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H Besides ordering the California National Guard on Monday to make 1,500 guardsmen
available for firefighting efforts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Pentagon to send
all available Modular Airborne Fighting Systems to the area. The military Lockheed C-
130 cargo/utility aircraft carry a pressurized 3,000-gallon tank that can eject fire retardant
or water in fewer than five seconds through two tubes at the rear of the plane. This load
can cover an area 1/4- mile long and 60 feet wide to create a fire barrier. Governor
Schwarzenegger also directed 2,300 inmate firefighters and 170 custody staff from the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to work hand in hand with state
and local firefighters.
I Residents and government officials alike are noting the improvements with gratitude,
even amid the loss of homes, churches, businesses, and farms. By Tuesday morning, the
fires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres
— 384 square miles
— ablaze. Despite such losses, there is a sense that he speed, dedication, and
coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are resulting in greater
efficiency than in past "siege fire" situations.
J "I am extraordinarily impressed by the improvements we have witnessed between the
last big fire and this," says Ross Simmons, a San Diego-based lawyer who had to
evacuate both his home and business on Monday, taking up residence at a Hampton Inn
30 miles south of his home in Rancho Bernardo. After fires consumed 172,000 acres
there in 2003, the San Diego region turned communitywide soul-searching into improved
building codes, evacuation procedures, and procurement of new technology. Mr.
Simmons and neighbors began receiving automated phone calls at 3:30 a.m. Monday
morning telling them to evacuate. "Nothwithstanding all the damage that will be caused
by this, we will not come close to the loss of life because of what we have ... put in place
since then," he says.
