East Bay firefighters back from Oregon compare Bootleg Fire to a freight train

by Kathleen Kirkwood, Bay City News July 28, 2021July 27, 2021

A pyrocumulonimbus cloud rises above the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. The blaze has grown to more than 410,000 acres and is currently the largest wildfire burning in the United States. Strike teams from Bay Area fire agencies spent two weeks helping to fight the flames. (Photo courtesy of Alameda County Fire Department/Twitter)

A strike team composed of firefighters from Alameda County and the cities of Oakland, Fremont and Hayward has returned to the Bay Area after two weeks battling the massive Bootleg Fire in Oregon.

The team worked 12-hour shifts for two weeks and experienced erratic fire behavior in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, including a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that created its own weather and extreme conditions, the Alameda County Fire Department said Sunday on social media.

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