I live in San Diego county, and my community from time to time has to deal with wildfires. In 2003, the Crest Fire burned down the home of one of my best friends. This week, San Diego was hit by the worst firestorm in recent history. In this fire, the same person was evacuated, and while he didn't lose his home again, while he and his family were still under evacuation orders, his father passed away in the hospital from an unrelated illness. I got through the crisis myself just fine, other than some minor inconvenience and drama, but when I see people all around me whose lives are so affected, I have to stop and think.
click the map above for an interactive version
The firefighters themselves were absolutely impressive. The dedication and commitment of professional firefighters amazes me every time I hear about them. I have nothing negative whatsoever to say about the men and women who met these fires head on. Who else runs toward danger, rather than away from it?
The government's handling of the situation, and the bureaucratic bungling of the resources needed to fight the fires are another matter. Supposedly the fires are in their "last throes" as I write this, and there are several things about this series of events that are starting to spark a bit of anger.
The first thing that pisses me off relates to the administrative mismanagement of the firefighting effort. There are some press reports stating that there were not enough aircraft to fight the fires, at least initially, and that bureaucracy hampered the efforts. Scharzenegger denies it, but those reports are backed up by a statement by the Fire Chief in Orange County, Chip Prather: “It is an absolute fact: Had we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire." Bureacracy slowed the utilization of these resources, and this put a huge obstacle in the way of getting these fires under control.
San Diego investigative reporter Michael Turko, from KUSI local news,
interviews Ruben Grijalva, Cal Fires Chief (click above for video link)
There is an ongoing but (at least as far as my research has uncovered) unsubstatiated rumor in San Diego that during Bush's visit, the aircraft fighting the fire were grounded while Bush was in town. This rumor has been aired on local talk radio but only when brought up by people who call in. There was apparently an interview with a firefighter about this on KUSI, but I am unable to find a transcript. There are hearsay reports on blogs that mention this, but no person who has first-hand knowledge of aircraft being grounded has come forward, and no media report can be found online that mentions this at all. Even if the rumors are true, this comes as no surprise.
One thing that is verifiable is that Bush's visit caused a major traffic jam, stopping evacuees from returning to their homes.
My own congressman, Duncan Hunter, has repeatedly jumped into the limelight, trying to use the fires to fuel his limping Presidential campaign. On FOX news, he tries to portray Democrats as using the fires for political purposes, while using that appearance and others (click here) (and click here) to keep his face in front of the cameras.
I find it interesting that the proposed Blackwater West Mercenary Encampment, an new training facility project under review by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, is located in Portrero near the source of the Harris Fire. I would have thought it likely that Blackwater USA might have had a motive for causing this kind of local disruption, but since the fire affected their construction site, it is within the realm of possiblity that they are as much a victim of the fire as the rest of the county.
Facility currently at the proposed site for Blackwater West
Firefighters onsite at proposed Blackwater West area
Graded road built on property for proposed Blackwater facility
(do they have a road grading & building permit?)
(thanks to Ray Lutz for these photos, they were taken by him while he was working as a cameraman for a New York Times reporter covering the fires)
What is certain is that the residents of Portrero have suffered, and that the proposed Blackwater project would increase the long-term risk of fire.
Meanwhile, back in the city of San Diego, donations of food, necessaries, blankets and clothing stacked up at Qualcomm Stadium, and evacuees at Chicano Park in San Diego went without. Many hispanic immigrants (most of them legal residents) who were evacuated to Qualcomm and other evacuation centers were given short shrift on supplies by non-hispanic officials.
I do know that regardless of the chest thumping and attaboys by Schwarzenegger and Sanders, there were significant problems with the evacuees. Something that has been basically unnoticed by most of the mainstream media is that while Qualcomm was used successfully during the week as an evacuation center, the San Diego Chargers kicked about 500 people out of their parking lot on Friday.
All this drives home to me, especially as a resident of San Diego County, that the lessons learned at Katrina were most assuredly applied here. The rich white people evacuated from million-dollar homes were well taken care of and paraded in front of the cameras, while the poor brown people were hungry and cold, and kept away from the media. Relief efforts to the remote community of Portrero were hampered by San Diego County Sheriffs despite the urgent need of residents, FEMA gave a press conference that was carefully prepared to portray them in the best light, and as usual, the national mainstream media failed to cover the real stories, and the Bush administration succeeded in distracting attention from itself.
Peace
