Cedar Fire

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Cedar Fire
Location	San Diego County
Date	October 25, 2003 17:37 (PDT)
Burned area	280,278 acres (1,134.2 km²)
Ignition source	Signal fire
Land use	Mixed, residential and wildlands
Fatalities	15

Smoke from the fires drift toward Arizona and Nevada after the wind shifted on October 29

Southbound on Interstate 5 near Pacific Beach on the first morning of the fire.

The Cedar Fire was a human-caused wildfire which burned out of control through a large area of Southern California in October 2003. Driven by Santa Ana Winds, the fire burned 280,278 acres (1,134.2 km²) 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) and had killed 15 people including one firefighter before being contained on November 3, making it the largest fire in recorded California history.^[1][2] The Cedar Fire was one of 15 fires throughout Southern California that month, including the Old Fire, which became known as the "2003 Firestorm" and the "Fire Siege of 2003."^[3]

[edit] Fire chronology

The Cedar Fire began in the Cleveland National Forest and was reported at 5:37 p.m. PDT on October 25, 2003 south of Ramona in central San Diego County. Within ten minutes of the initial report of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service had deployed 10 fire engines, two water-supply trucks, two hand crews and two chief officers. Within 30 minutes, 320 firefighters and six fire chiefs were en route.^[4] A San Diego County Sheriff's Department ASTREA helicopter that was rescuing a hunter spotted the fire at about the same time as the first phone report was received and called for an air response. Another Sheriff's helicopter, equipped with a Bambi bucket, en route to the fire and only minutes away, was called off by a National Forest Service fire chief because it was after sunset "cutoff" for firefighting air attack missions.^[4]

Initially, winds were moderate and spread of the fire was relatively slow. By midnight only about 300 acres (121 ha) had burned. However, by that time the winds had shifted and began to increase (easterly "Santa Ana" winds) and the fire began moving quickly westward ^[5]. Overnight, the fast-moving fire killed 12 people living in Wildcat Canyon and Eucalyptus Hills, in the northern part of Lakeside, who had little or no warning that the fire was approaching, and destroyed 28 homes on the Barona Indian Reservation.^[6] In only a few hours the Cedar Fire had pushed southwest over 30 miles (48.3 km) and had burned over 100,000 acres (404.7 km²) at an average rate of 5,000 acres (20.2 km²) per hour and crossed several large highways including I-15. By noon on October 26 the fire was burning hundreds of homes in the Scripps Ranch community of San Diego, and was threatening many others.

The fire forced the evacuation of the main air traffic control facility for San Diego and Los Angeles, shutting down all commercial air traffic in the area and disrupting air traffic across the United States. On October 26, the fire forged into Alpine, Harbison Canyon and Crest burning hundreds more homes in areas that had been devastated by the Laguna Fire 33 years earlier. By October 28, the strong easterly Santa Ana winds died down and the fire turned east consuming another 114,000 acres (461.3 km²). The entire community of Cuyamaca and most of nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and many homes in the town of Julian were destroyed.^[7] On October 29 a fire engine crew who were attempting to defend a house in the Riverwood Estates near Santa Ysabel became entrapped and overrun by the fire. One firefighter was killed and three others were injured, one severely.^[8] Full containment was achieved on November 3 and the fire completely controlled on December 5.^[1]

[edit] Aftermath

In the wake of the 2003 firestorm, including the Cedar Fire, California Governor Gray Davis declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to assist in the disaster relief process, and President George W. Bush declared Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties major disaster areas.^[9] San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium was used as an evacuation site, forcing the NFL Monday Night Football game on October 27 between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins to be moved to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.^[10]

[edit] Investigation

The Cedar Fire was started by Sergio Martinez of West Covina, California, who claimed he was hunting in the area and had become lost. At first he claimed the fire was started accidentally by a gunshot but later said he started the fire to signal rescuers. Martinez was charged on October 7, 2004 in federal court with setting the fire and lying about it.^[11] On March 10, 2005, Martinez pleaded guilty to deliberately setting fire to timber in the plea bargain under which the charge of lying to a federal officer was dropped. He faced up to five years in prison, but was instead sentenced to six months in minimum-security confinement, which allowed him to leave for work and other commitments, 960 hours of community service, and five years' probation. He was also ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution.^[12]

[edit] Response criticism

There were a number of controversies associated with the Cedar Fire, resulting in investigations lasting several years. A report, 2003 San Diego County Fire Siege Fire Safety Review^[13] prepared in the wake of the fire and presented to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Fire Commission, criticized the overall response. The report stated that though the fire conditions and severity should have been expected, the responsible agencies were not properly prepared when the fire broke out, and radio communications problems exacerbated the problem. The report stated that "Disorganization, inconsistent or outdated policies among agencies that grounded aircraft or caused other problems, and planning or logistics in disarray also marked the preliminary stages of the difficult, dangerous firefighting."^[14]

The turning away of the Sheriff's helicopters by the Forest Service came under severe attack by the public, media and elected officials, believing that an opportunity to prevent the fire from becoming out of control had been lost. The State has an aviation assets "cutoff" policy which stated that "aircraft (planes or helicopters) may not be dispatched so as to arrive at an incident no later than 30 minutes before sunset".^{[4][11][13][15]} The pilot later claimed he could have made three water drops in the time he had before darkness.^[4] However, a study performed by the US Forest Service concluded that even if the helicopter had been able to drop multiple loads of water with direct hits on the flames, the impact on the fire would have been minimal.^[4] Cutoff also prevented two air tankers and a helicopter stationed at Ramona Airport from being dispatched to the fire, although the tankers likely could not have been used anyway as the pilots had just spent seven hours fighting another fire, and FAA regulations stipulated that they could not continue to fly.^[16]

A contributing factor to the initial lack of aviation resources to fight the fire was the state's "no divert" policy, which allows incident commanders to dedicate certain resources to a particular fire; the policy applied to both airborne aircraft as well as those on the ground awaiting dispatch. At the time that the Cedar Fire started, there were already 11 other fires burning in the region. Aviation resources in the area were currently being held on the ground under a "no divert" declaration, in order to be available for structures' protection on another fire. However, weather and visibility at the other fire was precluding their use, so the aircraft sat idle despite the fact that the conditions were acceptable for their use on the Cedar Fire.^[13]

Resources to relieve the initial attack crews did not appear on the fire scene until around 5:00 a.m. PDT on Monday 27 October, since they had to be dispatched from Northern California, which was depleted in its own right, and some were delayed on their way by other fires in the northern region.^{[citation needed]}

Both the media and area elected officials were also critical of the lack of use of military aviation assets which were located nearby at Camp Pendleton and Miramar. The U.S. Marine Corps operates CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters that can carry water-dropping buckets, but existing policies prohibited their use until all other civilian resources were used. Additionally, the military aircraft radios were not compatible with those used by most state and local fire agencies, and the military pilots had not received any training in fire-specific operations.^[13]

[edit] Comparison to 2007 California wildfires

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The Cedar Fire burned 280,278 acres (1,134.2 km²) 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) and killed 15 people including one firefighter before being contained on November 3, making it the largest fire in recorded California history up to that time.^[1][17]

The California wildfires of October 2007 are a series of wildfires that began burning across Southern California on October 20, 2007, forcing the evacuation of approximately 900,000 residents.^[18] At least 1,500 homes were destroyed^[19] and around 500,000 acres (2,000 km²)^[20] of land have burned from Santa Barbara County to the Mexican border.^[21] As of October 24, 16 active fires were burning in the region. Six people have died^[20] and at least 70 others have been injured.^[18] As of November 9, all active fires have been contained. Compared to the Cedar Fire, rescources were more efficiently used and evacuations were organized much more quickly.

[edit] Fatalities

Fifteen people, including one firefighter, were killed by the fire. The fatalities were:^[22]

• Galen Blacklidge — 50, Lakeside, teacher, artist – Died October 26, 2003 while trying to escape in her vehicle
• Christy-Anne Seiler-Davis — 42, Alpine - Died October 26, 2003 while in her home on Vista Viejas Road in Alpine
• Gary Edward Downs — 50, Lakeside, small-business owner – Died October 26, 2003 while trying to escape the flames on Wildcat Canyon Road
• John Leonard Pack — 28, Lakeside - Died October 26, 2003 along with his wife Quynh trying to escape the fire on Wildcat Canyon Road
• Quynh Yen Chau Pack — 28, Lakeside - Died October 26, 2003 along with her husband John trying to escape the fire on Wildcat Canyon Road
• Mary Lynne Peace — 54, Lakeside, nurse - Died on October 26, 2003 along with her sister-in-law Robin Sloan near the Barona Indian Reservation
• Steven Rucker — 38, Novato, firefighter, died October 29, 2003 in Julian on firefighting operations
• Stephen Shacklett — 54, Lakeside, construction superintendent - Died October 26, 2003 while trying to escape the fire in his motorhome on Muth Valley road
• James Shohara — 63, Lakeside, correctional officer - Died October 26, 2003 along with his wife and son while trying to escape near San Vicente Reservoir, Lakeside
• Solange Shohara — 43, Lakeside, correctional officer - Died October 26, 2003 along with her husband and stepson while trying to escape near San Vicente Reservoir, Lakeside
• Randy Shohara — 32, Lakeside - Died October 26, 2003 with his stepmother and father trying to escape near San Vicente Reservoir, Lakeside
• Robin Sloan — 45, Lakeside, Walmart employee - Died October 26, 2003 attempting to escape the fire near the Barona Indian Reservation
• Jennifer Sloan — 17, Lakeside, student - Died October 26, 2003 along with her mother Robin while attempting to escape the fire near the Barona Indian Reservation
• Ralph Marshall Westley — 77, Lakeside, retired retail clerk, discovered October 27, 2003 at 1088 Barona Road.
• Unknown found mid-December in the I-15/SR 52 area.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Government

• City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Department After Action Report

[edit] Media

• Firestorm 2003 (map of San Diego County ablaze)
• Fire photo albums at the Scripps Ranch Civic Association
• Cedar Fire time-lapse animation narrated by a CDF fire captain who flew the Bronco, available online and as DVD

[edit] Academics and Research

• Time lapse animations and other images of the Cedar Fire incident
• The Cedar fire: a question of blame?
• Animated map of the fire
• Article on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at the Cedar Fire
• MAP.SDSU.EDU - mapping, database and geographic information system for the 2003 and 2007 fires, managed by the San Diego GIS force group, and hosted by San Diego State University
• The San Diego Fire Recovery Network - a Southern California organization which addresses the widespread ecosystem changes in San Diego County caused by the 2003 and 2007 wild fires
  • The GIS Data Center for San Diego Fire Recovery Network - hosted by San Diego State University