I was searching online to see
what was still available to be seen from what was posted about the events of 10 years ago today!
I know that
for it's time this event was of an incredible magnitude, the first time the
entire population of the San Bernardino mountains was ordered evacuated, but even this fire
event has since been eclipsed buy more recent, and increasingly worse, events
due to the continuing drought conditions in Southern California.
Back in 2003 I was a shift Supervisor Lieutenant in San
Bernardino County Animal Control. And Stacy was working in the Field as an Animal Control Officer. Our daughter Laura, again in the Animal Control field now in Texas, was at that time working at the County run Animal Shelter in the City of Rancho Cucamonga.
This fire event stretched our department
beyond it's ability to respond to the public concerns. Many, many, residents
were caught off guard by the sudden closure due to the very fast spreading of
the fire because of the Santa Ana winds, and almost as fast evacuations of
mountain communities which forced those owners to leave their pets behind with
no way, and no one, to care for them. A trend over the years was so many people moving to the mountains and willing to make the drive and commute from the mountains to the valley or even to far away places like Los Angeles. With many people "off the mountain" when the fire started and the evacuation orders came out, they were understandably upset when stopped at roadblocks and told they could not go home!
Right from the start the department was
in the job of evacuating pets and farm animals from the communities, starting
in the Crestline and Rancho Cucamonga areas and going from there. Dogs, cats,
birds, fish, horses, goats, pigs, and more, were evacuated.
The two animal shelters the County ran, Devore and Rancho
Cucamonga, as well as all other area shelters were quickly overflowing with
pets. I remember quite a few horse owners from the mountains that had the money,
had their horses taken to stables out near the Corona area quite a distance from those mountains.
The main human evacuation center was set up in hangers at
the old Norton AFB (San Bernardino International) and an off site animal shelter
was set up at another hanger because so many mountain residents that were able to actually get
their pets when evacuating were shocked to find on their arrival that the Red
Cross center did not allow them to keep their dogs and cats with them while under care
of the Red Cross, a liability issue was the reason given.
A livestock holding area was set up at the
Devore Rodeo grounds that Stacy was in charge of running and several large animals from the Big Bear Zoo, like their Buffalo, were taken
there along with dozens of horses, many the backyard type that were not
socialized to be thrown in with other horses as well as a large heard of goats
from the evacuated part of the Devore area.
I took some video when I was in the Moonridge area of Big
Bear with our crews evacuating peoples animals. It was another so very surreal
scene from the fires to be driving around in an almost completely deserted
community.
A decade ago this date, 10/29, was on a Wednesday and a week
into the event. By this time most all employees had been working basically non
stop with all overtime approved by the County as it was to be repaid by the
state for the disaster. In retrospect Stacy and I had asked ourselves why we hadn't just taken our own 5th wheel down to Devore and slept in it? It would have been a lot easier than it was trying to get home from the valley with all the activity going on due to the fire.
The job by this time was more towards recovery of
peoples animals as many were feared dead due to lack of care and food and water
since the power to most residences had been off for days. People were calling
in giving approval for the department to gain entry "with as little damage
as possible" to the callers house to get their pets if still alive or remove
them if they'd died.
The Humane Society of the United States as well as
representatives from Animal Control Agencies from as far away as Florida had
arrived to help with this recovery and teams were sent to the increasingly
growing list of homes owners wanted checked. I do recall that while most pets
were found alive, there were a few that had died from no power or food/water or
heat with the cold temps and no one there to keep the house warm. The only call
that sticks out in my mind was the two people from our department that
accidentally broke the front door of a house when going after the pets there.
They tried to place it back as best as they could but it had been literally
broken off the hinges. Days later when the owners were finally able to return
to their home, and they were lucky to have a home to return to, they found that
a bear had gotten into their house tearing up the place since the door wasn't
secure.
The main 'Fire Camp' at Devore was a sight to see. A tent
city with I remember being told was over 4,000 firefighters camping in shifts
all over the area that had been the US festival in the 1980s. Many of us ate some meals at the Fire Camp, I remember good food from the forest service, I remember great food from the Sheriff Department's mobile food truck!
I attended many of the 12 hour apart, 6 am and then 6 pm,
fire update briefings at the Incident Command Post to report any changes back to my supervisors. The
biggest thing I remember being told at several of these updates by the 29th was
that it had been accepted that the fire crews would NOT be able to contain the
fire.
If the weather hadn't finally changed, the winds died down
and it rained with the humidity going up, they could not have stopped it and
felt it would have gone all across the mountains to burn out after passing
through the Big Bear area.
The state had sent up a fleet of enormous blade caterpillars
to cut fire breaks. But with the winds the breaks were ineffective at slowing
the progress. It was going to be a fire that could not be put out, very similar
to the just contained a few days ago, Yosemite fire that had started in the
summer. But the rains came or it would have gone on for a lot longer with much
more devastation in the mountains.
And lastly in this recollection, I had been to Emergency
Response Planning committee meetings that were held several months before this all
happened in the Lake Arrowhead area.
The scenario that had been deemed the most plausible cause of an
event like this one, and the one that had been planned out to the extent of
training the evacuation routes and ways of evacuating places like all the summer camps
facilities was this; 'a homeowner in the Lake Arrowhead area, in an attempt to
remove a tree on his property that like so many others was dead from the Bark
Beetle. This owner, not really prepared to take on a task like this without
help, still goes to cut down the dead tree with his chainsaw. As it falls dead
limbs fall on power lines going to his or a neighbors home arcing and catching
fire. The fire very quickly spreads as the tree is tinder dry with numerous
other dead trees and with dry shrubs all around as the owner had not cleared
away the recommended amount', and while not entirely out of the scenario, the
winds that were the main mover of the fire, were not projected to be at the
magnitude they turned out to be, just the usual afternoon winds as the valley
tries to equalize the pressure with the High Desert as it does daily.
In the
scenario, the winds still push the fire along but at a rate that still gives
emergency response time to evacuate the areas away from this central point in
the mountains.
But the real fire started by an arsonist below Crestline and
spread upward and Eastward incredibly fast with the gale force winds that had
been blowing for several days prior to the start.
Yes, it was quite an event. One of those "defining events" for many in our department. I remember the "California
Golden Pine" that was the name given to the thousands of dead trees in the
forest due to the beetle and drought. I remember at the time the estimate was around 80% of the forest was dead from drought and beetle infestation. Even overshadowed by the worse of more
recent years, it still has many memories to so many people.
Ah the memories!
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