The motorist who first reported the Canyon Fire 2 said Monday, Oct. 23 that he described the Oct. 9 incident as a fire, not as smoke.
The distinction matters because Orange County Fire Authority officials confirmed Monday that the dispatcher’s first response was to send a single fire engine with lights and sirens off, a deployment known as a low-priority “smoke check.” By the time a dispatcher ordered more engines and air equipment to the canyon – the “medium response” that department guidelines dictate for an active fire – the blaze had grown and was moving too fast for containment.
Over the next six days the Canyon Fire 2 burned 9,200 acres, destroyed or damaged nearly 60 homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Motorist Mike Griffith said he told a dispatcher that he saw a bush engulfed in wind-whipped flames about 6 feet high as he drove west to work on the 91 Freeway.
“Knowing what they know now, they could probably send a helicopter and be done with it,” said Griffith, 40, a media production company owner from Corona.
“I was thinking it could be put out very quickly.”
In the week or so before Griffith’s call, local fire agencies had taken numerous reports from motorists and others about rising smoke in the canyons. Those calls turned out to be false alarms, often dust devils and ash from previous fires whipped up by gusts of wind, said Marc Stone, a battalion chief with the Orange County Fire Authority.
Stone noted it would be impractical to send a full fire-fighting crew, including air tankers and helicopters, to respond to each report. He described the decision to issue a smoke check as a “judgment call-based situation.”
Fire officials also said their initial response to the Oct. 9 report involved two agencies, a factor that delayed their response.
Griffith’s call came to Anaheim Fire at 9:26 a.m., and was transferred to the Fire Authority two minutes later, said agency spokesman Sgt. Daron Wyatt on Monday. But Anaheim Fire didn’t hear back from the Fire Authority until 9:43 a.m., when a request was made to dispatch Anaheim engines to the canyon.
That 17-minute delay has prompted Anaheim Fire and Rescue to implement a change in policy. Going forward, Wyatt said, Anaheim Fire will respond to calls in the canyons even as it transfers the call to the Fire Authority.
By the time firefighters and air crews reached the burning area first reported by Griffith, the fire was moving too quickly for easy containment. The fire jumped the 241 toll road, which connects Riverside and Orange counties, at 10:42 a.m. Soon after, the fire was swallowing homes in Anaheim Hills.
Among the first to go was the Canyon Heights home owned by Kevin Shaevitz, a chiropractor who has lived in the neighborhood since 2006.
Shaevitz said Monday he still has too many questions to formulate any opinions on the response of the fire service.
“You kind of feel like (you’re) in the Twilight Zone and you’ll wake up soon,” said Shaevitz. “I’m trying to get more information to understand exactly what happened.”
County officials also are seeking more information.
County Supervisor Shawn Nelson said he wants an independent investigation into the delay as well as the dogfight between the Orange County Sheriff Department’s helicopter division and the Fire Authority over the sheriff’s desire to get more involved in firefighting and rescue operations. The Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the issue at its next scheduled meeting, Oct. 31.
“It’s pretty hard to swallow they didn’t send someone out there urgently,” Nelson said Sunday.