Email regarding Esperanza Fire
A Firewhirl reader sent an email regarding the Esperanza Fire. He provides a good perspective on this incident, so here is the entire email:
Howdy...
I've been waiting to see the Green Sheet Report on this incident. Just tonight I came upon your web-site coverage from a "search". I tried to write a comment by clicking on the "COMMENTS" at the "POSTED" date, but couldn't find a way to enter text.
I'm a CDF Captain--retired (8 1/2 yrs.) and during my career whenever a burn-over/injury/fatality occurred, I'd often think, "Wow! that could have been us!" I tried to always make safety the first priority. Everything else became secondary. But, then, you never know when the speed and/or intensity will occur faster than the senses can recognize.
I worked on the Esperanza Incident as a 'pickup-runner driver' and did have some opportunities to drive into the burn area up Hwy. 243, and recognized some areas where fire intensity was, obviously, extreme. For example, there were several areas where the guard-rail posts (what are they?..10"x10" wooden posts, if not 12x12's) had varying degrees of charring on them. But there was one section of guardrail in particular, easily 100' long, where EVERY post was thoroughly & totally incinerated to ground level.
Having the thought of the fatalities in the mental forefront, and thinking how needless it was that they should have happened, I came up with this as my analysis:
County planning departments need to change their building permit approval criteria. They need to say, "Sure, you can build there, but you will use building materials that will survive a Santa Ana driven wildfire. Our fire department is not liable for the protection of your structure from wildfire. Sure, if you have a structure fire (not wildfire related) we'll be there to handle it." Much more responsibility must be placed upon the property owner for their own wildfire survivability.
Certainly, numerous properties have been tabulated into the "Savings" part of the equation, often exceeding the value of the "Lost/Damaged" column. But the value of these lives and equipment lost far outweighs any "Savings" accumulated from all fires combined. The value of the training, experience, competency; being an integral component of each of their own families, as well as that of the fire community, etc. has come to an abrupt end. Also, the $100,000+ worth of equipment can no longer be used to save lives or multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property that it could have over the life expectancy of the vehicle.
I'd hesitate to put blame on the crew or chain of command. The precedent has been set that that is what firefighters do. They drive fire engines opposite to the flow of traffic of those evacuating.
There've been 3 times in my career that I've said, "We've got no business being in here. We need to get back out." We were lucky, or, more properly, cared for by Guardian Angels. Likely, for an instant, the crew of Engine 57 recognized that, too, but didn't have even an instant in which to react.
California wildfires frequently burn with a ferocity that far exceeds the capability of ground/air resources until the flame length and spread rate moderates more to match man/equipment suppression capabilities. Home owners, planning commissions, fire services, news media, politicians, et al, need to take another look at the future of wildland/urban interface fire response.
Nothing can be done so that "this will never happen again", but some of what I've mentioned can minimize that recurrence.
'Nuf said,
Bill Bruno
Visalia, CA.
Thanks for the email, Bill.
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