Seven Days Of Fury

Fires Cut A Weeklong Path Of Destruction And Devastation Fueled By Ferocious Santa Ana Winds

(AP)  They know what the winds can do. They forecast them. Fight the fires the winds fan. Ready for evacuations that, in years past, never came. They thought they knew, until seven days of fury began a week ago.

From almost the beginning, this Santa Ana was different somehow.

Meteorologist Philip Gonsalves recognized it when he saw the smoke through the picture windows of the National Weather Service station in Rancho Bernardo, closing in on the office itself. He had helped forecast the tempest: an ominous combination of strong gusts, low humidity and soaring temperatures. In weather speak: red flag fire conditions.

Fire Battalion Chief Tom Zeulner understood it, too, when en route to his first blaze of the week, his wife called to tell him five more had begun.

Dan Crane thought it was "situation normal," his words for the Santa Ana fire season that torments Californians every October through February, when blustery winds blow out of the desert. He's lived through a half-century of them, and never once had to evacuate - not even during the two-week onslaught of 2003, when fires burned 750,000 acres and killed 22 people.

This time, he awoke to neighbors honking and smoke wafting through his windows.

By Saturday, more than a half-million acres would be gone, 1,700 homes destroyed, with the damage surpassing $1 billion (euro700 million).

Stunned homeowners who just last weekend were setting out Halloween decorations and watching football would find themselves sifting through kindling and ash, mumbling things like: This used to be my kitchen. This used to be my bedroom.

Even a week after it all started, several thousand would remain evacuated as blazes burned on relentlessly.

There would be questions about prevention in the midst of persistent drought, lack of preparation in a fire-plagued state and whether resources were put to use as fast as possible.

But first, before all of that, came the winds.

They were different, undoubtedly, although no one could have predicted just how deadly and destructive.

---

Gonsalves is a man who usually takes things in stride, especially the weather, perhaps because he knows it so well. He knows how easily a fire can kick up when the winds get going, and computer models at work had predicted a nasty Santa Ana for days.

And so, on Sunday morning when he stepped out of church and sniffed smoke, he was hardly surprised.

"It's begun," he thought. "Here we go again."

The surprise came hours later, when Gonsalves arrived home from the gym and turned on the news.

Fires - plural - were everywhere:

The Ranch Fire, sparked at 9:42 p.m. the night before, racing through 500 acres some 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The Canyon Fire, ignited at 4:50 a.m. in Malibu, forcing 1,500 people - even Hollywood's elite - to evacuate.

The Harris Fire, begun at 9:23 a.m. southeast of San Diego, exploding to 500 acres in just over three hours.

The Witch Creek Fire, burning at 12:37 p.m. in a mountain town northeast of San Diego, consuming 3,000 acres in two hours.

At the Weather Service office in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, Gonsalves' colleagues watched as satellite images showed plume after plume of smoke roaring over a swath of Southern California. Their computers are programmed to display wildfire hot spots as little red squares. Red squares seemed to cover the lower half of the state.

By evening, the forecasters had to shut off the air conditioning to stop smoke from seeping into the office. Back at home, on his day off, Gonsalves was thinking about what to pack - just in case his own family had to flee.

Sunday was an off-day for Zeulner, as well. He, too, had gone to church, near his home in San Luis Obispo, and was having lunch when he got word: "You guys are going."

A battalion chief with the city fire department, Zeulner commands a 20-member strike team that operates five, Type 1 fire engines, ideal for defending homes and structures. The team, when called upon, can be dispatched anywhere.

They were summoned to the Ranch Fire, to help protect homes in the tiny citrus-growing village of Piru.

"Immediate need," Zeulner had been told. In other words: Get there fast.

By 2 p.m., the caravan of engines was on the road, Zeulner monitoring AM radio for fire updates. The 33-year veteran was alarmed by what he heard. Winds were gusting from 60 mph to 80 mph; in some places, they exceeded 100 mph.

"That's hurricane force," thought Zeulner, who knew from experience that anything over 60 mph was unusual during Santa Ana season.

When the team arrived at the fire, they were told to bed down and be ready to work at dawn the next day. Zeulner set up camp in a park under the smoky sky, but rest was hard to come by.

His sleeping bag rocked back and forth throughout the night, the mighty winds tossing him about like a leaf.

[iceman_1960]

"BRIMSTONE THUNDER & LIGHTING...MAYOR SANDERS keep embracing homosexuality...you no good BABYLONIANS"
- Posted by sunsetbillyb at 04:25 PM : Oct 28, 2007

hahaha

Was anyone"s wife turned to a pillar of salt on the way out of town ?

[mediapreachr]

Tune in next year around the same time...you see the same stories.Wild fires,because people are building to close to forests or inside,mudslides and get ready to pay now 10 bucks to park your car anywhere in the recreational areas-their budget just took a beating.

[mediapreachr]

I think snidegrass is just another type of bot.
It''s used to spam and for "scrolling" so the people''s comments look disconnected.

[usaprophet]

I want to tell you about another major fire. Our Constitution is on fire. And it''s currently being burned in Congress. See H.R. 1955, a.k.a., Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. I couldn''t believe it. Apparently, activists with Web sites are really begining to anger the elite insofar they are publically holding them accountable for their evil. Here''s a part of the bill, which passed the house on Oct 23, in spite of Congressman, Ron Paul''s opposition thereto. The right to free speech on the Internet is gone, my friends. Look it up for yourself, and weep for your country that our rights have eroded this far. Here''s a short excerpt from the bill''s DEFINITIONS statement: "The development and implementation of methods and processes that can be utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States is critical to combating domestic terrorism." Here''s another excerpt from the bill''s FINDINGS statement: "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." And guess who get''s to decide what is "terrorist-related propaganda?" You got it! The Department of Homeland Insecurity, an agency that''s answerable ONLY to The President. If Ron Paul isn''t elected, our country is doomed!

[tnt1954]

that''s allright michael t202 its a private joke.
an inside joke. do you know what an inside straight
is? many people do not believe in the existence
of hell. they think its all mythological nonsense.
do you see what i see on your crt screen? looks
fiery doesn''t it. ''hell'' has many meanings.
try looking it up in the dictionary. it is
used as a literary device also.

[tucano2]

Sure the winds helped the Illegal Aliens, including Al Queda types, secure near maximum destruction, as they had hoped when they lit off the brushfires. You don''t actually believe in coincidence, do you?

[billpl-2009]

Fires went out a few days ago.

Now it''s time for the media to go home as well.

We''re fine and don''t need all their silly "hype" reporting.

[michaelt302]

Snidegrass is either mentally ill, chronically illiterate, or a certified master of MIH(Methamphetamine Induced Haiku). Tell me, does anyone out there have a clue what he is trying to say in his rants, and what they have to do with this story or reality? Craziest man on the Internet.

[tnt1954]

in 1988 bill horn was elected to the county
board of supervisors for the 5th district of
north san diego county on a fast growth platform.
slow growth was smashed to smithereens. and it
was time to build, and build, and build, and build
some more, mostly with indian labour from all
over the world. cheap indian labour. and now
they own us, and so do the gambling casinos.
cause little by little they raised their price
of labour. kimosabe? indians. its okay tonto
don''t worry i''ll protect us. what you mean we?
sometimes sicilians are mistaken for indians.
chief morning star of apache nation has spoken.
although it is verboten. chieves have little
power in indian world. lowest is always highest.

[tnt1954]

do you think the indians are really serious general
custer? do you really think they think we should
vacate the americas, all of it, right this instant?
i think so captain reno. you mean, like all asians,
negroes, and caucasians and mestizos must Hike the
Big Trail? or die? i think so captain reno. but sire? i thought all indians were peaceful and
this was a paradise before we got here, and migrating
tribesmen of all colours, ethnicities and religions
and cultures and origins would live here in the
u.s.a. in peace. nice try reno, go bottle the water
we''re in for a long siege. and you thought the
battle of waco, texas was gonna be a long hot fall?
and spring, and summer and winter? on and on and
on and on and on. thanks general custer, i''ll
remember you when i open my lemonade stand. and
ya know sir, there will be no sugar sire, as you
ordered. just sourpuss lemon.

[okinup]

Setup cameras all along the roads so that you can see who''s setting these fires.

[tnt1954]

nero wolfe stayed indoors and played piano
while the world burned. what song was it?
light my fire by the doors. well that''s normal
for nero, he never leaves the house. he has
agoraphobia.

[tnt1954]

bill horn played the bugle, while north county
burned. villaragoisa, he did spanish flamenco
and fiddled with castenets while los angeles
county burned. colonel sanders mayor of
san diego went to kentucky fried chicken while
we were all fried to a crisp. why have a govt?
all they do is suck up money, and what do we
get back in return. hell-fire and blazes.