New York fire crew to take over management of Garnet fire as efforts switch to forest restoration

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Management of the Garnet Fire is being handed off to a new team from New York. They began to arrive at the incident command post at Harlan Ranch on Wednesday to begin shadowing. The new crew will be fully in control by next week. They are tasked with not only fully containing the fire but getting the forest returned to its natural state.

The Garnet fire continued to smolder and burn overnight. Even with major progress on containment, work is still far from done.

"Right now, we're focusing heavily on suppression repair. We want to build depth within the area that is already controlled," says Shannon Colon, US Forest Service.

Assessment teams are now collaborating with crews to shift their focus to forest restoration. That includes tasks such as removing dangerous trees, fixing damaged trails and culverts, as well as taking steps to help prevent erosion.

"We want this forest to be restored back to basically what it was before the fire came through," says Colon.

The incident command post at China Peak is now to join the Harlan Ranch Location as crews continue to attack the hot spots from the ground and sky. Action News got an exclusive look inside air operations over the weekend, Pilot Shannon Fegley is the eyes and ears in the sky.

"We're the ones that go out and basically look at it first, they sort of make the assessment of okay it says small manageable. Do we need to get more help?" says Fegley.

A key area for assessment crews is the historic McKinley Grove of Giant Sequoias where the fire made its way through at low intensity.

Even though officials report no Giant Sequoias have been destroyed to date, crews plan to go in and restore the land. It's a job they expect will take several weeks.

"The Grove itself is a little bit different. It has its own assessment done and connected with its own resource advisers," says Austin Gonzagowski, US Forest Service.

As containment grows and new leadership takes charge, staff is being released from some of the day-to-day firefighting operations.

"And you're going to continue to see that to decline even with a new team coming in. Right now, everything is staying in perimeter. We have it under control and they're working the best they can to call that contained," says Colon.

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