Fire History

By Johnny McDonald

The San Diego Natural History Museum has opened a show titled “Earth, Wind and Wildfire,”a stark reminder of man’s battle with the elements of fire he often finds hard to control.

On a lighted table, visitors to the museum in Balboa Park can overlay maps of the October 2003 fire with maps of historical fires, animal habitats and watersheds.

Charred tree trunks, a melted engine block and large-scale photographs will be featured.

Those who lost homes and businesses in the Cedar Fire can attest to the helplessness as flames devoured chaparral and trees in its path.

A total of 280,278 acres were scorched, and when the fire was beaten down, 2,232 homes and 22 commercial properties had been destroyed and 15 people had lost their lives. It was the worst destruction in a long line of San Diego County fires since they were first recorded in 1913.

A federal grand jury has indicted a hunter, Sergio Martinez of West Covina, on charges he started the fire. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of two charges. According to the county sheriff’s department, he started the fire to signal for help after becoming lost in the Cleveland National Forest.

Linda Chase, director of a relief center assisting fire victims, was quoted as saying, “You can certainly blame Martinez for starting the fire, but you can’t blame him for not putting it out. There were lots of other people who failed to do what they needed to do.”

Prior to the Cedar disaster, the 1970 Laguna Kitchen Creek and Boulder Oaks Fire was the worst in the history of California. It was started by downed power lines. In only 24 hours, it burned westward about 30 miles to the outskirts of El Cajon and Spring Valley. It devastated the communities of Harbison Canyon, burning 382 homes and killing eight people, and it burned 175,425 acres.

When high winds grounded firefighting aircraft, a representative of Canadair brought a CL-215 to Southern California to demonstrate its capabilities. Although turned away by firefighting officials, he operated his “Super Scooper” out of El Capitan Reservoir and dropped water on the fire wherever he saw fit. Firefighting officials were unimpressed, and such aircraft are not used in the southland.

According to the files of the San Diego Fire Department and the California Department of Forestry, 20 other major fires have been registered in the county since 1913.

The first mentioned was the Barona, which burned 65,470 acres in September 1928. The next came 15 years later in September, at Witch Creek near Santa Ysabel, when 33,240 acres were charred. In the same month, 67,000 acres were blackened at Beauty Peak in North County.

On Oct. 3, 1943, nine firefighters and seven Marines perished in the 10,000-acre Hauser Creek blaze, which resulted in 72 injuries. A year later, 60,000 acres burned at the Laguna Junction.

There were three fires in the 1950s: the 64,000 acres of Conejos (1950); the 64,000 around Cuyamaca Lake (1952); and the Inaja near Julian (1956), where 11 fighters died in battling a 43,904-acre blaze. Four years later, two Atlas missiles exploded at their test site in Sycamore Canyon, causing an estimated $27 million in damage.

The crash of a PSA airliner in North Park killed 144 and devastated a block of homes in Sept-ember 1978. Then there was the Normal Heights fire (1985), which destroyed or damaged 118 homes at a cost of $8.6 million.

The Cuejito (1993), east of Escondido, charred 20,000 acres and destroyed 18 homes, while the Harmony Grove fire (1996), west of Escondido and near La Costa, destroyed 110 homes and killed one man.

Two more fires occurred in the 1990s: the Lake Wohlford (1997), when 500 aces of flames destroyed seven houses; and the La Jolla Indian Reservation fire (1999), which burned 7,800 acres and killed one firefighter.

The new century produced many fires: the wind-driven Viejas (2001), which consumed 10,000 acres, five houses and five mobile homes near Alpine; Gavilan (Fall-brook area, 2002), which burned 5,765 acres and destroyed 43 homes; the Troy in Mt. Laguna (2002), which burned 1,188 acres and destroyed three homes; and the Pines Fire at Vulcan Mountain and Julian (2002), which burned 61,700 acres, destroyed 37 homes, 110 other buildings and 165 vehicles. The fire was started when a National Guard helicopter hit a power line. Most of these fires came in the dry months of September and October.

For more information on the exhibit, which continues through Oct. 2005, call (858) 232-3821 or visit the museum’s Website at www.sdnhm.org. Admission is $9 for adults, with discounts available for museum members, seniors, active military, college students with ID, and children ages 3 to 17. Children 2 and younger are admitted free. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.