The emergency ratification will help local agencies mobilize state and federal fundsAt a special session on Tuesday afternoon, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors affirmed and ratified a state of emergency proclaimed by the county’s Sheriff’s Office and Office of Emergency Services following last week’s disastrous fire in Arcata.This is a horrific fire,” Sheriff William Honsal told the board. “My compliments to Arcata Fire and all the fire suppression efforts. Just talking to Chief Emmons this morning, over 2 million gallons of water … was spent on this fire to make sure that it was only contained to that one block. … Based upon wind and the fuels, this could have been a catastrophic event for the city, … so we’re thankful that it was just contained to one block.”Honsal said that while the fire had been contained, the emergency was not over. He said that the county’s environmental health department had recommended reaching out to the EPA and declaring an ongoing emergency in order to access resources outside the county required for the assessment and clean-up of environmental contamination.“Over the weekend, the city assessed the situation. They brought in environmental health, and due to a lot of the contaminants that were in these buildings, a lot of contaminants and hazardous waste was potentially pushed down into the wastewater and stormwater systems in the city of Arcata, which … flow to various creeks, sloughs and ultimately the bay,” Honsal said.Arcata City Manager Merritt Perry added, “Really, one of the big questions we have right now is the assessment. There was a lot of water put on to that fire. There was a paint store that was involved in the fire. So, there’s a lot that went into the storm drains. And right now, we just don’t have the capacity to assess that. And so we forwarded that the county, and we really want to be able to leverage those state resources to make sure we’re doing everything that we can to protect our waterways in the bay.”Perry said that the city is also interested in mobilizing any resources possible to support businesses, property owners and residents affected by the fire and said, “that’s probably going to be a much lower dollar amount” than the cost of environmental assessment and clean-up.Read More
