The folks who live on Mount Hamilton do 21st-century science in a 19th-century setting, 4,368 feet above and 19 corkscrew miles by road from the Santa Clara Valley.
And like isolated villagers everywhere, the workers at James Lick Observatory tend to be self-reliant.
When a gift shop in the original telescope building caught fire in 1999, ''it was our guys on the spot that I think really saved that historic building,'' said Remington Stone, the observatory's director.
''Our guys'' were the Lick volunteer fire brigade, made up mostly of observatory workers. But if the same fire broke out today, they could do nothing about it.
''OSHA said we'd be fined if we even touched the fire engine,'' fumed telescope operator Bernie Walp last week as he watched the temperature climb and the humidity fall on the grassy slopes of the mountain. ''I just think it's a terrific embarrassment to the university,'' he said.
That would be the University of California-Santa Cruz, which runs the observatory. Jeff Trapp, the assistant UCSC fire chief, looked at the danger vs. the expense of hiring, training and outfitting firefighters and said, ''We've been working for about a year trying to come up with a solution for up there, and it's a real tough issue.''
The fire brigade ''was one of those things that had been put into place decades ago,'' said Trapp. ''It'd been there forever, out of sight, out of mind. Just kind of continued doing what they were doing -- until somebody made it an issue. Then you have to deal with it.''
Stone said observatory support staff, who were contractually required to participate in the brigade, complained about the long hours it took.
That brought in the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which since January 2004 has insisted that volunteer firefighters must have the same training and equipment as paid firefighters.
''The briefing by the OSHA investigator was very explicit,'' said Stone: ''If we fight fires, we're liable for major fines.''
So the brigade has been renamed the Mount Hamilton Safety Brigade. It can assist firefighters and respond to medical emergencies -- always a key function for its members. It can keep an eye out for fires -- especially important in a high-brush summer after a wet winter, like this one, said the mountain's resident police officer, Mark McDonald. But it can't fight them.
Last summer, lightning ignited fires elsewhere in the Diablo Range but spared Mount Hamilton. What would happen this year if a fire broke out?
''We're going to contact the Department of Forestry,'' said McDonald. ''I act as the eyes and ears until they show up. If it's a wildland fire, we call in resources. If it's a structure fire, we start evacuating.''
McDonald estimated that it's a 15-minute drive to the summit from CDF's Smith Creek station on Mount Hamilton Road, and about 45 minutes from the Sweetwater station on the eastern side of the mountain. CDF has rarely been called to the summit for a structure fire, ''but grass, we've had excellent response,'' said McDonald. ''They'll get air outfits right away to us.''
Stone said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has given the observatory a $500,000 grant to hire a professional forestry firm to map wind currents and examine 25 areas around the summit to see what needs to be cut.
The idea, he said, is to ''cut out enough of the vegetation to stop a fast-rushing fire. We don't have to denude the mountain.'' It's a 20-year program and the university has committed to paying for the work each year, Stone said.
''This time next year, I think we'll be in pretty good shape,'' he said. ''But that doesn't help us this year.''
