex fire that in about a week became one of California’s all-time largest wildfires.

The temporary bridge now gives firefighters quicker access to this massive inferno that destroyed about 300,000 acres in about seven days.

“What we’re doing is working with the National Guard to put in a bridge that will sustain weight so our fire rigs can actually go across this… and fight the fires that we have right now,” said Rebecca Ramirez, a fire chief from Yocha Dehe Fire Department, pointing to the original concrete bridge that was built in 1930 and closed 2009. “Right now what we have to do is go all the way around to get to that side. What this (new) bridge will do is allow us to cut that short. It’ll cut a good half-hour or 45 minutes, or even longer in some cases, off of our drive. It’ll give us much better access to some of these ridge lines.”

The engineers dropped two aluminum ramps and two internal bays into the Cache Creek river, assembled them together to form the new access. They worked into zero dark thirty hours, motivated to complete the mission safely and correctly.

The LNU Lightning Complex is a culmination of several fires in five counties — Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Stanislaus and Yolo. 

Based in Redding, California, this a a repeat mission for the 132nd, a unit of the 579th Engineer Battalion, 49th Military Police Brigade. The unit built the same bridge in the same area in 2018 and 2015.

The modern, foldable, aluminum system is capable of transporting excessive military equipment such as loaded heavy equipment transporters (HETs), wheeled or tracked combat vehicles, and other various military trucks. It can easily withstand the weight of civilian fire trucks, fire engines, ambulances, or similar vehicles.

In 2018 the Pawnee Fire erupted in late June in Lake County, California, and scorched more than 15,000 acres. Then the Spring 2 Fire ignited a few days later, but that was extinguished after a modest 80 acres burned. Yet CAL FIRE was immediately busy again as the County Fire erupted in Napa and Yolo counties, and Cal Fire’s urgency to move assets heightened. It relied upon the 132nd to build a bridge like they did three years earlier.

“If we went left or right, it would have taken us several hours to get to the fight,” CAL FIRE’s Jeremy Salizzoni -- then a captain and now a battalion chief – said during the 2015 bridge construction. “But if we go up the middle, which we couldn’t at the time, we would be on site a lot faster. That’s why we called the [California Army National Guard]. They helped us out a few years ago with the same thing.”

In 2015 the 132nd erected the bridge mainly for CAL FIRE to battle the Jerusalem and Rocky fires in Lake County. The Rocky Fire, which burned about 70,000 acres, was one of the largest blazes that year, second only to the nearby Valley Fire, which burned about 76,000 acres.

In late 2019, Yolo County received funds to permanently replace the Low Water Bridge, according to the Daily Democrat. The coronavirus pandemic delayed the process that was supposed to start October.

“Forcing emergency response personnel to take extra hours to respond to wildfires and other disasters in Yolo, Napa and Lake Counties is inexcusable,” said Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, in a 2019 Yolo County press release.

 According to county officials cited by the newspaper, the existing CR40 Low Water Bridge is a “critical fire access road into the rural reaches of Yolo, Lake and Napa counties."

The bridge has deteriorated significantly since being built almost 100 years ago and is unable to support the weight of fire-fighting apparatuses or other vehicles, hampering CAL FIRE’s efforts to gain access to this fire-prone region.

The 132nd’s project floats adjacent to a permanent concrete bridge that was deemed “zero tons,” according to Steve Sahs, a California Department of Transportation senior bridge engineer/inspector, in his 2015 inspection. It’s passable for pedestrians and hikers, but big, heavy equipment such as fire trucks and bulldozers aren’t permitted, Sahs explained.

Sahs said California has about 24,000 bridges. This bridge is one of about 10 in Cache Creek Regional Park.

“This has been closed since 2009 due to scour issues,” he said, noting the bridge was built in 1930. “You can see it’s old, because it’s made with square rebars.”