Large Installation System Admins (LISA) Meets The
Crest/Pine/San Diego Fire
Part 1
1 November, 2003
Patrick ("The truth? You won't BELIEVE the truth") Powell
1. Introduction
The last week has been a little bit hectic, here in San
Diego, CA. Basically, about 25% of the County of San Diego
burned down. 2,500 homes lost, 10,000 refugees, but only 16
people killed. The pictures you might have seen on TV (if
you saw them), if anything, understated the size and scope
of the problems and devastation.
I hope to give you an idea of the extent, size, and location
of the fires, and how they had a direct personal effect on
myself, and 1200 attendees at the LISA conference (25 Oct
2003 - 31 Oct 2003). I am putting down my thoughts and
events as I can recall them, and hope that this gives a
flavor of the action. See
http://www.esri.com/news/pressroom/firemaps.html for a
really complete set of maps.
Due to my being dragged away from my computer and forced to
hike, walk, and exercise to act as a photo prop ("Stand on
the top of the mountain and smile, Patrick. Pull in your
tummy, it looks awful!"), I am personally aquainted with
many of the regions described here.
2. The Start of It All
On Saturday, 25 Oct, 2003, some idiot^H^H^H^H
hunter^H^H^H^H^H^H hiker got lost in the mountains.
According to reports in the media, he was lost, suffering
from dehydration, and started the fire to attract attention.
The fire was started in a region that was covered with scrub
bush called chapparel. The most common bushes in this area
are the creosote (can you say 'insect proofing oil finish?')
and greasewood - I kid you not!. Said doofus apparently did
not start the fire in the middle of a cleared area, but
just lit the nearest bushes on fire.
(Note: the later information was provided by a local member
of the California Department of Forestry, who was eating my
donuts at the time. The press has been stunningly silent on
the causes of the fire, but this fellow was more than eager
to detail the shortcomings of said idiot^h^h^h^h gentleman
in terms that were less than complimentary to his father,
mother, pet dog, cat, and other family members. Not to
mention a couple of copy cat fires that were later set by
arsonists. But I digress.)
Fire! 1 1 Nov 2003
Well, he was located about an hour later, near a 500 sq
meter (550 square yard) blaze, taken out of the area, and
a fire crew was sent in.
3. The Santa-Ana Winds
To complicate the situation, San Diego is located between
the Pacific Ocean on the West and the interior of California
on the East. About 100 miles (120 km) East of San Diego is
the Anza-Borrego Desert and the Salton Sea. The Anza-
Borrego Desert State Park Desert Garden regularly reaches
temperatures of 40C (104) in September and October. The
relative humidity is usually less than 10%. From 18 to 25
October they were having a heat wave as well.
Now for the exciting part. At this time of the year, and
sometimes during the later winter months, we get a pressure
inversion. The air pressure over the Anza-Borego desert
increases and the air pressure over the ocean decreases.
The normal West to East wind, nicely cooled by the ocean and
laden with moisture (to us here in San Diego 40% relative
humidity is WET, guys) changes to an East to West wind.
These winds usually have 2% to 3% (yes, that is two to three
percent) relative humidy, and are extremely strong - 40kmp
to 80kmp (25 to 50 mph). Gusts up to 60 mph (100 kmph) are
not uncommon, and there are permanent wind advisory signs on
the local highways.
These winds are called the Santa Ana winds, and are dreaded
by most people with allergies, as they are not only hot and
dry, but loaded with dust and pollen.
By the time the fire crews got to the small blaze, which was
now a very large blaze, they were facing the following:
(1) Totally dry brush that had not been burned for 20
years.
(2) Less than 10% humidity. And dropping.
(3) Mountainous terrain with few if any roads.
(4) 50 kmph winds to the WEST, blowing directly towards
San Diego.
(5) Major population centers within 5 miles (7 km) in any
direction.
(6) Many of the fire crews had left on Tuesday (four days
before) to fight two other fires - one on Camp
Pendleton, about 35 miles (50km) north of San Diego
and another fire to the north in San Bernadino
County, about 90 miles (110 km) north. These fires
Fire! 2 1 Nov 2003
were not under control as of Friday, and one big fire
was heading towards the city of Riverside.
The fire crews that arrived at a location near the fire, but
due to the almost vertical slope and thick brush could not
get their equipment down to the fire location before dark.
They decided to wait until daylight so that they could see
where they were walking (we are talking about walking off
cliffs, guys). At the point at which they realized that
they were not going to be able to reach the fire that
evening, it was too late in the day to send in Water Bombers
and Helicopters to try to douse the flames. The combination
of mountains, smoke, low sun on the horizon, and lots of
shadows makes it very dangerous to fly into the fire, get
really close, and drop water.
Besides, to quote one of the fire crews, "Waterbombers would
have been as useful as spitting into a volcano."
That night the fire, driven by the Santa Ana winds and fed
by the the huge amount of available fuel, spread like...
well... wildfire. Now you know where this saying comes
from.
Early next morning the fire had spread 15 miles (20 km) to
the south and west. There were reports that the fire was
spreading even faster. Fire crews that had started working
5 miles ahead of the fire were pulled out. Some reported
driving down roads where both sides were on fire, that they
had travelled up only an hour before.
Needless to say, after careful consideration of the initial
reports, on Sunday morning, about 9:00 am, the California
Department of Forestry pushed the panic button and called in
all markers, favors, etc, and issued warnings, evacuation
notices, etc.
Highways were closed, warnings issued, etc etc etc. Police
and Sheriff departments drove to the areas closest to the
fire and issued evactuation notices. I am going to quote an
evacuation notice, as I heard it and as recorded on a local
radio station:
"The Crest fire is out of control and is heading this way.
It may be here within a couple of hours. Prepare for
immediate evacuation. Anybody with children or breathing
problems should consider leaving immediately. Police and
emergency services personel will be on hand to assist with
evacuations. Evacuation centers are in ...."
This announcement was also broadcast from cop cars in the
middle of the streets and was followed up by a Sheriff's
Deputy banging at the door. His warning were usually much
Fire! 3 1 Nov 2003
more cogent and succinct:
"That D**M Fire is breathing down our necks! Get the F**K
out! Its moving like a freight train and the only thing
between us and it is the G*D D**M 30 foot fire break and the
flames are Freaking 50 feet high. I just saw it go through
X****X street and all of the houses are on fire. Any kids?
Get them, grab your papers, and leave now, while you can!
Is anybody home next door?"
This was matched by pictures on the TV and calm
announcements on the radio of the evacutation centers,
interspersed with calm announcements such as "Forty homes in
X****X have been destroyed, but there have been only two
serious injuries and no deaths so far due to the Fire. They
are attempting to hold the fire at Highway 15 and Highway
52, but it does not look good."
4. The Reaction
Did us San Diegans listen? Well... yes. We had just had
another fire two years before that burned a couple of dozen
homes, and we had got religion. However, there was a
slight difference between those fires and the new ones.
The fires two years before were 30 miles outside of the
city. These fires were (literally) in the suburbs.
This is sort of like having Central Park in New York City
catch on fire. While it is, theoretically, possible, nobody
believes that it will happen.
The main saving grace on this whole mess was the fact that
it started on a weekend. Most people were at home, they
had their kids with them, and they were close to food,
clothing, etc.
4.1. What Was I Doing?
I am now going to detail what my personal experiences were.
The pictures in the San Diego papers, Newsweek, and other
media have much broader detail and give a better overview of
the situation, most of which I was, as you will soon find
out, less than concerned with.
First, you might want to go to:
http://www.carolmendelmaps.com/mapsd/San-Diego-map.html
These are not the best maps of San Diego and the scale is
REALLY distorted, but they have the benefit of having the
names and places of the locations in nice clear (well,
fairly clear) letters.
Fire! 4 1 Nov 2003
On the http://www.carolmendelmaps.com/mapsd/San-Diego-
map.html site they have a 'clickable map'. There are
several locations you should note. First, El Cajon, which
is near the middle of the map. My house is just below the
letter C in El Cajon.
Next, Interstate 8 (red line, no name on map) runs from the
coast (Mission Beach) north of downtown San Deigo, and East
through El Calno, Alpine, Pine Valley, and then continues
east.
If you look North of El Cajon, you will see the names of the
cities of Santee, Lakeside, Ramona, Santa Ysabel, and
Julian. Finally, to the North West of El Cajon you will see
Poway and Rancho Bernardo. Ummm... well the names are still
there, and most of the cities and structures are there, but
most of the area is now ash. (When typing this up, I was
horrified to discover just how much of the county has been
burned. This is a HUGE fire.)
5. Singing Dum Dum Ditty Ditty Dum Dum Doo
On Saturday, 25 October, the day the fire started, my family
and I spent a thrilling day at the San Diego zoo. It was
BeeYooTeeFul - your standard, normal, boring, San Diego
Perfect Saturday Afternoon. On the way home at about 8:00
PM we turned on the radio, and listened to the news.
"Camp Pendleton Fire is far from over, with 4,000 acres
burned and only 35% contained. The blaze, apparently
sparked by military drills late Tuesday, was being fought
by the combined fire crews of 4 Southern California
counties. Efforts to contain the fire have been frustrated
by the growing Santa Ana winds."
"A small fire has been reported in East County, and is being
called fire crews are being deployed to fight it. More news
on the hour."
"Ho, hum. Another Fire," I think I said. "Bad time of year
for it. What was it, 167 days without rain, I think it said
in the paper." Monica thought that it was longer, and we
tried to remember the last time it rained. Neither of us
could remember where Cedar was. We changed stations and
listened to another report.
"The Pine Valley fire is spreading rapidly due to the Santa
Ana winds and has spread east and south..." Ah! Crest must
be near Pine Valley. It never crossed my mind that they
might be 3 miles apart, and if I had listened to the whole
broadcast I would have heard the rest of the news.
Fire! 5 1 Nov 2003
On Sunday, October 26 morning, I sprang out of bed at 6:00
and started my normal routine of trying to find the floor,
walls, bathroom, and coffee pot. Just to confuse things,
we have something called Daylight Savings Time here in
California, and one clock was 5:00 and the other was 6:00.
I went outside to pick up the paper and looked east. The
sunrise was PHENOMINAL! Orange colors, purple colors...
BeeYooTeeFul. I turned around and looked towards the West,
and saw these really ugly looking black clouds.
"Ah, rain at last!" I thought. I called Monica out, who
promptly grabbed her camera and started taking pictures.
She turned around and saw a huge black cloud to the west
that covered the entire sky from North to South.
"Boy, are we going to get a rain storm. Look at those
clouds! I have to get a picture!" she said. "But they
don't look like storm clouds. They look really ugly."
6. More Maps
If you have the map visible, click on the 'MiraMesa' legend.
It should bring up:
http://www.carolmendelmaps.com/mapsd/clicksd/sd2c.html
If it does not, then use the arrows on the sides of the map
to navigate you get the map visible.
The Town and Country Conference Center is on Hotel Cirle at
the bottom of the map. Interstate 8 cuts across the bottom
of the map, and The LISA (Large Installation System
Administration) conference was being held at the Town And
Country Confernence center in San Diego. The Miramar Marine
Corps base is near the top of the map. Note that it
actually straddles Highways 163 and Interstate 15.
7. Cue the Creepy Music
I got in the car and drove to the local gas station. Some
people were talking about the fires to the north, and the
smoke in the sky. I suddenly realized that I could smell
smoke. I got onto the Interstate 8 and drove to the LISA
Conference.
On the way there I turned the radio on and instead of the
usual KPBS Fund Drive ("Give us money or we will play Bach
for Breakfast") I got news reports about a huge disaster.
With a growing sense of horror I listened as they described
a Forest Bloody Fire at Miramar Air Base? What was this,
some sort of stupid April Fool In October Trick? I suddenly
realized that I was not driving through fog, like I thought,
but this was SMOKE.
Fire! 6 1 Nov 2003
"That was one MOTHER of a fire," I thought. "Well, they
wanted to burn off part of the Miramar base, and they got
their wish. Too bad its a bit bigger than they wanted."
I turned off the radio and wondered when they would put out
the fire. I drove the to conference, just a bit concerned.
At the conference most of the folks were not from San Diego,
and had no interest in the local problems. The few locals
there were busy pointing out locations of Tutorials and how
to navigate to the rooms ("Follow the guy in black. Since
he's giving the tutorial you should be OK.")
At 9:00, when the first Tutorial sessions started, I went
outside, and much to my amazement, a white dry powdery ash
was falling from the sky. There was the smell of burning
creosote bush in the air. I went to my car and listened to
the radio for a few minutes.
Apparently the fires (What the hell? Fires?) were burning
at an incredible rate, had jumped fire lines, and there was
a Class 1 Emergency in progress. Actually, they did not say
that. They said:
"A state of emergency has been declared by County officials
and the California Department of Forestry was the Primary
Agency. The Governor has been requested to declare a state
of emergency." On hearing this, my blood ran cold, as this
meant it was a BIGGIE. Huge.
Suddenly the announcer broke in with the bulletin that the
fire had just jumped Highway 52 and the I15. The I15 and
Highway 52 had been closed, and they were setting up a
defense line on the Miramar Air Base and Clairemont Mesa
Boulevards.
If you look at the map, i.e. -
http://www.carolmendelmaps.com/mapsd/clicksd/sd2c.html
You can see I805 aand State52. Just south of State52 is
Claremont Mesa Boulevard. Convoy runs North/South between
I805 and State163. If you put a dot smack in the middle of
the area bordered by these streets, you have the The Astart
Technology offices.
Just to the north, you will note that we have the Miramar
Air Station.
Just to the east of this, you have a bloody hugh forest
fire burning across a 10 lane superhighway and a 300 foot
wide 4 lane highway.
Suddenly Dan Klien, the Tutorial Chairman and Chief Cat
Herder (Did you every try to organize tutorial speakers and
attendees?) came out, full of enthusiasm and armed with a
Fire! 7 1 Nov 2003
camera.
"Look! There is so much smoke in the air that you can look
at the sun! You can even see the Sun Spots! I just gotta
take some pictures." I looked up and saw black worms on the
face of the sun. I thought they were due to the dust, but
apparently Dan was right. His pictures were later shown at
the conference, and they looked MAGNIFICENT. I started
thinking about Pompei and wondering if the Sooth Sayers were
muttering about Omens just before the ash started to fall.
I went inside the conference building, hacking and wheezing
from the smoke and proceeded to consider the situation.
(1) Our business offices were only one block from
Clairmont Mesa Boulevard, 500 meters (550 yards)
south of Miramar base.
(2) Said base was on fire, and it was spreading west and
south.
(3) Where was the business insurance? At the office, of
course.
(4) Where were all our latest dumps. Well, I had a
month old set at home, but the rest were at the
office.
(5) What the hell am I doing sitting here?
At 10:00 I drove up a strangely deserted I805 (turns out
that they were closing it. How was I to know?). I got to
I805 and Clairmont Mesa and went East on Clairmont Mesa.
All of the offices, including gas stations, super markets,
etc. etc. were closed, but this is normal for Sunday
morning. However, Denny's was closed as well. So much for
their 'Always Open - 24 Hours'. Right. What the heck was I
doing here if even Denny's was closed?
I turned into the side street leading to our office drove
into our parking lot, and ran up the stairs. Yeah, two at a
time. Amazing what anxiety will do.
I hit the Big Red Switch, shut down the servers, grabbed
the last set of dump tapes, put all of the financial records
into a box, pulled out the hard drives, and was trying to
jimmy the lock on Vivian's desk to get the petty cash when I
heard a siren outside.
There was a cop in the parking lot, who asked me and one
other idiot who was also in the office complex to please
lock up and leave. Now. They would be watching the area.
He was not especially polite and seemed to agree with my
Fire! 8 1 Nov 2003
assesment that we were idiots for being here in the first
place. They were also planning to evacuate the trailer park
that was just down the street.
About 3 minutes and 4 boxes later I was back on Clairmont
Mesa Boulevard, heading West to the I805.
Ummm.... Except that there were two cop cars in the middle
of the road and the brush under the I805 and Clarimont Mesa
overpass was on fire.
Worried? Hell, I was merely anxious before. NOW I was
worried.
One of the cops came over and said that it was "Just a minor
fire, we'll have it out in a minute and let you go, but only
the SouthBound lanes are open." About 10 minutes later we
were let onto the highway, passing through burning bush on
either side of us.
Making this up? Hell, I just WISH I was making this up.
I drove likity-split down to the Conference Center. Why go
back to the LISA conference? If I went home I would be
running in little circles. So I sat in the tutorial
sessions and tried to distract myself. Also, If I could
not get home, then there were plenty of hotel
accomodations, I had an internet link, and there was a
7-24 bar.
Actually, I got distracted pretty good at the tutorials.
Very good tutorials on Perl Performance, and Perl Debugging.
Can't remember a bit of them now, but they at least
distracted me.
At 5:00 PM I called my wife, who was just getting home from
some meeting or social activity. She was fairly blase about
the whole thing - you are talking about somebody who has
raised 3 teenagers and numbers various eccentrics among her
friends. The type of teenagers and eccentrics that raise 4
inch tarantualas for pets or use their garages for labs.
Compared to these examples, I am sane, conservative, and
stuffy.
At about 5:30 it was dark and I got into the car and started
driving home, listening to the bulletins on the fire. Poway
was toast. Right. Scripts Ranch was ash. Right. Alpine was
... Hold on there - Alpine is to directly to the EAST of our
house. I focused onto the news, but they were talking about
the evacuation centers. When they mentioned Cuyamacca High
School, I got another chill. This was only 1 mile from our
house. Oh. That is the EVACTUATION center, you turkey.
It's safe.
Fire! 9 1 Nov 2003
I relaxed and then stopped to buy a pacifier (1.75 Liters of
80% Proof Pacifier). As I was coming over the last hill to
our house I saw the most astounding and terrifying sight.
To the north of where I was you could see the orange glow of
the fires near the Miramar Air base. Directly to the East
you could see the fires that had spread south, hopped the I8
(I missed that on the news), and was heading EAST for El
Cajon. And finally, there was a fire to the south that you
could see by the reflection of the flames against the cloud
cover. Apparently this fire had been set by aronists so
that the folks in South San Diego could join in the fun.
SheeeeIIIT! I drove into the garage, got out of the car
and scampered into the house.
"Get in the car! You have to see this! It's incredible!" I
yelled at everybody. Monica pried herself reluctantly away
from the TeleNovella she was watching.
"Been there, seen it," said my youngest child, quietly in my
ear. "They cancelled classes tommorow."
Monica got in the car, grumbling about missing her TV
program. "Just what is so important you have show me now?"
she muttered.
We drove to the top of the hill to the west of us. From the
top we could see the flames of the three major fires in the
area. The fires were, in my fevered imagination, bigger
than they were before.
"Patrick! Its horrible. Stop the car! I need to get some
pictures. Do you think we can drive to Mount Helix and get
a better view?" Monica's reaction was typical of a camera
fiend armed with an SLR and a tripod.
"No, we are not going there. The park is closed at night,
and I do not want to climb a 10 foot barbed wire topped
chain link fence just to get a better shot." Monica sulked
all the way home.
8. Continued on the Next Rock
Coming soon:
Evacuation of the Powell Residence
Save the Budgie!
The Wind Changes
Breath of Fresh Air - Hackity Hack
Cuyamaca and Julian - Apple Pies Flambe
Fire! 10 1 Nov 2003
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOU MUST BE A LIST MEMBER IN ORDER TO POST TO THE LPRNG MAILING LIST
The address you post from MUST be your subscription address
If you need help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or lprng-requests
or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body. For the impatient,
to subscribe to a list with name LIST, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with: | example:
subscribe LIST <mailaddr> | subscribe lprng-digest [EMAIL PROTECTED]
unsubscribe LIST <mailaddr> | unsubscribe lprng [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you have major problems, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word
LPRNGLIST in the SUBJECT line.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
