In the Bay Area, where dozens of large cargo ships, oil tankers, cruise ships and other vessels sail in and out of San Francisco Bay every week, the calamity raised the question: Could it happen here?

Ships have occasionally hit several of the eight major bridges that cross San Francisco Bay over the decades. But for a variety of reasons, the chances of a bridge collapsing are very low, experts said Tuesday.

“It would be ridiculous to say it could never happen here,” said Scott Humphrey, chairman of the San Francisco Bay Harbor Safety Committee, a state organization of industry, government, and nonprofit maritime organizations that meets monthly to improve shipping safety. “But it’s extremely unlikely that anything of that magnitude could happen here.”

All of the major bridges that cross San Francisco Bay, including the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, have concrete buffers, called fenders, that surround the columns supporting the bridge near the water line.

If a large ship loses power or steering and hits one, it glances off, said Bart Ney, a spokesman for Caltrans, which owns most of the bridges spanning the bay.

“The bridges are designed for it,” he said. “The strategy is that if you get a vessel that is going to collide with the bridge, you want to keep it from touching the bridge. All of our bridges have a robust fender system that are designed to absorb energy. The bridge does more damage to the ship than the ship does to the bridge.”

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore did not have the same fender system, he said.

Further, the Bay Area is known for earthquakes. All of the major bridges across San Francisco Bay have undergone an extensive earthquake retrofits in the past 20 years, Ney said. They have been fitted with seismic dampening systems — joints that allow bridges to flex and move in earthquakes, along with huge hinges, and other features that not only help them survive earthquakes but avoid collapse in ship collisions, he said.

Khalid Mosalam, a professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley, watched the video Tuesday of the Baltimore bridge collapse frame-by-frame.

“It’s a very classical mode of failure. It was breathtaking,” he said. “You study these things and learn about them and teach them to students, but you rarely see it happen, which is good thing.”

Many of California’s bridges are more resilient than bridges in other parts of the world, he added.

“Because of earthquake designs, the columns in West Coast bridges tend to be a lot stronger, a lot bigger,” he said. “If an accident like this happened here, I doubt it would lead to destruction like we saw in the video.”

But accidents do happen.

Last year, 2,874 large ships arrived and departed San Francisco Bay, sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge carrying everything from oil from Alaska to steel shipping containers full of electronics and clothes, according to the Marine Exchange of the San Francisco Bay Region, an organization that tracks ship movements. Expert harbor pilots board the ships and help them navigate when they are entering and leaving the Bay.

On Nov. 7, 2007, the 901-foot Cosco Busan, a cargo ship headed from Oakland to South Korea, sideswiped a Bay Bridge support column protected by a fender in dense morning fog.

The incident ripped a 211-foot-long gash in the ship and dumped 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay. No people were injured or killed, but the spill oiled 69 miles of shore. Roughly 6,800 birds were killed.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the ship’s pilot, John Cota, of Petaluma, had a “degraded cognitive performance from his use of impairing prescription medications.” Cota, the investigation concluded, had a history of alcohol abuse and prescriptions for at least nine medications for pain, depression and sleep disorders.

Other causes of the Cosco Busan incident included a lack of communication between Cota and the ship’s Chinese captain; inadequate crew training; and a failure by the Coast Guard to warn Cota by radio that he was heading for the bridge.

The bridge fender suffered only minor damage. The Bay Bridge itself was not damaged.

The Cosco Busan’s owner, Regal Stone Ltd., and its operator, Fleet Management Ltd., both of Hong Kong, paid $44 million to settle the civil case with state prosecutors.

Not long afterward, in 2013, another ship, the Overseas Reymar, a 748-foot-long oil tanker, struck the Bay Bridge in heavy fog. A state investigation found that the pilot, Capt. Guy Kleess of San Francisco, made a risky last-minute change in course and “lost awareness of what was happening around him.”

The oil tanker was empty, having offloaded its cargo at a refinery in Martinez the night before. No oil was spilled.

The accident caused $1.4 million in damage to the fender but did not structurally damage the bridge, Caltrans reported. The ship sustained $220,000 in damage.

After the incident, the harbor safety committee passed guidelines recommending large ships not sail under the Bay Bridge in heavy fog.

There are still some areas of concern. State law requires oil tankers to have tug boat escorts so they can be pushed away from danger if they lose power or steering. But tug boat escorts are not required for cargo ships moving in and out of San Francisco Bay. In 2004, following a series of Mercury News stories exposing the risk, state lawmakers passed a bill to require tug escorts for chemical tanker ships in San Francisco Bay, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill after the shipping industry raised cost concerns.

Early reports indicate that the ship in Baltimore reported it had lost power before colliding with the bridge. In April 2022, the Wan Hai 176, a 564-foot container ship, lost engine power and drifted seven miles off the coast of Point Reyes with 21 people aboard. It was intercepted by tug boats and towed into San Francisco Bay without incident. The Singapore-flagged vessel had more than 700 containers on board and 39,000 gallons of fuel.

“We have seen accidents in the Bay Area involving large ships in the past,” said Ben Eichenberg, an attorney with Baykeeper, an environmental group. “If a ship loses power, taking out a bridge isn’t the only disaster that can happen. It can run aground. It can leak oil. This Maryland accident should get us to review all of our safety procedures. There is going to be some soul searching here.”

Cal Fire-Butte County Captain and Public Information Officer Dan Collins said the call came in at 10:39 a.m. Monday and firefighters responded and determined that the person had died after falling to the ground. The identity of the person has not been released to the public.

Collins said the Oroville Police Department took over the investigation.

More information will be reported on this incident as it is known.

“They’re pretty ideologically apart,” said Bipartisan Policy Center co-director Jonathan Perman about LaMalfa and Tokuda. “But what they do have in common, somewhat sadly, is that they both in their districts experienced deadly fires.”

Tokuda is the representative of Lahaina, the Maui city that experienced the worst U.S. fire in over 100 years, which killed 101 people. LaMalfa is the representative of Paradise, where over five years ago the Camp Fire devastated Butte County killing 85 people and displacing thousands.

LaMalfa will visit Lahaina next week to learn about the recovery efforts there.

The two representatives, of opposite political parties, are “united by fire,” Tokuda said.

The visits are part of the American Congressional Exchange Program hosted through the Bipartisan Policy Center. These organizations work together to bring members of the U.S. Congress from different political parties together to learn from each other.

The following people were also in attendance at the Saturday meeting: Paradise Town Council member Steve Crowder; Katie Simmons, Paradise Disaster Recovery director; Ron Lassonde, Paradise mayor; and Jennifer Gray Thompson, founder and CEO of After the Fire USA.

Crowder began the meeting by providing context on the Camp Fire and drawing parallels between Lahaina and Paradise.

“Our hearts go out to your community because we know how tough it is,” Crowder said.

At the meeting, Paradise Recovery and Economic Development Director Colette Curtis, gave a presentation on Paradise and the recovery efforts that have been made in the past five years.

Tokuda asked questions and took notes during the presentation.

Part of Curtis’ presentation focused on the Building Resilience Center, which Curtis said is a “one stop shop” for people who are rebuilding. At the center, people can get things like building permits and  help planning their rebuilding efforts.

“I think it’s an outstanding thing that the city did that here,” Tokuda said about the Building Resilience Center. “We need to do something like that back at home.”

Another big topic at the meeting was insurance rates going up after the fire.

Lassonde said there is “… example after example of the insurance slowing down or inhibiting people from repopulating Paradise.”

In 2023, State Farm stopped offering new policies in the California.

LaMalfa said State Farm pulling out of California is “devastating.”

Also of interest to Tokuda, are problems that policy making and disaster relief programs can’t necessarily fix.

“The other thing I would love to talk to some folks about is how they dealt with things we can’t rebuild, the emotional part,” Tokuda said. “We have so much emotional trauma that’s taken place, so much hurt, fear … how can people feel safe?”

After the meeting Tokuda and LaMalfa went on a tour of Paradise to see the rebuilding efforts in Paradise.

LaMalfa will leave for Maui on Monday for a visit similar to Tokuda’s.

The results, released Tuesday, were contained in the latest energy utilities study produced by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The survey reported results for 27 U.S. utilities listed by name.

Oakland-based PG&E was ranked in a multi-way tie for 20th place out of 27 U.S. utilities in the 2024 survey.

“If PG&E cared about customer rankings, it would spend less money on public relations and slick television commercials, and more on live persons to answer the phone when customers call,” Mark Toney, executive director with The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, said in comments emailed to this news organization. “If PG&E wanted a better reputation, it would stop overspending on excessive tree removal, and more on connecting new electrical service to affordable housing developments, schools and hospitals that have been on a waiting list for months.”

While the ranking in 2024 was low, PG&E’s placement on the latest list topped its ranking as No. 27 in the 2023 survey.

“The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows a 14% gain for PG&E, as well as improvements in service reliability and power restoration, where we exceed the industry,” PG&E stated in comments a company spokesperson emailed to this news organization.

The survey measured customer satisfaction using 10 benchmarks.

The categories include the ability to provide reliable electricity service, quality of the mobile app, the reliability of the mobile app, ease of understanding the monthly bill, website satisfaction, ability to restore electric service after an outage, courtesy and helpfulness of company staffers, information about energy saving ideas, efforts to support green programs and efforts to support the local community.

“We are committed to improving our customers’ service and have a variety of energy and money-saving tools in place to help them find the best rate plan for their household or business, utilize free and low-cost resources to help manage monthly bills, and offer expanded financial assistance programs to support income-eligible customers,” PG&E stated in its emailed comments.

PG&E ranked poorly, however, compared to some of the other major utility providers in California.

Sempra, owner of San Diego Gas & Electric, was ranked 12th; the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was ranked 18th; PG&E was ranked 20th; Edison International, owner of Southern California Edison, was ranked No. 25.

PG&E has come under criticism in the wake of a decade of disasters that included a fatal gas explosion in 2010 that destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood, a string of fatal infernos that torched vast swaths of land in Northern California and intentional power outages to reduce the chances of wildfires.

More recently, PG&E’s skyrocketing electricity costs have shoved monthly utility bills higher, a financial jolt that has infuriated a growing number of the company’s customers.

Starting in early January, PG&E monthly bills averaged roughly $294.50 a month for the typical residential customer who receives combined electricity and gas services, according to estimates provided by the company to this news organization.

That combined bill was 22.3% higher than the average monthly charges that went into effect the year before, at the start of January 2023.

A recent decision by the state Public Utilities Commission, which oversees PG&E, also set the stage for PG&E to raise monthly bills yet again on an interim basis, a decision that will begin to have an impact on bills in April or May.

Those increases come as PG&E profits zoomed higher in 2023, buoyed by surging electricity and natural gas revenues.

In February, PG&E reported 2023 profits totaling $2.24 billion, an increase of 24.6% from 2022. PG&E further delighted its shareholders by predicting investors can anticipate even better earnings in 2024.

“If PG&E wanted to boost customer confidence, it would prioritize delivering the cleanest, safest and most reliable service at the most cost-efficient manner, instead of prioritizing shareholder profits,” Toney said.

This will include two meetings with the committee meeting being held from 1-4 p.m. Wednesday and the public meeting to be held after from 5:30-7 p.m., both at the Butte County Board of Supervisors Chambers located at 25 County Center Drive, Suite 205 in Oroville.

According to a press release issued Monday by the Butte County Economic and Community Development Department, representatives from five incorporated local communities along with representatives from the county and special districts will come together to form long-term plans for potential disasters and their aftermath.

” During the meetings, we will be reviewing the risk assessment data developed to date and are looking for your feedback in refining and adding to the in-process risk assessment,” the release said. “We encourage attendance and participation from the general public at either of our upcoming meetings; please select the time that works best for you.”

A press release issued Thursday by the Chico Police Department said it, as well as the Chico State University Police Department, are still investigating the deadly crash and trying to find Cervantes-Ayala, 24.

According to the release, the Cervantes-Ayala currently has an arrest warrant for gross vehicular manslaughter as well as a warrant for hit and run that caused great bodily injury.

On March 1, a car with three people inside crashed into a house next to the Museum of Northern California Art on The Esplanade in Chico. The passengers were removed from the car, one by a bystander, and the driver allegedly ran away from the scene. One person on the bottom floor of the house was able to safely leave the building but an 87-year-old woman on the second floor died in the hospital after the crash and fire.

Those with information regarding Cervantes-Ayala’s location are being asked by the departments to call 530-897-5820 and use case number 24-001433.

“We heard a screech and loud crash and decided to run towards it,” Wynter said. “We saw a car had crashed into a house and both were starting to catch fire. There were cops present immediately but they were not approaching the house or vehicle.”

Lopez quickly rushed to the building to help.

“Flames were spreading from the vehicle to the building at this time,” Lopez said. “I began pounding on all the doors and windows announcing the fire. Alexandra simultaneously did the same at the neighboring house.”

Both noticed a police officer near the vehicle attempting to free the passengers from the vehicle.

“(The officer) retreated saying he needed a fire extinguisher in order to get her out. (The) fire department was not on the scene at this time. That is when I decided to remove her from the vehicle myself. I reached into the burning car and hooked my arms under both of her armpits. As I pulled her out the flames flared burning the side of my face and ear.”

After a pursuit, a vehicle crashed into a home on The Esplanade in Chico early Friday morning resulting in a house fire that killed an 87-year-old woman.

The woman was identified as Barbara Ferris. She was taken to Enloe Health where she died of her injuries.

According to a press release issued Friday by the Chico State University Police Department, at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, an officer with the department was doing rounds at the 400 block of Warner Street when a 2018 Ford Mustang allegedly drove by in an unsafe manner at high speed, committing traffic violations along the way.

The officer tried to stop the vehicle but it continued on, leading to a pursuit northbound on Warner Street before turning onto West Sacramento Avenue. The release noted that that chase went on for about one minute and covered three-quarters of a mile before the Ford crossed The Esplanade, crashed into the house and caught fire.

The release said the driver of the Ford got out of the car and ran away, leaving two passengers trapped inside the car as it burned. Officers and bystanders were able to get both passengers out of the car and they were taken to the hospital and treated. Injuries to the passengers ranged from minor to serious.

Two people were in the house at the time with one able to get out. The other, Ferris, was “unresponsive” when found.

Lopez and Wynter said they wanted to try to free Ferris as well but were told to stand down by an officer at the scene.

“Anthony was still on the property and was looking for a way to rescue the person on the second story of the engulfed house,” Wynter said. “He was stopped by an officer who said they would have to remove him. The fire department had just arrived and there was an officer present with me and the injured lady.”

A man believed to be the driver was eventually detained by law enforcement officers, though the release did not provide a name for the suspect citing that it is “being withheld while the investigation continues.”

“This investigation is ongoing and will be a cooperative effort with our public safety partners in the region,” the release said. “Per (University Police Department) policy, the department will conduct an administrative review of tactics and procedures related to the pursuit.”

Wynter said she was thankful that they were at the scene and able to help.

“I have profound reverence for Anthony. Without hesitation, he ran into a fire to do what he felt was right,” Wynter said. “I truly believe he saved that young lady’s life. We send our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased. We hope the victims are able to heal from such a traumatic event.”

Kyle Mathisen, 45, of Yuba City was hit on Highway 99 southbound at The Esplanade around 11:17 p.m. He was hit by the driver of a 2017 Peterbilt semitrailer driven by Eliasar Seadler, 49, of Oroville, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Mathisen was fatally injured and died in the roadway. Both lanes were blocked after the crash.

According to the CHP’s Chico office, Eliasar Seadler, 49, of Oroville was driving his semitrailer when he collided with Mathisen. Seadler drove to the right shoulder and came to a stop.

Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in this collision, the CHP said. The cause of the collision is still under investigation.

Seadler did not sustain any injuries, according to CHP Sgt. Eli Thompson.

The accident happened at 11:17 p.m. on 99 southbound at The Esplanade, according to the release. Both lanes were blocked after the accident.

The name of the person hit by the truck has not been released.

According to the CHP’s Chico office, Eliasar Seadler, 49, of Oroville was driving his truck when he collided with the pedestrian. Seadler drove the truck to the right shoulder and came to a stop.

The pedestrian sustained fatal injuries and remained in the roadway. Alcohol does not appear to be a factor in this collision, the CHP said. The cause of the collision is still under investigation.

Identification of the deceased is still pending from the coroner, according to the release.

The driver did not sustain any injuries, according to CHP Sgt. Eli Thompson.

In December 2007, he saw a convoy of vehicles race up the ridge to look for a family lost in the forest. The helicopter rescue of Frederick Dominguez and his three children after three days in the snow became international news; over the course of the search, Schmidt found himself thinking, “Man, this is right in my backyard, and I probably have some skills that could help them.”

Now he’s trained in helicopter extractions — one of his primary roles with Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SAR), a team of 50 volunteers who provide life-saving aid to people in distress.

SAR answered 130 calls last year, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The team trains 15 days a month to stay sharp on the various skills that may come into play on any given rescue. Members also perform maintenance on vehicles and equipment.

The compensation? Nothing financial. Despite the depth of the commitment and risk of injury, SAR members don’t even get a stipend like the $15 a day for jury duty.

“But (jurors) don’t get to have nearly as much fun,” Schmidt chuckled.

“That’s true,” said Christina Skaggs, SAR’s board president, who joined the team soon after her husband, Trevor. “We work hard, but also are having fun. We get to see parts of the county that I never would have seen before, and we get to do some pretty cool stuff.”

Take Schmidt’s role as a helicopter rescue tech. As Skaggs describes it, “he gets to dangle beneath a helicopter and help people. That’s the life; I don’t think you could pay to do that.”

Skaggs incorporates her medical background as a physicians assistant along with skills she’s learned on the team — training coordinated by Trevor, a software engineer by profession who also lends his expertise to the I.T. side of the operation.

Sheriff Kory Honea supports and salutes every member’s service.

“The Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team is made up of all volunteers,” he said “They are a highly trained and skilled group of people who give their own time to help others. They respond on average to two to three calls per week. They are an invaluable resource to the Sheriff’s Office and an invaluable asset for our community.”

HQ quest

Any time of the day or night, on any day, an alert from Honea can rally SAR to its headquarters in southeast Chico. They’ll muster personnel and equipment to head out as quickly as possible — sometimes even beyond the county line to provide assistance to other agencies.

Speed is relative given the constraints of the facility. It’s located on the edge of the Mendocino National Forest Genetic Resource Center; SAR leases the land but cannot expand. The equipment bay demands a real-life version of Tetris to fit vehicles — and even then, some must remain outdoors.

“We’re just hamstrung here at this location,” Schmidt said.

The gate is manual with locks. SAR hoped to upgrade to automatic but couldn’t get permission to trench for the power lines and sensors.

“Trying to open a combination lock at 2 in the morning when it’s raining,” Schmidt began — “In the dark,” Skaggs injected — “it’s not easy.”

Before heading out, someone must stop to shut and secure the gate.

Every minute counts. Last year, for instance, SAR reached a woman clinging to a tree as stormwater rushed toward Ord Ferry Road by River Road. “If we’d have been five minutes later,” Skaggs said, “who knows what would have happened?”

So, SAR is searching for a new home. They’re in the midst of a $1.5 million fundraising campaign, Operation Rescue Ready, to build a facility on new land — preferably in the vicinity of the current HQ, which Skaggs said is “close to where most of our members live” and, thus, reduces response time.

The estimated timeline is four to five years. (Visit buttesar.org/rescue-ready for more details.)

Meanwhile, SAR continues to recruit new members. The group welcomes participants at the general meeting the second Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. at the Lt. Larry Estes Training Center, located at 3965 Morrow Ln.

Neither Schmidt nor Skaggs came in with rescue backgrounds — “I was a Boy Scout many years ago,” Schmidt quipped. “Everything else has been taught through the courses being a member here.” He described members as “white collar, blue collar, everything in between.”

The common denominator: shared dedication to the community. The group’s motto,  “So that others may live,” guides the mission.

“When you go out and find somebody who’s in a really bad spot and you’re able help them,” Schmidt said, “that’s a high that you’ll never get from a chemical means.”