Today, A Decade Ago.......

I have written previously a post or two about my experiences to an extent with these fires. Today I was searching online to see what was still available to be seen from what was posted about the events of 10 years ago today! It has a special meaning because it was exactly a decade ago and I know what we were doing because it was a major event in so many people's lives. 

I know that for it's time this event was of an incredible magnitude, the first time the entire population of the San Bernardino mountains was ordered evacuated, but even this fire event has since been eclipsed buy more recent, and increasingly worse, events due to the continuing drought conditions in Southern California. 

Back in 2003 I was a shift Supervisor Lieutenant in San Bernardino County Animal Control. And Stacy was working in the Field as an Animal Control Officer. Our daughter Laura, again in the Animal Control field now in Texas, was at that time working at the County run Animal Shelter in the City of Rancho Cucamonga.

This fire event stretched our department beyond it's ability to respond to the public concerns. Many, many, residents were caught off guard by the sudden closure due to the very fast spreading of the fire because of the Santa Ana winds, and almost as fast evacuations of mountain communities which forced those owners to leave their pets behind with no way, and no one, to care for them. A trend over the years was so many people moving to the mountains and willing to make the drive and commute from the mountains to the valley or even to far away places like Los Angeles. With many people "off the mountain" when the fire started and the evacuation orders came out, they were understandably upset when stopped at roadblocks and told they could not go home! 

Right from the start the department was in the job of evacuating pets and farm animals from the communities, starting in the Crestline and Rancho Cucamonga areas and going from there. Dogs, cats, birds, fish, horses, goats, pigs, and more, were evacuated.

The two animal shelters the County ran, Devore and Rancho Cucamonga, as well as all other area shelters were quickly overflowing with pets. I remember quite a few horse owners from the mountains that had the money, had their horses taken to stables out near the Corona area quite a distance from those mountains.

The main human evacuation center was set up in hangers at the old Norton AFB (San Bernardino International) and an off site animal shelter was set up at another hanger because so many mountain residents that were able to actually get their pets when evacuating were shocked to find on their arrival that the Red Cross center did not allow them to keep their dogs and cats with them while under care of the Red Cross, a liability issue was the reason given. 

A livestock holding area was set up at the Devore Rodeo grounds that Stacy was in charge of running and several large animals from the Big Bear Zoo, like their Buffalo, were taken there along with dozens of horses, many the backyard type that were not socialized to be thrown in with other horses as well as a large heard of goats from the evacuated part of the Devore area.

I took some video when I was in the Moonridge area of Big Bear with our crews evacuating peoples animals. It was another so very surreal scene from the fires to be driving around in an almost completely deserted community. 

 

A decade ago this date, October 29, 2003, was on a Wednesday that year and about a week since the fires had started. The two fires, the Old Fire that had started in the Waterman Canyon area of San Bernardino had, with the Grand Prix that had started out in the West end of Rancho Cucamonga, merged into one enormous fire when they met at the Cajon Pass area of Devore.  By this time most all employees had been working basically non stop with all overtime approved by the County as it was to be repaid by the state for the disaster. In retrospect Stacy and I had asked ourselves why we hadn't just taken our own 5th wheel down to Devore and slept in it? It would have been a lot easier than it was trying to get home from the valley with all the activity going on due to the fire. 

The job by this time was more towards recovery of peoples animals as many were feared dead due to lack of care and food and water since the power to most residences had been off for days. People were calling in giving approval for the department to gain entry "with as little damage as possible" to the callers house to get their pets if still alive or remove them if they'd died.

The Humane Society of the United States as well as representatives from Animal Control Agencies from as far away as Florida had arrived to help with this recovery and teams were sent to the increasingly growing list of homes owners wanted checked. I do recall that while most pets were found alive, there were a few that had died from no power or food/water or heat with the cold temps and no one there to keep the house warm. The only call that sticks out in my mind was the two people from our department that accidentally broke the front door of a house when going after the pets there. They tried to place it back as best as they could but it had been literally broken off the hinges. Days later when the owners were finally able to return to their home, and they were lucky to have a home to return to, they found that a bear had gotten into their house tearing up the place since the door wasn't secure.

The main 'Fire Camp' at Devore was a sight to see. A tent city with I remember being told was over 4,000 firefighters camping in shifts all over the area that had been the US festival in the 1980s. Many of us ate some meals at the Fire Camp, I remember good food from the forest service, I remember great food from the Sheriff Department's mobile food truck!

I attended many of the 12 hour apart, 6 am and then 6 pm, fire update briefings at the Incident Command Post to report any changes back to my supervisors. The biggest thing I remember being told at several of these updates by the 29th was that it had been accepted that the fire crews would NOT be able to contain the fire.

If the weather hadn't finally changed, the winds died down and it rained with the humidity going up, they could not have stopped it and felt it would have gone all across the mountains to burn out after passing through the Big Bear area. 

The state had sent up a fleet of enormous blade caterpillars to cut fire breaks. But with the winds the breaks were ineffective at slowing the progress. It was going to be a fire that could not be put out, very similar to the just contained a few days ago, Yosemite fire that had started in the summer. But the rains came or it would have gone on for a lot longer with much more devastation in the mountains. 

And lastly in this recollection, I had been to Emergency Response Planning committee meetings that were held several months before this all happened in the Lake Arrowhead area.

The scenario that had been deemed the most plausible cause of an event like this one, and the one that had been planned out to the extent of training the evacuation routes and ways of evacuating places like all the summer camps facilities was this; 'a homeowner in the Lake Arrowhead area, in an attempt to remove a tree on his property that like so many others was dead from the Bark Beetle. This owner, not really prepared to take on a task like this without help, still goes to cut down the dead tree with his chainsaw. As it falls dead limbs fall on power lines going to his or a neighbors home arcing and catching fire. The fire very quickly spreads as the tree is tinder dry with numerous other dead trees and with dry shrubs all around as the owner had not cleared away the recommended amount', and while not entirely out of the scenario, the winds that were the main mover of the fire, were not projected to be at the magnitude they turned out to be, just the usual afternoon winds as the valley tries to equalize the pressure with the High Desert as it does daily. 

In the scenario, the winds still push the fire along but at a rate that still gives emergency response time to evacuate the areas away from this central point in the mountains. 

But the real fire started by an arsonist below Crestline and spread upward and Eastward incredibly fast with the gale force winds that had been blowing for several days prior to the start.

Yes, it was quite an event. One of those "defining events" for many in our department. 

I remember the "California Golden Pine", that was the name given to the thousands of dead trees in the forest due to the beetle and drought. I remember at the time the estimate was around 80% of the forest was dead from drought and beetle infestation. 

Even overshadowed by the worse fires of more recent years, it still has many memories to so many people. 

Ah the memories!

Is there Life after Animal Control?

So it has been a little over seven years since I last wore my badge and uniform and ventured out on a call.

Do I miss it?

You can see so many TV shows, usually about police officers but I expect it would also apply to other careers, like animal control, that portray the retired officer as very often an alcoholic or almost so, person, that could never quite adapt to life without the excitement of the daily routine and the comradery of law enforcement life.

Well, I have actually met people like that, back in my animal control days, and even where I live now, where the old ACO or officer still stops by to visit at the old station every week. Just to 'check in' and tell old stories of old glories and barrage any new hire that maybe hadn't heard them before.
I have told a few tales of tails but they've mostly been in these posts, so I guess my desire to type all this, was it was part memories and part therapy?

I have told a few stories to local law enforcement that for a while were considering starting up an area animal control response and liked the fact that both Stacy and I had so much experience.

But no, maybe I've been lucky in that regard by moving not only out of the area that we worked, but totally out of the state and far away from that state to boot.

But,........... do I miss it? Well,.......... in a way yes,....... but mainly no, I don't miss the job enough to be doing anymore, at this time in my life.

And actually, there is a person I know, we became Facebook friends and kind of reconnected a bit, (but to me the only reason to use Facebook is finding and then keeping tabs on old friends you want to and family), that had been an ACO for several years then his life went in a totally different tangent after he was injured on the job, to only be back to 'chasing dogs' in his mid fifties.
No, not for me!
Even if they had started a local animal control it would have advisory and part time tops!

But when I left the job in 2006 I was really disillusioned and burned out from the almost 25 years I'd already been there. I was so sick and tired of the inequity of the department, some people could do no right and several that didn't deserve it were the ones that could do no wrong, no matter how bad, including one that had medical issues that contributed to his having several vehicle accidents and losing his ability to drive yet was allowed to stay on as a "field" supervisor! Yet most of the people I'd known over the years that lost their ability to drive were immediately terminated since the job was driving and you couldn't drive you couldn't work.

No, just stupid stuff like that, bullying supervisors that would never have any repercussions for the bad behavior they did, and not one of those "powers that be" would even listen! It just kept getting worse and as always more calls, more work with less people and concern over quantity of calls versus the quality of those calls handled. I got soooo sick of those "do as I say not as I do" attitudes of those 4 people in the power positions.

No I really don't miss that part. I wouldn't want to do the job now with so many hyper critical 'citizens' that I expect now a days quickly and easily record perceived injustices on their smartphone to post on YouTube. Back then people griped, a few would haul out a camcorder, but most seemed to understand what the job was and what the job entailed. But with 'modern' morays as they are and most too quick to judge without knowledge,....... no, not for me.

What I would do though if it was possible would be just to try and make a better memory out of all of it. Those same smartphones that are the bane of so many departments would also be so great for grabbing better bits for memories sake.
Not much was truly portable and small back in those analog days. And if it was it cost way more than most people, like me, could afford.

The video I had taken and all the photos I've got, all required a thought out measured action due to the size of the gadgets needed to do those things. Now with my own Galaxy Note II, I grab it out of my shirt pocket and take a photo or video right then in a matter of seconds.
No getting it out of a case putting the battery in turn it on put the tape in and let it start up then get ready to even take the video or not too much differently to just take a photo. But I wish I had taken so much more now!

But with this digital, Internet, world, I can still relive some of it.
Such as I have a couple of 'Police Scanner' applications on both my iDevices and my Android phone that I have listened to the frequencies of my old area, just as I used to when I lived in that area with my own scanner radios.
Only thing I could do living there is my scanner would follow along with the rapid tower changes of the radio traffic as it went from tower to tower, those 800 Mz radios were after all the same as cell service back then, and with a special scanner you could stick with pretty much one channel and get the entire transmission.
No, listening on line you get just someone's scanner and sift through the calls. But the area channel splits and call signs haven't changed, so I am familiar with most of them, I recognize calls and areas and 1300 miles away I can still hear on occasion my old dispatch calls, ACO numbers owned by new people I don't know but with them getting the same kinds of call I had gotten those years ago and for all those years!

Like the other day, it seemed like most of the field people were scrambling to get their afternoon "10-48" (break) just like they did when I worked there. I found it very funny in that part of an
ACO's day seemingly hadn't changed at all, years later it seemed like they still take a break on the way to the shelter so they can't get any late calls. Just like back in those olden days when Bob, or Henry, or Ray, Maurice, they'd often try to bend the system as much as they could.
And with all those photos I can look at them and recall where it was and what I was doing in them. I can't recall the day of the week or the dates though, except for a few of them. Standout days and dates.

But back to topic, is there life afterword?

Of course there is! Life goes on after all, but what kind of life is there?

I know of many, that while I was there those 24+ years, would quit and then a few years later try to get back on. Most didn't, often because of their own behavior when they worked there before.
The ones that did, and I think of only 2 that ever did, were not there very long in their 'second life' and left again.

For myself and Stacy, we lucked out again in our new lives so I can't complain and throughly enjoy the truly slower pace and less crowds of our current home. I've told many people that where we live now is very similar to the San Bernardino mountains of about 40 years ago. Not crowded, actually green and even snows in the winter. Both the green and snow I read don't happen much there any more.

So I sometimes chase the memories, I'll watch the videos I posted on YouTube, reread my posts here, look at and remember the photos I took then, I'll listen on a scanner app to the Sheriff, emergency and Animal Control calls and remember when I was the one getting many of them or going out with a Sheriff Officer to a call, and I'll try to remember every detail of the life back then, the people involved and be glad I'm still here and able to do this.