Posted on 10/27/2006 11:13:28 AM PDT by Smogger
CABAZON - An arsonist's despicable touch killed four U.S. Forest Service firefighters and left a fifth fighting for his life Thursday while nearly 1,000 of their colleagues struggled to restrain a fast-moving wind-propelled wildfire that burned along the base of the San Jacinto Mountains.
Enraged officials promised to catch whoever intentionally set the blaze around 1 a.m. in dry grass along a winding stretch of Esperanza Road in Cabazon. The problem, though, will be trying to make an arrest in a crime that is typically one of the hardest for authorities to solve. "You will not rest," Riverside County Undersheriff Neil Lingle, warned the unknown arsonist now considered a murderer. "We will find you. You will be brought to justice."
The fire remains untamed. Officials estimated it was only 10 percent contained and the fire jumped Highway 79 by mid-Thursday evening, and authorities were concerned that it could grow significantly overnight and throughout this morning. Weather conditions are still ripe for extreme conditions.
"We are going to continue to see the strongest gusting from the east in the morning," said Steve Vanderburg, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego.
Winds are predicted to blow 15 to 25 mph from the north and northeast with gusts up to 35 to 45 mph, he said. The wind should lessen as the day progresses and weaken significantly into the weekend, but will continue to come from the east.
Humidity rates remained at 5 to 10 percent, which, when combined with fuel moisture reported at critically dry levels, makes for extreme fire conditions, Vanderburg said. Temperatures will be in the low 60s to 70s in the mountains and about 70 degrees in the fire zone.
Highway 243 was closed from Banning to Lake Fillmore while Highway 79 had been shut down from Beaumont to Hemet.
On Thursday, the desert dry Santa Ana winds took the ignition and sent the blaze west, leaving more than 12,000 acres of charred land in its wake on its way into the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest. Firefighters struggled to defend the mountainous communities of Twin Pines and Poppet Flats.
Approximately 600 people had been evacuated with another 2,000 put on alert, officials said.
Three years and a day after the devastating Old Fire wreaked havoc in the San Bernardino Mountains and foothills below, one resident suffered burns while the Esperanza Fire destroyed at least 10 homes as of Thursday evening. And yet, as devastating as the Old Fire was, not a single firefighter perished in that conflagration.
Smoke was so thick Thursday - it covered the sky in eastern Hemet and coastal communities reported smelling smoke 100 miles away - that assessing the damage proved a struggle for authorities.
A total of 972 firefighters from across Southern California using 144 engines tried to slow the blaze's advance. Ten air tankers, 13 helicopters and four air attack planes that coordinate efforts fought the fire from the air while eight bulldozers worked from the ground. Three ambulances were also on hand.
The firefighters from the nearby ranger station in Idyllwild died Thursday morning while trying to protect a home along San Gorgonio View Road in Twin Pines, a community spread over hundreds of acres of mountain slopes, beginning in the foothills above Cabazon at about 2,000 feet elevation and continuing up to near 6,000 feet.
"Their first goal was to get humans out, and their second goal was to save the house," said Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins. "In the course of trying to save the house, the fire overwhelmed them."
A wall of flames surged forward, boosted by 25 mph winds, and swept over the strike team, killing three on the ground on which they stood, officials said.
A fourth firefighter died at 11:20 a.m. after being taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, and a fifth sustained burns over 90 percent of his body and was hooked up to a respirator at the center's burn unit.
Doctors and nurses constantly monitored the injured man's condition and updated his family, said hospital spokesman Jorge Valencia.
"We also have a full staff of social workers," he said. "We're meeting all their needs as best we can."
It's the worst loss of Riverside County firefighters' lives in at least three decades. And now with the four deaths, a total of 19 California firefighters have been killed in the line of duty in the past year, according to the California Professional Firefighters, a lobbying organization.
As news of the deaths circulated around the area, friends stopped at the Idyllwild ranger station to express their sympathies.
"You guys are our saving grace," said Emily Pearson. "It shouldn't have happened."
Pearson said she had lived in the area 35 years, and her family knew all five firefighters.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to bring to bear the full force of the state's firefighting resources. He also lamented such an unnecessary loss of life.
"These men and women risk their lives on a daily basis and we are forever grateful for their service," the governor said.
The governor's office also declared a state of emergency for Riverside County.
Members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors offered a $100,000 reward for the successful capture and conviction of anyone involved.
"Turn the scum in, please," pleaded Supervisor Marion Ashley during a news conference.
Somewhere between 400 to 1,000 people remained stuck in a recreational vehicle park after flames blocked the only road out. People in the Silent Valley Club RV park near Poppet Flats were unable to leave after firefighters closed Highway 243. TV footage showed vehicles racing through smoke and flames just before the road was closed.
"Everybody is hunkered down here. They're fighting the fire around us. It's across the street from us," said Charles Van Brunt, a ranger at the station at the entrance to the Silent Valley Club, adding that no one was in immediate danger, although smoke had enveloped the area.
Hawkins, joined by Redlands Rep. Jerry Lewis, Palm Springs Rep. Mary Bono and other lawmakers, praised firefighters for their valiant work in attempting to beat back the blaze.
At the same time, they offered heartfelt condolences to the families of the fallen firefighters, promising to bring to justice the person or people responsible for setting the fire.
"We all know in our hearts what first responders mean to us," Bono said, referring to the slain firefighters.
Lewis called for the public to support the firefighters' families, urging that donations be sent to the Riverside County Government Center.
The congressman also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay 75 percent of costs related to fighting the fire. And the federal government, Lewis added, naming the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, would assist in hunting down the arsonists.
"We're going to do everything we can from a federal level to find these people," Lewis said.
The blaze, named the Esperanza Fire because of its starting point, was reported at 1:12 a.m. along Esperanza Avenue at the San Gorgonio wash, Luther said.
Firefighters ordered evacuations of up to 400 people at 6 a.m. as flames raced south toward the Twin Pines area. Twin Pines, the Twin Pines Boys Ranch, Poppet Flats and Wonder View were evacuated. Electricity between Twin Pines and Poppet Flats was shut off.
"They wanted to get everybody out, but I got a horse and my dogs, so I got the wife out," said Randy Ebersole, 72.
He said he was unsure where his wife, Gloria, 72, had gone.
"I just feel fortunate - all my neighbors lost a lot," Ebersole said. "I have no idea how many homes burned, but two of my neighbors here lost their houses."
Authorities opened evacuation centers at the Banning Community Center at 789 S. San Gorgonio Ave. and Hemet High School, 41701 E. Stetson Ave.
The fire, with flames reaching as high as 100 feet in the air, created a huge pillar of smoke that blew southward, darkening the sky above the San Jacinto Valley.
South of Banning, sunlight filtered through the smoke to create an orange glow. The effect was like looking at the sun setting in the south.
Dale Brooks and his wife, Chris, watched the smoke grow thicker by the minute from the Lawler Lodge campground in the mountains where they work as caretakers.
The 10-acre campground sits about eight miles south of Poppet Flats.
"We're packed up. When we see the flames, we're out of here," he said.
Brooks said he had been watching the fire since he came home from work just hours after the fire began.
"It was really something to see this morning. It was this big red glow," he said.
High in the San Jacinto Mountains, the village of Idyllwild was largely unaffected by the fire as of Thursday afternoon. The streets were mostly quiet and Marilyn Johnson, a clerk at the Pony Express trading Post, said there had been no warning from officials regarding the need to potentially evacuate.
However, she said, the road closures and news of the fire were keeping people away.
"As soon as they hear about the fire out here, no one comes," she said.
When the fire jumped Highway 243, officials closed the road from Banning to Lake Fulmor.
Firefighters retreated Thursday morning from a point along Highway 243 where 20- to 30-foot flames were blazing too dangerously for them to pass.
The fire started just hours before the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for critical fire weather conditions in Riverside County and other areas of the Inland Empire.
The red flag warning is expected to last until Saturday.
The fire was burning in 30-year-old grass and shrubs, said Richard Minnich, a professor of fire ecology at the University of California, Riverside.
Minnich said the blaze slowed once it reached an area that burned in the 1974 Soboba Fire, which charred nearly 20,000 acres. Beyond that await thousands of acres of 90-year-old chaparral, and beyond that are 100-year-old stands of trees that lead to the mountain town of Idyllwild.
"I don't see it getting into that 90-year-old stand toward Idyllwild, though," Minnich said. "But, boy, if it did. It would be explosive."
The San Bernardino County Fire Department has sent out two strike teams and two state Office of Emergency Services engines to the fire, said department spokeswoman Tracy Martinez.
Each strike team consists of five engines with four firefighters, she said. Firefighters serving the Fontana area were among those deployed.
Several area fire departments also sent personnel to the fire.
Chino Valley Independent Fire District along with the Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland Fire departments each sent an engine and firefighters as part of a strike team from western San Bernardino County.
In addition to a city fire engine, Ontario also sent an engine provided by the state Office of Emergency Services that is kept in the city along with four Ontario fire personnel to man it, said Ontario Battalion Chief Dave Carrier.
The four fatalities Thursday was the most in California in one incident since Oct. 7, 1971, when four U.S. Forest Service firefighters were killed in the Romero Fire near Malibu.
In 1953, 15 firefighters were killed while fighting the Rattlesnake Ridge Fire near Mendocino -- the most fatalities in a single wildfire.
The most recent multi-fatality fire in the region was in 1959. Six firefighters were killed fighting the Decker Fire in Lake Elsinore.
Since 1990, 36 firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have fallen fighting wildland fires in California.
23 -- U.S. Forest Service
13 -- California Department of Forestry
Of those killed, 25 died in aerial accidents, 11 while firefighting on the ground.
Source: California Fire Foundation and California Firefighters Memorial
The Espernaza Fire burns along Highway 243 in the San Bernardino National Forest north of Idyllwild on Thursday.
Thanks for posting this.
I heard on KTLA this morning that they have identified a suspect in the arson. Meanwhile, the fifth firefighter needs our prayers.
A fifth firefighter _ identified as Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley _ had burns over almost his entire body and also had severe respiratory damage, officials said.
Loutzenhiser was a father of five, said Pat Boss, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
Is his name Satan?
The bastard who set this fire needs to get the death penalty. It's too bad we can't burn him at the stake.
The best station for fire info is KTIE 590.
Local to inland empire with detailed info on roads and other local info.
Talk home of Laura Ingraham, Micheal Medved and others.
bttt
Yeah. I listen to KTIE. Good station. Also home of Fox News Radio.
http://www.590ktie.com/default.asp
I watched a program last night "Target America" where the Japanese launched 5000 baloon bombs into the jetstream where it is believed that at least 1,000 landed on thw west coast. I theory was that the bombs would ignite massive forest fires in America. However, if the season would have been dry the attacks would have been successful.
I am sure that today's terrorists have thought of and planned arsons in America's forests.
I wonder if this could be such a terrorist attack. But, I am sure if the arsonist is caught that no matter what no one would be willing to call the act terrorism if in fact it were to found so.
Try http://www.mattlogic.com
for real time sacnners
FBI: al-Qaeda detainee spoke of fire plot
Posted 7/11/2003
PHOENIX (AP) — The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.
Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, told The Associated Press that officials there took note of the warning but didn't see a need to act further on it.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-11-alqaeda-fire_x.htm
The contents of the June 25 memo from the FBI's Denver office were reported Friday by The Arizona Republic. Davis declined to share a copy of the memo and an FBI spokeswoman in Denver didn't immediately return a telephone call.
The Republic reported that the detainee, who was not identified, said the plan involved three or four people setting wildfires using timed devices in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that would detonate in forests and grasslands after the operatives had left the country.
The memo noted that investigators couldn't determine whether the detainee was telling the truth.
The newspaper said many forest law enforcement officers it contacted had no idea the warning had been issued.
THE WEST ABLAZE
Many California firesbelieved to be arson
1 arrest so far as evidence of terror link, increase in blazes of 'biblical proportions'...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35346
Carolyn
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