California Firestorm 2003

Letter from the Editor

On Oct 26-31, through either arson or accident, a number of extremely devastating wildfires swept through Southern California, causing a tragic loss of some 20 lives, over 2,000 homes, nearly a half million acres of open wilderness area and our air-quality across the southland jumped to hazardous levels forcing closure of a number of schools and activities.

What was really shocking was how unprepared were some communities faced by this enormous crisis. To prevent a repeat of this disaster, I would recommend the following action by our elected officials. Furthermore journalists in the public media should be actively involved in researching and reporting the progress towards resolution of these problems.

1) Independent Board of Inquiry.
An independent board should review the circumstances surrounding each of the fire incidents to determine what factors played the greatest role in compounding the tragedy. We need to cut through the current media finger pointing sound bites of the various politicians and emergency service personnel to get to the root cause of the problem.

2) County Fire Agency.
Each county needs a well organized agency to coordinate major wildland fire incidents. A particularly shocking example is that of San Diego County, which has no such agency and also none of its own firefighting aircraft. It was totally at the mercy of allocations from state and federal resources.

3) Reserve Volunteer Force.
Each county should have a certified reserve force of personnel and equipment that could be called on in six hours notice to help in a major incident. It was sad to hear the accounts of volunteers and their equipment being turned away because they were “not certified” and instead we waited over 24 hours for the arrival of equipment and personnel from out-of-state. This volunteer force could include not just personnel, but also civilian equipment such as aircraft, water tankers bulldozers and maybe even pickup trucks with hoses. The county agency might be the best unit to supervise this force. Recently, various local police departments have had great success with organizing volunteer forces to supplement the regular force.

4) Major Firebreak Trails.
Again the case of the big Cedar Fire in San Diego, the fire’s progress went totally unchecked until it came to the major natural firebreak of Highways I-15 and I-8. The county (or city) should maintain a wide firebreak along portions of urban areas that are at high risk to a Santa Ana fueled wildfire.

5) Funding.
It is interesting to note that during the last several dozen years, taxpayers were reluctant to pay for needed fire-safety funding ballot measures fearing runaway government spending. Our elected officials need to reevaluate their approach to government fiscal policy. Some of the items suggested above could help ease the financial burden on various government agencies.

Additionally, the county might consider adding a special tax levy on homes in high-risk burn areas to help cover these costs. Special permit funding requirements could also be levied toward new home developers.

Bryce Hall, Oceanside CA

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