Special to The BRAD BLOG by Miriam Raftery from San Diego, CA
“It’s like Armageddon,†Jill Michaels said, after watching her home burn to the ground in the Harris fire. In the early hours of the worst fire in California history, the Michaels family received no evacuation warning and found exit routes blocked, forcing them to turn back to their home in Potrero. Now, the Michaels are among half a million evacuees who have fled four raging wildfires, the worst fire disaster in California history. Worse even than the 2003 Cedar fire, which until now held that shameful record.
San Diego County now has more refugees than New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. While reported loss of life thus far remains low, hundreds of thousands of acres have been scorched and countless people will soon return home–only to find themselves homeless.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and local officials have made media appearances claiming credit for swiftly responding to the disaster. “There is much more equipment available, more manpower is available, quicker action,†Schwarzenegger said, according to the Associated Press.
What the Governor failed to mention is that he vetoed four bills that would have increased staffing and fire resources after the Cedar Fire, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. A fifth bill, signed by Schwarzenegger, requires local governments to first submit safety plans to the California Department of Forestry and will not take effect until 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported in a May 20, 2007 article titled “Fire danger acute as 2003 lessons fade.†That article has since disappeared off the newspaper’s website, but a copy is here.
The same story cited Dallas Jones, former director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and current official with California Professional Firefighters union. Jones damned Schwarzenegger for failing to provide additional firetrucks. “How many years are we since the ’03 fire siege?†he asked, “and so far, nothing.â€
Other unfulfilled recommendations made to Schwarzenegger by his Blue Ribbon Fire Commission include replacement of aging fire helicopters, increasing staffing to assure four person crews on each state fire engine sent to major wildfires, and nighttime air drops.
A national contract fleet of heavy air tankers has fallen from 41 to 16 in the last five years, with aging aircraft deemed unsafe and grounded. The state firefighting fleet has not replaced two air tankers that crashed, the L.A. Times reported.
CNN reports that only 1,500 National Guard have been sent to assist Californians during the current wildfire crisis—less than 1/10 of the state’s 20,000 National Guard members. Clearly having the bulk of our National Guards forces deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan have hindered emergency response here at home.
Some improvements have been made since the Cedar Fire, including coordination with the military to help combat fires, but even those are inadequate. Four Marine helicopters at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station are equipped with buckets to fight San Diego’s fires—but remain grounded because Cal Fire officials insist the choppers can’t fly without state fire crew spotters on board – and there are none available. Not even Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), former chair of the House Armed Service Committee has yet been able to resolve this bureaucratic SNAFU.
Six national Guard C 130 retardant-dropping airplanes were winging their way to San Diego yesterday – but why weren’t such aircraft deployed two days earlier, when it was clear that fires were burning out of control with what fire officials termed a “perfect storm†for disaster: hot weather, the driest conditions in years, and gale-force Santa Ana winds?
Both the Harris and Witch fires now devastating San Diego began in Supervisor Dianne Jacob’s district—the same area where the 2003 Cedar fire started.
So what did Jacob have to say to the public and the press on Monday, one day after two major fires continued burning unchecked through her constituents’ communities?
“There’s no stopping this fire, so the best we can do is get out of the way,†Jacob announced.
But others contend the County Supervisors must shoulder a heavy share of blame. Two wildfire survivors, Mark Hanson and Rudy Reyes, have announced plans to run for Supervisor, citing fire safety as a key issue. Ironically, Reyes, who was burned over 60% of his body in the Cedar Fire, announced his plan to run against Supervisor Dianne Jacob on the morning the Harris Fire began, before the vast scope of the blaze was yet known.
Critics contend that the Board has failed to adequately improve fire protection manpower and equipment, while allowing rampant development in fire-prone areas. The County also recently approved a controversial shelter-in-place policy, allowing developers to build projects in back country communities, even box canyons, without having to provide secondary access routes for escape in case of fire, creating potential death traps if a fire exceeds the ability of firefighters to control it. Jacob has called for consolidation of rural fire districts under County leadership, but some worry that closing rural volunteer fighting stations could leave rural areas unprotected if future budget cuts pare down County firefighting forces.
Some improvements were made after the Cedar Fire, including adding some helicopters, improving communications, and utilizing a reverse 911 warning system that worked well in many areas. However the County’s efforts have clearly proven woefully inadequate to prevent yet another horrific fire disaster.
“Studies show that we need a regional airport with tankers and helicopters that have a massive capacity to respond,†Hanson, candidate for Supervisor, said shortly before the current fires broke out. “The Supervisors haven’t done that…We need a regional air force with night helicopters and faster access to a fleet of C130 planes, that’s now in Riverside. Then we could douse fires before they get up and going.â€
Supervisors and the State have also drawn criticism for allowing closure of honor camps in San Diego County’s back country, where prisoners once cut firebreaks to prevent wildfires from spreading out of control. Hanson, who lost his home in the Cedar Fire, said it took CDF firefighters six hours to cut through an overgrown firebreak the night the Cedar Fire began. “One crew with shovels could have annihilated it anytime within the first two hours,†he said, “but nobody could get to it.â€
Supervisor Dianne Jacob has recently expressed interest in returning to use of prisoner programs to clear brush. But her concern is too little, too late.
A former honor camp prisoner, who asked that his name not be published, recalled the importance of firebreaks in halting fires. “When a fire broke out, our first line of defense was the firebreaks that we cut. The whole back country would be checker-boarded with firebreaks on those ridges. We would use them as a trail for our trucks and take a crew out to the boonies…We would contain the fire by making that firebreak the first line of defense. . . I was never in a fire that we couldn’t control, because you could always fall back to the next firebreak.â€
Asked why he thought officials had failed to reopen the honor camps even after the 2003 Cedar Fire, the former prisoner recalled, “It’s expensive to cut those, and labor intensive. I guess it’s cheaper to lock people up in cages than maintain all those camps,†he added, noting that prisoners were paid 70 cents a day to cut firebreaks or $1.50 an hour when a fire was burning. “Doing away with this program has obviously been a disaster…You have to have a plan and work it year around,†he said in a prophetic interview held before the current fires began. “We were doing something that was worthwhile, even lifesaving.â€
ED NOTE: The original headline for this article began with “Worse Than Katrina.” While Miriam Raftery, the San Diego resident who wrote and originally headlined the story, was referring to the number of evacuees as she points out in the article, the comparison to Hurricane Katrina, by including that phrase in the in the headline, (currently) overstates the issue as we see it. It also understates the devastation of Katrina. For those reasons, we’ve now removed the “Worse Than Katrina” part of the headline in the above article. Raftery, who is likely out reporting on the story, was unavailable, so we were unable to consult her for comment before making the change.
No more money (or National Guard) for infrastructure (due to wars), yet another infringement on our rights by the gov’t. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov’t.
Support Dr. Ron Paul and save this great nation.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Geez, this is a very different picture than what was painted on the ABC news show 20/20 last evening. Charles Gibson said that all was well with the evacuees and that Chertoff was doing everything right this time. Now, go figure! Are we being lied to by the Corpo-Media hacks? Imagine my shock (not).
I’m saddened to hear all this. The t.v. stories seemed much more upbeat. But, how can we be terribly surprised when Republicans are involved. It’s not that they are bad people as a group, though some of their politicians appear to be. It’s that their ‘small government, personal responsibility’ philosophy is simply not good enough.
We need a lot of things fixed (and quickly) specifically because the Republicans have let a lot of things go without resources. It’s the same as their approach to bridge repair in Minnesota and levee repair in New Orleans (Bush had a hand in that himerself).
I know this blog has been mostly non-partisan election system discussion, but I’m here to tell ya we need some rather big bold changes and no Republican will repudiate their philosophy and Hillary Clinton is an incrementalist in the pocket of corporations and Big Money, so your choice devolves to Obama, Edwards or another Dem. I support Edwards who proposes change and across a large range of issues.
Lord help the next Republican state or city which faces a crisis. With friends like the Republicans they don’t need nature against them too.
Another loser.
1 dead and bradflog looking to compare this to the Katrina crimes against humanity
lol brag i mean brad, maybe if there had been coffee with hot breakfasts at the super dome it would have been civilized. Hell maybe civility would have reigned if water had been deliver within the first 5 days.
It is disgusting to compare the two situations.
Besides, nice fudging the facts on Katrina evacuation numbers. as if leaving a fire is the same as trying to SWIM along freeways to flee.
You are the lowest form of media whore brag.
Gosh –
I believe you’re right in your general concerns about the comparison to Katrina. At least as made in the original headline used with this story. The headline has now been amended, along with more details and explanation given in an “ED NOTE” added to the end of the article.
Some people are too young to remember these used to be real civil service jobs that pukes like Reagan and the like in other states pulled off to bust unions, they started using people caught with an ounce of weed and petty thieves that had once a chance to get a civil service job like that to promote this form of chain gang labor.
Real progressive states don’t use prisoners like that. IMO
wow, awfully polite considering. maybe my opinion of you is too harsh.
doubt it.
woof woof bang bang.
🙂
As a Conservative Republican from Southern California, I can say that the real problem in San Diego is TOO MUCH MONEY SPENT ON FIRE-FIGHTING.
San Diego actually has too much fire equipment!
People choosing to live in unsafe areas do not deserve special liberal favors–especially America-haters like so many in SoCal.
Got gasoline?
lol
bush dude,
sometime i cant decide what is worse, that you bush people share the same air as people working hard to provide clean air, or people like bradflog that make liberal activists look like ethically challenged glory seekers instead of truth seekers.
maybe you both are the opposite sides of the same rotten coin.
I like Bush…Just not the ones with the head sticking out of them, too many in the toe tapping congress for me (the hypocrites) 😉
99, #9 promoting illegal acts ?
Flo
That is definitely a possibility, but I don’t know why he wants to throw gasoline on a fire burning down the houses of a hotbed, so to speak, of his fellow * dudes….
I’ll leave it to Brad to decide if that comes under the heading of promoting felonies or exhibiting psychosis.
I’d like to add that, just like the Katrina disaster wiped out the murder problem and the Democratic base problem in NOLA, with a little judicious inaction, these fires will prove a boon for the foreclosure problem ravaging the area’s real estate market. Maybe that’s what he’s thinking.
BushDude said:
The “liberal favors” of the Republican Board of Supervisors in San Diego?! Apparently, you’ve been listening to too much Glen Beck, genius.
Aw, come on, BushDude. You don’t hate America. You’re just misguided and misinformed. Don’t be so hard on yourself, amigo!
BushDude,
San Diego spends less per capita on firefighting then any other major US city. In 2004 after the 2003 fires the citizens of SD voted down an increase to the firefighting budget. You are full of shit (and it probably does not stink in your opinion).
“Arnie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”
In response to some posts here:
The City of San Diego had an initiative on firefighting budgets. But voters in the unincorporated areas of the County, where all 3 of the most devastating blazes have started, were given no voice in the process.
As for the poster who suggested people not be rewarded for building in fire-prone areas, obviously you are not aware of the geographic scope of these losses. Evacuations extended all the way to the ocean in areas seemingly as un-fire prone as Del Mar and Solana Beach!
Would you have all of Southern California be abandoned?
Let’s get real here. While the fires started in the back country, the majority of homes lost were in urban and suburban areas, including the wealthiest neighborhoods in San Diego County. Poor people were also affected – there were trailer parks that burned.
These fires affected ALL San Diegans. To ignore that fact is to simply be out of touch with reality.
It is undeniable that some of the worst devastation from the fires was in wealthy white conservative enclaves where most people vote Republican. The wrath of God punishing them for their evil ways? Unlikely. Just the luck of the draw. Life’s unfair. Most of the time it is unfair to the poor and the rich don’t care. Once in a blue moon it is unfair to the rich. Just a taste of the hellfire in store for them when God finds out what they’ve done to Her world.
Let’s see how this plays out.
What price Photo OP’
‘Mission Accomplished’
You read this and you wonder why fate has given us all these greedy treasonous criminal bastards in political power? They knew/know they were doing the wrong thing and they fcking did it anyway.
As far as eliminating fire breaks.. i just want to beat their fcking heads in. The selfish humans who made these bad decisions to divert monies for their personal shit looking out for themselves instead of millions of Californias, our forests and wild life.
These bastards need to feel the the heat for their poor judgements and biggest loser leadership typical of the gw bushit era. Offering the kiss of death today, Perino espouted some neo-con fascist anti-science pearls of wisdom by explaing that global warming is actually a good thing. These useless anti-wildlife anti-life lying oil barons cheats and their widening path of destruction are the problem.