Fire chief says state unprepared for deadly Calif. blazes
NY.Trans...@blythe.org
Hash: SHA1
Fire chief says state unprepared for deadly Calif. blazes
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AP via San Fran Chronicle - Oct 24, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/10/23/state/n191836D94.DTL&type=printable
Fire chief says state unprepared for deadly Calif. blazes
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer
Los Angeles (AP) -- Unable to slow, much less stop, many of the
wildfires that have charred Southern California, some local officials
lashed out Tuesday at what they described as state authorities who
offered inadequate help and seemed unprepared for a foreseeable
disaster.
Most blistering in his critique was the head of Orange County's fire
authority, who said a quick deployment of aircraft could have corralled
the massive blaze his crews were fighting near heavily populated Irvine.
"It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have
been able to control this fire," Chief Chip Prather told reporters.
His remarks came shortly before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the
rapid deployment of fire crews and equipment across a region where 16
wind-stoked fires were scattered over an area larger than some states.
The blazes destroyed nearly 1,300 homes and forced the largest mass
evacuation in California history.
Prather said that a dozen firefighters' lives were threatened at one
point because too few crews were on the ground. It was not an isolated
problem, he suggested, saying the bigger issue was the lack of an
overarching scheme to attack several large fires at once.
"What we need to have is a national strategy and a state strategy," he
said.
His assessment, echoed by some other firefighters, rekindled a
long-running debate over how well California protects itself against a
perennial threat.
The state was supposed to be better prepared after a commission made
dozens of recommendations following 2003 blazes that killed 24 people
and destroyed 3,361 residences. Prather said many recommendations have
been ignored, though others, led by Schwarzenegger, said the response
was much improved.
"There is much more equipment available, more manpower is available,
quicker action," Schwarzenegger said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that she had not heard from
Prather but would find out about his concerns.
"Everybody wants to help. It is up to the local officials to ask," she
told KTLA-TV. "Up to this point no one has called me ... and said,
'Look, we need these, a number of new firefighters.'"
Air tankers and other aircraft couldn't be used at first because of
thick smoke and strong winds, but that has changed, she added.
The state's top firefighter said Prather, who was part of a group
formed to implement the state commission's recommendations, was
misstating the availability of firefighters and equipment. Eight of the
state's nine water-dumping helicopters were in Southern California by
Sunday, when the first fires began, along with 13 air tankers, said
Ruben Grijalva, director of the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection. Hundreds more firefighters were hired this year.
Grijalva suggested these fires, which have burned the equivalent of
about 600 square miles, would have overwhelmed most efforts to fight
them.
"I don't believe the kind of additional resources he's talking about
would have been capable of containing those fires," Grijalva said.
"They are fighting nature here. This is not something that can be
easily eliminated with a few additional aircraft or firefighters."
Especially when there's such great need over such a sprawling area.
"With 100 mph winds, you can only do so much," said Dave Gillotte,
president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1014,
which represents members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Los Angeles County firefighters typically would have dispatched engines
and firefighters to help out when fires started Monday around Lake
Arrowhead. But with blazes near Santa Clarita, in Malibu, and
elsewhere, the department already was stretched too thin.
Sometimes, resources haven't arrived as fast as promised.
Crews fighting a fire in San Bernardino County have been vastly
understaffed but by Wednesday morning, "we're going to have a lot more
resources," said Bob Shidelar, a fire operations branch director in
from Sonora to help out.
"Crews, engines, helicopters " they're coming in from all over the
country," he said.
Helicopter orders placed Sunday shortly after a fire erupted near the
U.S.-Mexico border weren't satisfied until early Tuesday, said Steve
Heil, a state commander at the Harris Fire. That's when four National
Guard Blackhawk helicopters based at Los Alamitos arrived in San Diego.
Two Navy Seahawks were also flying above San Diego County on Tuesday,
but Heil said he was having trouble finding firefighters with
qualifications to go up with additional pilots the Navy was offering to
help direct water drops.
"We need to have firefighting personnel in the cockpit," Heil said.
"We're trying to find firefighters to work with them " once we get more
resources we can use them."
On the upside, Heil said military C-130 jets outfitted to fight fires
would arrive late Tuesday or Wednesday, rather than on Thursday as he
was initially told.
Associated Press writers Jacob Adelman in Santa Clarita, Allison
Hoffman in San Diego, and National Writer Martha Mendoza in Lake
Arrowhead contributed to this report.
*
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFHH6h/iz2i76ou9wQRAvhHAJsG89uU/hD/dxv+vX6gCTkhsKis8QCguFQw
Zmx8sgZmZLg2gywYakWATTU=
=0e+R
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----