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ISSA CRITICIZES STATE FIRE REPORT
State puts more aircraft on standby this week, watches winds
But even as firefighters brace for more wildfire, some public officials are criticizing the way the state responded to last month's infernos.
A local congressman said Monday that a report published over the weekend by the state's firefighting agency, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, failed to examine whether there are lessons to be learned.
An official with the state agency, which is also known as CalFire, disagreed.
"Nobody's trying to say this was the most perfect thing that ever happened," said Mike Padilla, CalFire's aviation chief.
Padilla said the agency already has made adjustments in preparing for the possibility of more fire. He said the state has stationed 19 of its 23 air tankers, eight of its nine helicopters, both of its DC-7 airplanes and its only DC-10 at Southern California bases.
"I've got 90 percent of my air fleet committed to the south," Padilla said. "What more can I do? I don't have anything left. I'm stripped."
Padilla said 10 fewer aircraft were available at the outset of last month's fires. He said CalFire officials thought that the fire season was coming to a close and had scheduled 10 aircraft for maintenance.
Padilla said those planes and helicopters had been pulled out of hangars for October's firefight, and remain on standby until the fire threat ends.
Pilots stand ready to fly state aircraft, he said. And Padilla said state spotters are prepared to guide military pilots into a firefight if defense aircraft are needed as well.
"These are people, by the way, who are all giving up their Thanksgiving to be there," Padilla said.
Of the agency's Sacramento base, he said, "this place is a ghost town."
On Monday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, was lamenting another absence.
The North County congressman faulted the state agency's report for failing to learn from mistakes, and said state fire officials had responded too defensively to criticism.
Issa said the overall firefighting effort was strong, but there are ways the state can improve.
"In order to have excellence, real excellence, you have to always have an attitude that you didn't do as good as you could have done and that you want to do better," Issa said in a telephone interview. "The attitude of the professionals involved here seems to be, 'We did everything right. And here's my notes.' ... That's not excellence."
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials defended the report, saying it is preliminary, focused mostly on raw numbers and not designed to justify its actions.
Padilla, however, did say the harsh criticism CalFire has received from some public officials has put the agency on the defensive.
"The defensiveness comes from people ... saying, 'We don't believe you,' " he said.
Issa and other public officials have criticized the agency, saying it could have brought more military aircraft into the firefight early on to try to prevent fires from ballooning out of control. And they have blamed state safety rules.
The 125-page CalFire report, which provides details on numbers of people, aircraft, fire engines and bulldozers, confirmed that military aircraft did not get off the ground early in part because state rules require spotters to guide military pilots.
Spotters, or air managers, are people who fly with pilots more accustomed to carrying out military missions. Few were available when the fires started.
The report shows, for example, that four California National Guard UH-60 helicopters were available at a Los Angeles-area air base at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 22, when the San Diego County fires did some of their worst damage.
But no spotters were available to guide them. And no attempt was made to fly the helicopters until two spotters arrived at 11:30 a.m., with a third reporting for duty at 3 p.m.
Once everybody was in place, the report said, high winds prevented the aircraft from taking off.
While federal lawmakers have criticized the rule as needlessly delaying the initial attack, Padilla defended it is as a crucial method for ensuring safety.
Padilla said it wouldn't have made much difference -- if any at all -- if military aircraft had gotten into the fight earlier.
That may be the case, Issa said.
"But that's not the point," he said. "The question is, 'Could we have put more assets into play to make a difference?' And the answer is, 'Yes.' "
Issa said his main concern is that the state learn how to fight such firestorms better, as it did following the unprecedented fires of 2003.
"The point is, we want them to do better," he said.
The report asserts that the initial air response was rapid. It says a plane was in the air 11 minutes after the Harris fire started in southern San Diego County on Oct. 21, and an air tanker was launched from Ramona just five minutes after the Witch Creek fire was reported that afternoon.
However, within a half hour, or by 1:19 p.m., all four tankers dispatched to the Witch Creek fire were grounded because of severe winds, the report states.
A tanker tried going up again at 5 p.m., "but was forced back to base due to winds."
Michael Jarvis, a spokesman of CalFire, said the agency makes no apologies for those decisions.
"We fly planes and helicopters when it is safe," he said. "No exceptions."
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