An article in the Ventura County Star addresses the issue of escalating costs of suppressing wildfires. Here is an excerpt:

Experts say the cost of fighting fires in California is soaring for two reasons: the effects of climate change on vegetation and the development patterns that have increasingly relocated homes and residents into wildlands.

A report issued in May for the California Climate Change Center finds warmer temperatures and longer dry seasons are the principal reasons for increased wildfire risk. It notes higher temperatures have accelerated water loss from vegetation, “increasing the risk of rapidly spreading and large fires.”

Ominously, one study done for the Climate Change Center predicts the risk of wildfires that threaten residential areas will at least triple by 2050.

Compounding the challenges for firefighters, and escalating the costs for taxpayers, is the fact that urban development has increasingly encroached into the areas of highest fire risk.

“The main problem is that we have more fires in areas where there are more people,” said Carroll Wills, spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters, the state firefighters’ union. “In past decades many of these fires were in areas where there weren’t people. It was easier to surround them, and that made it less expensive.”

Upton said that when a fire breaks out in remote areas, firefighters can “catch it at a ridgeline.”

“It is much more expensive to fight a wildfire in and among homes and communities,” she said. “It tends to turn into a rescue more than anything. Meanwhile, the fire perimeter grows.”

The article also listed the 20 largest recorded wildfires in California by size:

FIRE NAME/CAUSE/ DATE/ COUNTY/ ACRES/ STRUCTURES/ DEATHS

1 Cedar (human) October 2003 San Diego 273,246 2,820 15

2 Zaca (human) July 2007 Santa Barbara 240,207 1 0

3 Matilija (undetermined) September 1932 Ventura 220,000 0 0

4 Witch (power lines) October 2007 San Diego 197,990 1,650 2

5 Klamath Theater Complex (lightning) June 2008 Siskiyou 192,038 0 2

6 Marble Cone (lightning) July 1977 Monterey 177,866 0 0

7 Laguna (power lines) September 1970 San Diego 175,425 382 5

8 Basin Complex (lightning) June 2008 Monterey 162,818 58 0

9 Day (human) September 2006 Ventura 162,702 11 0

10 Station (human) August 2009 Los Angeles 160,557 209 2

11 Mcnally (human) July 2002 Tulare 150,696 17 0

12 Stanislaus Complex (lightning) August 1987 Tuolumne 145,980 28 1

13 Big Bar Complex (lightning) August 1999 Trinity 140,948 0 0

14 Campbell Complex (power lines) August 1990 Tehama 125,892 27 0

15 Wheeler (arson) July 1985 Ventura 118,000 26 0

16 Simi (under investigation) October 2003 Ventura 108,204 300 0

17 Hwy. 58 (vehicle) August 1996 San Luis Obispo 106,668 13 0

18 Iron Alps Complex (lightning) June 2008 Trinity 105,805 2 10

19 Clampitt (power lines) September 1970 Los Angeles 105,212 86 4

20 Bar Complex (lightning) July 2006 Trinity 100,414 0 0

September 26-Oct. 3 1970: The Laguna fire burned 175,425 acres, killed eight civilians, and destroyed 382 homes. In 24 hours the fire burned from near Mount Laguna, California into the outskirts of El Cajon and Spring Valley. Previously known as the Kitchen Creek Fire and the Boulder Oaks Fire, it was, at its time, the second largest fire in the recorded history of California.

The Laguna fire started from downed power lines during Santa Ana winds near the intersection of Kitchen Creek road and the Sunrise Highway in the Laguna Mountains in eastern San Diego County on the morning of September 26, 1970. In only 24 hours it burned westward about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. The fire devastated the communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest. Santa Ana winds are warm, dry winds that characteristically occur in Southern California weather during autumn and early winter.

Here is one of the pages from the report referenced below. Anyone remember when we used to make charts and graphs using colored pencils and graph paper?

From the official Laguna Fire Analysis, 1970

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Laguna fire, 1970, using Google Maps, not colored pencils

For more info:
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Laguna_Fire_Analysis_1970.pdf

The day the Laguna fire started I was a crewmember on the El Cariso Hot Shots, and we were mopping up a brush fire near Corona. We heard the radio traffic that morning about the new fire and the reports that it was was cranking. It was The Big One. And there we were, stuck on the dreaded mopup on a fire that was pretty much out. For hours we kept poking around trying to find something hot to put out, as we kept hearing more about the fire on Laguna Mountain that was hauling ass. We wanted to be there.

The El Cariso Hot Shots at Lake Henshaw in 1972. Photo: Bill Gabbert

Finally, late in the afternoon we were dispatched to it. By the time we got to Pine Valley it was after sunset, and for some reason, I, a first-year hot shot, was in the pickup with Ron Campbell, the Superintendent. The two open-top crew carriers were behind us. As we drove into Pine Valley the hills to the south and east were alive with the orange flames of the fire. The one radio channel we had on the Cleveland National Forest was completely jam-packed with radio traffic. You could not get a word in edgewise. We knew that this was going to be one that we would remember.

We worked on the fire all that night and then pulled several more shifts before we were transferred to the Boulder 2 fire in Cuyamaca State Park, which was a rekindle from the Boulder fire.

According to an article in the Rapid City Journal, the 1959 Deadwood fire which started on September 8, 1959 was the most destructive fire to private property, homes, and infrastructure recorded in South Dakota. Some other stats in the article are difficult to believe, such as the claim that there were 1,000 firefighters working on the fire within the first hour.

…(Jerome) Harvey drove his truck toward town and was flagged down by a group of volunteer firefighters who were working the north section of the fire.

“They were trying to get back into Deadwood, so they piled on the flatbed truck,” he said.

After he found a safe parking place, Harvey went to the Forest Service to ask if they needed help battling the blaze. A fire check point had been set up on Main Street Deadwood in front of the Franklin Hotel.

“They put anyone to work who had blood in them,” Harvey said.

So, he loaded fire equipment in his Universal Jeep and took off toward Strawberry Hill.

He and other volunteers were working spot fires on the south end of the hill when they heard the roar of the approaching wildfire.

“There’s this roaring noise a fire makes when it is topping in the trees,” he said.

“I knew we were going to get trapped, so I started down the hill toward Little Strawberry Creek. My only thinking was to get in that water.”

Harvey and the others lay down in the creek.

“The fire burned right over the top of us,” he said. “None of us got hurt.”

In the summer of 1988 numerous fires burned 793,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park as well as large tracts of land surrounding the park. Half of the acres burned inside the park resulted from fires that started outside the boundary. Nine of the fires were human-caused, and 42 were started by lightning.

Protecting the Old Faithful Inn, 1988. Photo: Jeff Henry

On the worst single day, August 20, 1988, tremendous winds pushed fire across more than 150,000 acres. Throughout August and early September, some park roads and facilities were closed to the public, and residents of nearby towns outside the park feared for their property and their lives.

Yellowstone’s fire management policy was the topic of heated debate, from the restaurants of park border towns to the halls of Congress. Following this event, the National Park Service and other federal land management agencies rewrote their policies affecting how they managed fires with less than full suppression strategies.

For more info: http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/fire/index.htm

On August 8, 1959 the El Cariso Hot Shots experienced the first of two fire tragedies El Cariso would be involved in. The fire was the Decker Fire located in the foothills above Lake Elsinore, California. Seven people were overrun by fire and lost their lives. Three were members of the El Cariso Hotshot Crew.

For more info:

http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Decker_Fire_1959.pdf