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Tuesday, Sep. 01, 2009

Fast call for help averted more destruction in Auburn, fire officials say

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AUBURN – As firefighters continued today to douse smoldering ashes and watch for flare-ups two days after fire swept through Auburn neighborhoods, officials say early decisions in the battle helped fend off further destruction.

Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire spokesman, said that it is becoming clear how important it was that the first responders quickly asked for backup to fight the fire that eventually burned 63 homes and several businesses.

Within the first 20 minutes, the initial attack incident commander requested 40 to 50 additional fire engines. If he had not responded as quickly, Berlant said, the fire would have burned hundreds of more homes.

"That was how fast this wildfire was burning," said Berlant. "It is so sad this fire was able to burn so quickly because of the dry conditions and the wind. The wind was blowing pretty steady at about 20 mph the whole time while the fire was raging."

Cause of the fire is still under investigation. Investigators, Berlant said, are busy ruling out each possibility until they narrow to one cause.

The fire is 80 percent contained today, officials say, as anxious residents filter back into smoldering neighborhoods.

The wind-blown blaze called the 49 fire did its damage, mainly to homes, in just a few hours Sunday night, leaving its own grisly and inexplicable checkerboard pattern of ruin – this home gone, that one untouched.

Fire officials, however, were counting their blessings. No one was seriously hurt despite a chaotic Sunday that caught many by surprise in the woody subdivisions east of Highway 49 and north of Bell Road.

"We are absolutely relieved," fire spokesman Dennis Mathisen said. "This was like an Armageddon for a couple hours here."

The fire started about 2 p.m. near Highway 49 and Rock Creek Road. Investigators were on the scene Monday, but state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials had not determined a cause.

Officials began allowing residents back into the area at 7 p.m. Monday to pick up belongings, although firefighters were still conducting mop-up work and Pacific Gas and Electric crews had not yet reconnected gas and electric hook-ups to homes.

Officials acknowledged that many people had disregarded their evacuation requests, staying in their homes Sunday night and returning Monday before the area was deemed safe.

"Sometimes people do stay," Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. "Obviously, it is something we strongly discourage.

"Wildfires change direction quickly. If a house does catch on fire, we have to pull firefighters off the front line to save them," he said.

Those who returned Monday saw how capricious a hill country fire can be.

Joseph Moscariello's home on Oak Mist Lane was untouched save for blistered paint.

His neighbor's was gone.

A few blocks away, Tami Higgs cried as family and friends sifted through the burned remains of her home. They found blackened but still intact china and a bottle of tequila.

"It's opened," a family friend quipped.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured the site Monday afternoon, thanking fire officials. He stopped to give Higgs a hug and tell her the state would do what it could.

"Thanks for making me smile," Higgs told the governor. "I was freaking out."

In total, the fire covered 340 acres and burned for only one afternoon and night. It cut, however, through a densely packed area of homes and businesses north of Auburn, destroying a motorcycle shop and two other businesses, and damaging six more businesses. In addition to the 63 destroyed homes, three others were damaged.

The hardest-hit area was a hillside enclave centered on Parkway Drive.

Fire officials said the fire represents a classic scenario in California in areas where urban development abuts wildlands.

The fire swept up an open hillside of dry brush – given a running start by the funneling effect of uphill winds – directly into a subdivision of cul-de-sacs and winding streets.

"We've seen this in Northern California and Southern California, where topography and wind make it go fast," said Mathisen, a Roseville fire official on loan to Cal Fire.

Embers from one burning house jump to the next, often skipping houses or even blocks before landing, officials said.

"The fire service is always trying to get the message out to people in wildland-urban interface areas: You need to recognize the hazards," Mathisen said.

He said a number of residents in the area had cleared their properties of dry material, and that may have helped save some houses.

More than 245 firefighters from numerous agencies were on the scene Monday afternoon. Officials said the fire had been tamped down and was largely under control Monday, but estimated containment at only 70 percent, adding they still feared possibly resparking amid moderate winds.

Residents recounted drama on the hillside Sunday.

Moscariello of Oak Mist Lane said he first heard the sound of a plane, a C-130, and ran outside to find flames in the hillside trees below his house, heading his way.

He looked up and waved his arms. The plane made a turn and dumped a load of fire retardant on his home, and him.

"This thing came so fast," Moscariello said. By the time his family had gathered some belongings, flames were slapping at his neighbor's truck. The neighbor jumped in their car with them.

Moscariello's wife broke down Monday when she returned to see her home still standing.

Moscariello, a military colonel who had served in Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia, was awed. "I've seen places like Sarajevo destroyed," he said. "It's a different feeling when it's your own home."

Rosie Christians credits her son Jessie, 30, and neighbors with saving the homes on their Northpark Place cul-de-sac, while houses were destroyed across the way.

Christians said her son, who had fire training in high school, drove from his Loomis home Sunday and went house to house, turning off the gas service. He and neighbors placed sprinklers on roofs to water them.

"It was quite something. Planes were coming so low, they had to squat on the roof," Christians said.

Were it not for a friend, Rachel Higgs does not know what would have happened to her and her 6-month-old baby.

The baby was asleep, and Higgs was watching television when a friend called to ask about the fire. Higgs went outside, saw the fire jumping a creekbed behind her house, grabbed her baby, clad only in diapers, and caught a ride with a neighbor to safety.

She and her parents returned Monday to find their home gone.

The family is unsure whether to move or rebuild. Rachel's mother, Tami Higgs, said it may be time the family considered someplace away from dry brush and open hillsides.

For one family, the tragedy was doubled.

In June, David and Lori Ford suffered the loss of their 19-year-old son, Michael, from sudden cardiac failure.

Sunday, their house on Morning Mist Lane burned to the ground. Monday evening, the couple and four children returned to sift through the ruins of what had been Michael's room, hoping to find remembrances of him.

Several firefighters happened by and pitched in.

Ford, a deacon in his church, said the family is determined to rebuild.

"We are standing before the mystery of evil, but our faith consoles us," he said.

He wept as he searched, until a neighbor arrived holding the family cat, Striper, whiskers singed but otherwise healthy.

"The kitty's OK," Ford said, his face lighting up.