After the Mountain Fire: An I-Team investigation
When a wildfire sparks up, seconds matter, minutes matter. But, nearly five years ago today, the Mountain Fire threatened the town of Idyllwild. Karen Devine has been digging into why some of the closest firefighters were not called to help for nearly a half hour, in an I-team investigation.
On July 15, 2013, Idyllwild’s Fire Chief Patrick Reitz and the crew from Station 621 were all listening intently for the call to help. Now, we’re questioning fire officials about a misstep in communication that may have made a difference in the firefight, and what’s changed since.
“They could walk out the door, they could see the smoke, they knew they had an incident and they could do nothing but wait.”
Idyllwild’s Fire Chief Patrick Reitz says when the destructive Mountain Fire broke out, 25 other units including engines, tanker planes, and a helicopter were called in a 20 minute period, but not Idyllwild Station 621, located just a few miles away from the origin of the flames.
“We never really received a solid answer other than it shouldn’t have happened and it shouldn’t happen again,” says Reitz.
Even though there is a long-standing Mutual Aid agreement in place between Cal Fire-Riverside County and Idyllwild Fire Protection District, Chief Reitz says it was not adhered to in the initial dispatch of the Mountain Fire, delaying response.
When Devine asked if station 621 had been called out first, would it have made a difference in a firefight, Chief Reitz responded,
“We can sit here and go yea we could have held that at 3 acres, we could have held it at the highway to keep it from crossing the highway, the reality is we don’t know because the resources were never sent.”
The Mountain Fire burned for 16 days, destroying 27,000 acres in the San Jacinto Mountains in the San Bernardino National Forest. 23 structures burned. Embers blew into the town of Idyllwild. A mandatory evacuation for the town of Idyllwild was put into place on the 3rd day of the fire and according to Chief Reitz it was an eerie feeling as the town emptied out.
It was definitely scary, especially only having been here for 11 months and I’m wondering if I was going to have a town to serve at the end of all of this,” said Reitz.
Cal Fire-Riverside County’s current Fire Chief Dan Talbot was not the Chief when the Mountain Fire erupted 5 years ago. He cannot speak to the call made that day not to send station 621 sooner. But he did say, “Any system that is based upon human beings and requires human being interaction is never going to be perfect but I’m very proud of what our dispatchers do and the exceptionally low error rate that they have.”
Devine asked Chief Reitz if he believes Cal Fire made a mistake by not calling out station 621 first?
“You cannot make up that lost time with resources, you send the world and you cancel what you don’t need. You send it home, you throw as many resources as you have on to an incident you know that had that kind of potential on that day to try to stay it as much as possible.”
By the time station 621 got the call the mountain fire was quickly turning into a major threat, burning in the direction of Idyllwild. Chief Reitz says communication between all agencies, once his department was involved, was excellent. All working together especially on the decision to evacuate idyllwild.
“I cannot say enough about all of the players in that effort, that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Law enforcement, fire, EMS, all the command structures,” said Reitz.
The town of Idyllwild was saved and there were no deaths related to the fire. And, while lessons were learned, Chief Reitz says in the 5 years since the fire, challenges with the other agencies have been minor.
“There have been incidences where the communication could have definitely been better however we are not dwelling on the past, we learned from our past mistakes, that’s what we use history for. We don’t dwell on it and we try to ensure that today is a new day and it doesn’t happen again.”
On another note, new information today on the two pending lawsuits against the owner of the property where the Mountain Fire started. The lawsuit filed by the State has been settled out of court according to a source at the Department of Justice. Cal Fire – Riverside County and private parties were the plaintiffs in this case. There will be one more hearing before the financial agreements will be released. Regarding the Federal lawsuit, (U.S. Forest Service) there will be a jury trial in October of this year.
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