SAN DIEGO—A parade of federal, state and local officials told members of Congress Tuesday they need more resources and better cooperation to prevent the kind of wildfire conflagration that hit Southern California last month.
U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., joined in the call, saying Colorado could face similar fires.
In the only comments that drew applause from the audience in more than three hours of testimony, San Diego’s former fire chief bluntly said devastation could be averted if officials would act on recommendations they approved after the Santa Ana wind-driven firestorms in 2003.
“Four years ago we committed this wouldn’t happen again, and I sat with ash raining down on my house this time and didn’t see any aircraft in the air,” said Jeff Bowman, who resigned in 2006. “These recommendations get made and nothing happens.”
Bowman said the state’s emergency agency had yet to take delivery of a single additional fire engine, though the blue-ribbon panel convened after the 2003 fires recommended adding 150 new vehicles and stationing them throughout California.
Fire Chief Kim Zagaris of the state Office of Emergency Services, said he expected to take delivery of the first engine in the next two weeks. He said 19 engines have been ordered but have been delayed for bureaucratic reasons.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., convened the field hearing in San Diego along with her counterpart on the Senate’s Interior Appropriations subcommittee, to examine the response to the October wildfires that scorched a combined 800 square miles and destroyed 2,196 homes in Southern California.
Feinstein chastised San Diego officials for not spending the money to bring its fire department up to national standards. She criticized the county for not having a unified fire authority and noted the city has one firefighter for every 1,469 residents, while her hometown of San Francisco has one firefighter for every 421 people.
“I’ve never seen houses burned to the ground that way,” Feinstein said of the hard-hit Rancho Bernardo neighborhood, where more than 300 homes were lost. “That fire wasn’t fought.”
Local officials responded that the county has invested heavily since 2003, buying firefighting helicopters and installing a telephone-based emergency-notification system for residents.
“The fires here broke out on Sunday—it wasn’t until the third day that we saw considerable aerial assistance,” said Ron Roberts, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, demanded to know why military’s latest C-130 cargo planes still can’t be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant.
“I don’t want to be the skunk that spoils the dinner party,” he said. “But every year for the past eight years I’ve been promised they’d be online for the next fire season.”
Mark Rey, a federal Department of Agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, said the military retrofit would be completed by next May.
Like others called to testify, Rey noted that the growth of residential development in rural areas frequently visited by strong Santa Ana winds complicated firefighting efforts. He said more than 180,000 new homes have been built in areas burned in the 2003 fires, putting hundreds of thousands more people in harm’s way.
Feinstein, who is sponsoring legislation to create federal building and zoning guidelines, said it’s up to local areas to control growth.
But the lone civilian to speak at the hearing, Skip Miller, said people who live in fire zones know the risk they’re taking. The home he and his wife rebuilt after the 2003 fires was destroyed in October.
“If you live in a fire-prone area you need to accept that being burned is a risk,” said Miller, who intends to rebuild on the same lot. “The odds we would be burned a second time were very small, almost like being struck by lightning, but being burned a third time would be like being burned in the Sahara.”
