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The Cedar Fire was the second largest wildfire in the history of the U.S. state of California and one of 15 fires that started in late October 2003 and were fanned by Santa Ana Winds in Southern California burning a total of 721,791 acres (2,921 km²) and 3,640 homes, and killing 14.

See Laguna Fire for details about the 1889 wildfire in Orange/San Diego Counties, the largest in California history.

Overview

The Cedar Fire was reported at 17:37 on October 25 south of Ramona in central San Diego County. Overnight it killed 13 people living north of Lakeside who had little or no warning that the fire was approaching. In only 16.5 hours the Cedar Fire had pushed southwest over 30 miles (48 km) and had burned over 100,000 acres (405 km²) at 5,000 acres (20 km²) per hour. By this time the fire was burning hundreds of homes in the Scripps Ranch community of San Diego, was threatening homes near the coast and had 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. The next evening the fire forged into Alpine, Harbison Canyon and Crest burning hundreds more homes in areas that had been devastated by the 175,425 acre (710 km²) Laguna Fire 33 years earlier. By October 27, the Cedar Fire had lost most of its energy as the Santa Ana winds died down. However, when the typical westerly winds of the area returned the fire turned east with them consuming another 114,000 acres (461 km²).

In the end, the Cedar Fire had burned 280,278 acres (1,134 km²), 2,820 buildings (including 2,232 homes) and had killed 14 people including one firefighter.

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 in federal court with setting the fire and lying about it on October 7, 2004. On March 10, 2005 Martinez plead guilty to deliberately setting fire to timber. In the plea bargain the charge of lying to a federal officer was dropped. He faces up to five years in prison. Follow link to see an animated map of the fire: http://map.sdsu.edu/fire2003/movies/Cedar.mov

Controversy

There were many controversies associated with the Cedar Fire and two years after the fire several investigations are still under way. The Sheriff's office claims that the first 911 call about the fire came in at 17:37 but several citizens claim to have called as much as an hour earlier. The Sheriff's office will not release the 911 call records. A San Diego County Sheriff's Department ASTREA helicopter that was equiped with a Bambi bucket, en route to the burgeoning fire and only minutes away, was recalled by dispatchers because of approaching darkness even though it was 1/2 hour before sunset. The pilot later claimed he could have made three water drops in the time he had before darkness. 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. No fire has ever been extinguished in the United States by aircraft alone. The crews of fire retardant-dropping aircraft, stationed within sight of the fire at Ramona Airport, filled their tanks when they spotted the fire but were not dispatched. The crews returned at dawn on the 26th, expecting to be dispatched to the fire, but were not dispatched until 09:00.

Although firefighters were almost universally praised, some citizens reported firefighters making no effort to prevent houses from catching fire. Many houses were saved by citizens who refused to evacuate as the fire approached. A group of citizens is credited with saving hundreds of homes in the community of Eucalyptus Hills, near Santee, by cutting a firebreak and fighting flames with a privately-owned water truck through the night without a firefighter in sight. At one point a helicopter-borne Sheriff's Deputy threatened the group with citations and arrest if they did not cease their efforts and evacuate. They left only after firefighters arrived in the morning after the brunt of the fire had passed by. The validity of or the circumstances surrounding such reports were often unclear because emotions were running high during the crisis. One private citizen stated during a Ramona Water Board meeting that if the firefighters had been doing their job right, more should have been killed.

However, firefighting strategy is differentiated from military strategy in that in firefighting, no loss of life of firefighting personnel is considered acceptable for any purpose. This is because wildland firefighters face an impersonal enemy, and, in general, protect only property and resource values directly. In addition to the extremely fast rate of the initial westward spread of the fire, available firefighting resources were heavily committed to other large fires in the region at the time of the outbreak of the Cedar Fire. These included Old, Paradise, Piru, and Grand Prix, as well as numerous smaller incidents. Resources to relieve the initial attack crews did not appear on the fire until around 0500 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.

In the aftermath of the fire the curfew for firefighting aircraft was extended from 1/2 hour before sunset to 1/2 hour after sunset and pilots have been given more discretion in deciding whether to attack a fire or not.

Why was the Cedar Fire so bad?

Would the results have been different if mistakes had not been made in fighting the fire? We will never know, but there is good reason to believe that the Cedar Fire would have been cataclysmic anyway. Once the Santa Ana Wind driven flames took off, there was little that could have been done to stop them.

Some have suggested that fire suppression lead to conditions that caused the Cedar fire to be so large. However, extensive research by Jon E. Keeley and C.J. Fotheringham has shown that burn patterns have not changed significantly in southern California since 1878. The California Statewide Fire History Database indicates that since 1910, the mean size of fires in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties has remained constant. The timing of fires is equally consistent, with most igniting June through November with September representing the most flammable period. In a study by S.A. Mensing and others, seabed charcoal deposits off the coast of Santa Barbara County have shown that the frequency of large, Santa Ana driven fires has not changed over the past 500 years. Similar results are produced even when comparing years before and after 1950 when advanced fire suppression technology was developed and utilized on a massive scale.

The only important change revealed by these studies has been an increase in fire frequency during modern times, not a decrease. Fire in chaparral is a natural, unpreventable event. Despite efforts to control them, large chaparral fires have continued unabated since our arrival in California. The assumption that old stands with an "unnatural accumulation of old brush" encourage fires to spread and become more dangerous is inaccurate. Studies by Max Moritz have shown that fuel age does not significantly affect the probability of burning.

Why did the Cedar Fire happen when it did? All fires require a fire triangle whose three vertices are fuel, heat, and oxygen. In San Diego County in October of 2003 fuel was in abundance, and strong Santa Ana conditions had driven daytime temperatures above 90°F +(32°C) in the days leading up to the fire. In addition, on the night of October 26 the Santa Ana winds meant humidity was down to single-digits, and 40 miles-per-hour (64 km/h) easterlies were blowing from the desert toward the coast. The result was mass ignition, a rapidly-moving fire, and extreme fire behavior, including large fire whirls. With all elements of the fire triangle present and at high levels, the Cedar Fire rapidly became a record firestorm.

Trivia

Other fires in Southern California

Several other massive wildfires also broke out in Ventura, San Bernadino, and San Diego counties almost right at the same time as the Cedar Fire. The Old Fire was the largest of several fires in San Bernardino County that scorched more than 150,000 acres, while the Piru Fire and Simi Incident Fire ravaged about 200,000 acres between them in Ventura County. The Paradise Fire near san Diego scorched 51,000 acres before being contained.

See also

External links

Memorial

The following individuals were killed by the deadly Cedar Fire
  • 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 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 -
  • Steven Rucker — 38, Novato, firefighter, died October 29, 2003 in Julian fighting the deadly Cedar Fire
  • Stephen Shacklett — 54, Lake View Hills Estates, 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 the deadly flames on Vista Viejas Road in Alpine
  • Solange Shohara — 43, Lakeside, correctional officer - Died October 26, 2003 along with her husband and son while trying to escape the fire on Vista Viejas Road in Alpine
  • Randy Shohara — 32, Lakeside - Died October 26, 2003 with his mother and father trying to escape the deadly flames on Vista Viejas Road in Alpine
  • Robin Sloan — 45, Lakeside, Wal-Mart 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 cedar fire near Barona Indian Reservation
  • Ralph Marshall Westley — 77, Lakeside, retired retail clerk, discovered Monday at 1088 Barona Road.
  • Unknown migrant worker found mid-December in the I-15 SR-52 area.

History of California | Wildfires

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Cedar Fire".

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