South Bay mountain community creates secondary evacuation route, saying county hasn't helped

CBS News

03-03-2025

As the climate changes, wildfire has become a constant worry, even in the dead of winter. People living in South Bay mountain communities are taking the issue seriously, including one group of homeowners in Los Gatos who had to create their own evacuation route.
There is only one way in and out of the Aldercroft Heights neighborhood, so when the lightning began striking that started the massive CZU Complex inferno, some of the spot fires began near Aldercroft.
"And so, while they got those ones out and it never became part of the main fire, we realized that there was no reason that what happened in Boulder Creek and those areas. There's no reason that couldn't happen here," said Aldercroft Heights homeowner Sarah Johnston.
But that wasn't the first fire to threaten the heavily forested neighborhood. In 1985, the Lexington fire also came dangerously close to the same area.
Harold Schapelhouman remembers it well.
"I was a brand new firefighter," he said. "That was our first campaign fire. We had the wrong engine, the wrong hose, we didn't have the right tools."
Now a retired Menlo Park fire chief, Schapelhouman said they learned a lot of lessons, including the importance of having planned evacuation routes for the public.
"Many counties and agencies have taken that very seriously on their own and are doing that already," he said. "Why that's not being done in Santa Clara County is, actually, I was surprised that it wasn't."
It's supposed to be state law. Assembly Bill 747 went into effect in 2022, requiring cities and counties to identify evacuation routes in case of a natural disaster.
It's supposed to be finished by now, but the Aldercroft neighbors say they have gotten no help from Santa Clara County in establishing a secondary way out of the development.
"Even if you go to their website, they don't have phone numbers. They don't have links to email addresses," said homeowner Scott Schreiman. "They sort of have the people's names but you have no idea how to get ahold of them. They seem to actively not want to be contacted. They know us. We're easy to find. They haven't come to us for anything."
So, the residents organized themselves into a "FireWise" community and, all on their own, came up with a secondary route out of the neighborhood that begins at a locked gate topped with razor wire at the end of Aldercroft Heights Road.
The road beyond is the property of the local water company, which heavily guards access to the area.
"We really had to push to make sure that we could use this as a second way out during the CZU Complex fire.," said Johnston.
The company agreed to open the gate on Red Flag Days when a wildfire is a threat and it even posted evacuation route signs.
They even had a practice evacuation for the neighborhood and it became clear that the largely unpaved road may be a challenge in the event of a mass exodus.
So, at this point, the residents are asking the county to fork over the money to have the mile-long road paved.
"Evacuation routes are really important, and we've been trying to persuade the county to make a bigger investment in this," said Schreiman.
And of course, having a way to contact them would help.