Fires to the left of me...fires to the right of me...

Wow--has southern California had its proverbial ASS handed to us this past week? I should think so. It's been hellacious to say the least. Welcome to my blog--the first entry I've had time to write after what I think will go down as probably the worst firestorm we've had ever in terms of loss of life, property and acreage (disclaimer--I COULD be wrong about that because 2003 was PRETTY DANG BAD...but there's a political side to 2007 that may push this firestorm into the "worst ever" category). As most of you know, if you follow my blog, in my other life, I'm a Senior Communications Supervisor for the OCFA Command Center. I was called into work on Sunday morning at 0900hrs because of the severe wind event we were having. It was pretty bad. But bad was redefined for me later that day at about 6pm.

A fire broke out at Santiago Canyon Road at Silverado Canyon Rd, and fanned by constant 40mph northeast winds with gusts to 80+, it quickly spread and became what you have all read about in the news. When an event occurs like this, activity level in the Command Center goes off the charts. Obviously. We get innudated with 911 calls, we need to dispatch units, we need to set up a system to monitor the big incident and try to not let it impact the day-t0-day incidents that still occur (like medical aids and traffic accidents and what have you)...so it becomes very chaotic in a very very short amount of time. It's akin to going from 0-60 in about 2 seconds.

In any event, along with a crack staff of dispatchers and supervisors that REALLY REALLY rose to the challenge and performed extraordinarily well and showed some great teamwork for the most part, we got through this disaster. But what's sort of (darkly) funny is what happened when our Santiago Fire was REALLY cooking. Here's a copy of the email I just sent to the dispatch staff here--should be self-explanatory:

Thought this might be interesting—

So, while the end of the world was occurring in Santiago Canyon and the flames were literally at our door (LITERALLY—go look at the landscape along the 261), we began receiving tons of reports of a fire—A REALLY BIG FIRE—on the Ortega [Highway] and in the hills above San Clemente. At this point in the game, I pretty much threw my hands up in the air and said to myself, “Nice knowing ya San Juan Capistrano!” because all we had I think left in our inventory was a patrol, a 1948 Le France [Fire Engine], and some guy on a horse with a fire extinguisher. In any event, I was in constant contact with Chief Dave Pierce who resides in Dana Point, as well as Camp Pendleton Fire dispatch. A sample of one of our calls is as follows:

Chief Pierce: Hey Ryan, so uh, do you know about the fire in the hills above San Clemente?
Me: San Clemente? That’s one of our cities?
Chief Pierce: Well uhhhh, yeah, it’s about to NOT be one of our cities. You are aware of the fire, right?
Me: Just a second Chief, I’m almost at the end of the internet. Just two seconds.
Chief Pierce: Uhhhh, so, uhhhh, not to be an alarmist but…uhhh…you are aware of the fire that is currently bearing down on the city of San Clemente, is that right?
Me: Fire, schmire…Camp Pendleton is burning up. Don’t worry, be happy.

Little did I know, Chief Pierce was reporting pretty much what you see in the enclosed picture, so hence, his right to be a TAD nervous…as well as the right of the 13,257 people from the city of San Clemente who, nervously, called me asking just how far should they evacuate to, or should they just jump into the Pacific.

Enjoy…

So this shot is from Dana Point looking "south" to San Clemente (blinking lights in the hills) and to the fire (big mushroom cloud looking thing from behind the mountain). VERY scary picture, and in all seriousness, even for seasoned fire professionals, can make your heart race quite a bit. Chief Pierce, who has told me he is an infrequent reader of my stupid blog, is one of our Assistant Chiefs and a former "boss" of mine as he used to be the Battalion Chief of the Command Center many moons ago. Great guy and I'm sure he doesn't mind the creative liberty I took with the phone call example above...RIGHT CHIEF!?!? CHIEF!?!? RIGHT?????

Another HUGE component of this fire that is sort of being lost in the media frenzy and the political "finger pointing" is the one simple fact...we had high temps, high winds, and no humidity. In other words, the ABSOLUTE WORST in conditions. To me, and in my experience, you could have had 400 fire engines lined up in a row, 4 firefighters on each engine, each person holding a 2 inch hose hooked up to the most powerful pump with a never-ending source of water, and they STILL would have had significant problems trying to control this fire or ANY vegetation fire in these conditions. In the fire service, we use a term used on structure fires called "going defensive". That means the fire is too overwhelming for the equipment and personnel on scene, and instead of trying to go into a fire and putting it out, we pull back and protect things that HAVEN'T burned yet from burning (like other buildings for instance). In the case of a wildfire like what we had (and granted, I may not be an expert in fire behavior), I highly doubt anyone would disagree--you don't stand a chance in putting the fire OUT...you stand a greater chance protecting life and property that are in the way of the fire. You evacuate, you set up a defensive line, you protect your firefighters and save the houses as best as you can. What the media will have you believe, for example (classic example--I HEARD IT PERSONALLY), is something like "...and while houses burned, firefighters drove by and didn't even put water on the flames." Well...NO KIDDING. When a fire of such magnitude is burning so hot, and so fast (case in point--the Witch Fire in Rancho Bernardo), you can barely keep up with the progress of the fire. Burning embers, high winds, high heat...it quickly becomes overwhelming. And firefighters do NOT need to be losing their lives putting out a house fire. Homes can be rebuilt. So...in case you're wondering about how the media MAY spin this, just remember...conditions this past week, in a word, SUCKED.

Another component that hits me in BOTH of my "worlds" if you will (band geek stuff and fire stuff) is that one of southern California's best marching bands, Rancho Bernardo HS, had I believe about 15 kids whose homes were destroyed. That's absolutely heartbreaking. I'm not sure if any kids from Poway HS or Mt. Carmel HS lost homes--haven't heard. I sure hope not. I think Ramona HS and Fallbrook HS (both with band programs) also had kids that lost homes.

OK...enough fire stuff. Now on to important matters.

Remember...H3. Debuting in March. Well--there's a bit more to the story.

We need names. For HIM. Yep. HIM. I was hoping for a girl, but, I'm good with a boy! It's just that my Michael Ryan at 3 is running me freakin ragged, and I'm like already 65 years old or something!!! :-) The Warden is still sick but hanging tough. We're hoping she doesn't come down with that crappy toxemia which has dogged her the last two kids. That's the LAST thing we need is her being put on mandatory bed rest.

Other news...interesting phone call from a band director in Illinois, wanting to tap into the comic genius that apparently I'm equated with because of my involvement with the Velvet Knights. We'll see how this pans out. Has great potential. We shall see.

Interesting email received a couple of days ago by a big name in the drum corps world that wants to meet with me for lunch this week. His email was rather implicit--SOON was what he said. Hmmmmmm...always an adventure in the life of Ryan, eh? We shall see.

Onwards and upwards...going now to start my day here at the OCFA. I'll leave you with this pic, taking at long range, of me announcing at the Rose Bowl on Friday, August 9th, for the Kingsmen Alumni Corps performance at Drum Corps International's semi finals before a crowd of about 10,000 - 12,000 people. Notice the sunburn. I had been announcing that day at Pasadena City College so I was out in the sun, and sunblock did little for me apparently.

And no...that's not a mumu. It's my lucky Hawaiian shirt.

Now get outta here!!!!!!!!