San Diego Hills Fire - Is President Bush "Disaster Challenged?"

According to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and the AP:

"The last thing California needs right now is a trip from the president to take away assets." Later, she said Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed during a phone call that Thursday was the best day for Bush to come.

Geez. First, the famous 9-11 delay, then the failed Katrina Response, and now the San Diego Hills Fire . It seems we have a President who's disaster challenged. In events like this, a proactive president would send in the troups.

What's that you say? They're in Iraq?

Oh.

One more reason to end the war.

San Diego Fire - 1,750 Homes Destroyed or Damaged, 100 Businesses Effected

This is the forth day of the raging series of fires that have destroyed or damaged 1,750 homes, closed 100 businesses, and scorched 263,000 acres of land. All of this has resulted in over 500,000 people being displaced from their homes over this time.

I've heard reports of people coming down just to volunteer to help. If you're anywhere but there, it's hard to understand exactly what's going on or the enormity of it, untill you see something like this Google Map here.

The map shows that it's not one fire but many fires spread around a vast area. I count 20 in all, and raging in size from the 200,000 acre Witch Fire to the 160 acres Walker Fire. Whatever the case, the fires -- even the small ones -- are very large in size.

So large, they dwarf the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire. That disaster covered 1,520 acres; this one consists of several blazes, all save for three between 10 and 100 times larger than the Oakland Hills Fire.

It's a series of fires too large for standard fire fighting systems to tackle.

In a mess that really can be traced back to Proposition 13, San Diego County has no fire department, only "a hodgepodge of operations". LA Biz Observed explains this problem in more detail:

Expect a bunch of stories over the next few days about how San Diego was not prepared for this week's firestorms - despite the area having gone through the Cedar Fire disaster in 2003. Steve Erie, the prominent UC San Diego political science professor, tells the WSJ that "the only lessons applied were those that don't cost any money. ...In terms of new fire prevention or fighting capabilities, we have barely made any progress." One central problem, Erie says, is that unlike L.A. County, San Diego doesn't have a countywide fire department. That leaves what he calls a “hodgepodge” of operations.

And while the region tries to cope with a giant disaster without the tools needed to do so properly, Qualcomm Stadium fills with evacuees, seen as a "constant panorama of families in pain and kids trying to figure out why their worlds were grabbed from them.”

So are we.

More on this, but for now, let's watch this video made by Cory Williams, "Mr. Safety" on YouTube, who lives in the fire area:

San Diego County Fire - First-Hand Blogger Accounts

Having went into the Oakland Hills Fire area to help my friend and her parents move out of that area, I can only immagine what San Diego and Malibu dwellers are going through. Here's the first-hand accounts of bloggers on the scene:

Spinnerdude


Ryanstask


Howlingpoint (gave me the idea for this post)


A Life In The Day


Grrrrrrl


Hey Freak


Tenth Muse


Nate Ritter

(also on Twitter with up-to-the-minute info)

San Diego County Fire Disaster - AP and SF Gate

Fire capt: 'A lot of people are going to lose their homes today'

By ALLISON HOFFMAN and GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writers
Monday, October 22, 2007

(10-22) 11:29 PDT SAN DIEGO, (AP) --

Nearly 250,000 people were forced to flee their homes in San Diego County Monday as about a dozen blazes pushed by hurricane-force winds burned throughout Southern California.
The fires have burned about 100,000 acres in San Diego County, said county Supervisor Ron Roberts. "This is a major emergency," he said.
"We have more houses burning than we have people and engine companies to fight them," said San Diego Fire Captain Lisa Blake. "A lot of people are going to lose their homes today."
About a dozen blazes erupted over the weekend, churned up by the strong Santa Ana winds and made worse because of drought-parched land from the high desert to the Pacific Ocean. Things got worse Monday, when several new fires sprouted and other fires merged, adding to the 40,000 acres — or 62 square miles — that burned over the weekend in seven counties, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego.
In northern San Diego County, hundreds of patients were evacuated Monday from a hospital and nursing homes in the path of the so-called Witch Creek fire. Pomerado Hospital and neighboring nursing homes in Poway, a San Diego suburb, were evacuating patients in ambulances and school buses, said sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss.
All San Diego Police Department officers and off duty detectives were ordered to return to work to help with evacuations and other fire-related emergencies.
In many cases, crews were slowed fighting fires because they were too busy rescuing residents who refused to leave, fire officials said.
"They didn't evacuate at all, or delayed until it was too late," said Bill Metcalf, chief of the North County Fire Protection District. "And those folks who are making those decisions are actually stripping fire resources."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in seven counties.
"Its a tragic time for California. The devastating fires have killed so far one person and injured four firefighters," the governor said at a press conference in Malibu, where a church, homes and historic castle were destroyed.
One person died in a fire near San Diego, which burned more than 14,000 acres — or about 22 square miles — about 70 miles southeast of San Diego, just north of the Mexican border town of Tecate, California Department of Forestry spokesman Matt Streck said.
More than a dozen people have been hospitalized with burns and smoke inhalation, including four fighters — three were in critical condition — at the UC San Diego Medical Center Regional Burn Center, officials said. Some of the injured were hikers, and others may be illegal immigrants.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered in several communities in the San Bernardino mountains, where 1,500 homes were threatened. Two fires were burning about 400 acres west of Lake Arrowhead and in the Green Valley area.
Firefighters said they were unable to send air power to the mountains because of the velocity of the winds.
A wildfire in Orange County that grew to 8,800 acres was believed to be caused by arson, Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman Lynnette Round said. It was 30 percent contained. A 1,049-inmate jail was being evacuated because of heavy smoke, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. Inmates were being bused from the James A. Musick Facility in Irvine.
Twenty-five structures in the suburbs around Santa Clarita were destroyed, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Glenn Massey said. That blaze, called the Buckweed Fire, had burned about 25,000 acres.
About 120 people spent the night on cots in the gymnasium of Saugus High School, according to principal Bill Bolde.
Michele Beard fled her Hasley Canyon home with her husband, mother-in-law and three older children.
"It just lit up the whole mountainside fiery red," said Beard, 48. "I had never seen anything like that so close before."
In San Diego, where seven fires were burning, the Witch Creek Fire, which has been burning since Sunday, jumped Interstate 15 into the densely populated Rancho Bernardo neighborhood as authorities ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to leave their homes. It merged with a smaller fire that broke out near the San Diego Wild Animal Park and moved toward the wealthy suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. By late morning, more than 30,000 acres had burned. Authorities said an untold number of homes had also burned.
Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL Chargers, was added to a growing list of evacuation centers.
San Diego County spokeswoman Lesley Kirk said fire crews were stretched thin and were anxiously awaiting reinforcements from other parts of the state.
"The winds are up, it's very, very dangerous conditions," Kirk said. "Fires are popping up all over the place."
Flames also forced the evacuation of the community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000.
Several structures were burned on the edge of town and sheriff's deputies called residents to alert them the fire was approaching the city, said San Diego sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust.
The fires were affecting border security operations, said Col. David Baldwin, director of operations for the California National Guard.
Guardsmen assigned to the border were forced to evacuate one of their barracks and troops were aiding evacuations, Baldwin said.
"The border is still secure, but agents are evacuating the threatened areas and the Guard is supporting that operation," Baldwin said.
Baldwin said four California National Guard UH-60 helicopters were fighting the fire and the state had requested help from the New Mexico National Guard in the form of two heavy-lift helicopters. Marines from Camp Pendleton also may be called in, he said.
In Malibu, about 700 firefighters worked to protect hundreds of homes in several upscale communities nestled in the hills. About 1,500 people were evacuated and the blaze destroyed a church and several homes, one of them the landmark Castle Kashan, a stately fortress with turrets and arched windows.
The castle belonged to Lilly Lawrence, the daughter of a former Iranian oil minister. She said she was able to gather a few things before the fire engulfed her home, including some jewelry and memorabilia that included Elvis Presley's Army fatigues.
In all, five homes and two commercial buildings had been confirmed lost throughout the Malibu area, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said. Nine more homes were damaged, he said.
The fire is expected to burn for another two to three days, he said. Until the blaze is extinguished, "there will literally be thousands of homes that will be threatened at one time or another," he said.
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