Smoke walked up Highway 92 the afternoon of June 10. It crept along the floor of the mountainside, spilling over the ridgeline toward more populated places to the east. Along the way, it mingled with sunset for a time, turning the sky the color of a dirty basketball. Coastsiders pulled to the side of the road, alongside vegetable stands and in downtown parking lots, staring at billowing smoke and the occasional lick of flame that could be seen above the tree line.

Fire is among mankind’s most captivating — and sometimes frightening — sights.

Equally captivating that evening was the fine work of dozens of firefighters who formed many cells of a single body. The coordination on display that afternoon was nothing short of awe-inspiring and told a single truth: Whatever bickering that revolves around the fire services, whatever horror stories you may have heard about the local fire district in particular, everyone involved is fully prepared to answer the call to duty. The first alarm sounded at 4:51 p.m. that day. Within minutes, city police had shut eastbound traffic on Highway 92 to allow fire trucks to get there before onlookers. San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies interviewed eyewitnesses and helped with logistics from the very beginning.

Among the first to respond was a Coastside Fire Protection District unit that had just pulled the driver of a van from an embankment farther up Highway 92. Volunteer crews from La Honda arrived quickly, as did firefighters from Pacifica and San Mateo. The Woodside Fire Protection District sent a water tanker, which staged and awaited further instruction. Bulldozers were trucked in to clear brush and create a fire break. The U.S. Forest Service sent a helicopter and P-3 aircraft, capable of delivering 1,600 gallons of retardant jell.

Meanwhile, inmates from a camp in Ben Lomond trudged up the hill and into harm’s way, tools in hand, determined to create several feet of bare earth between fire and fuel. There were even rangers from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District on hand, just in case their expertise was needed.

Coordinating it all were experienced leaders from CalFire, the state’s overstretched, underappreciated band of brothers.

If you think government can do nothing right, then reconsider. The mutual aid agreements that bring together firefighters from a dozen public agencies, all with a single purpose, testify to what government can do right. And the men and women who put on the turnout gear and walk into the fire are all the evidence we need that heroes really do exist.

— Clay Lambert