Catalina Island Fire 2007

"And the sun turned blood red"

May 10, 2009, was the second anniversary of the 2007 Catalina Fire that threatened to destroy the town of Avalon. Headline stories hit the newspapers, radio and internet, world-wide, while CNN, FOX, BBC, and all of the television networks lead their morning and evening programs with the progress of the fire. Those of us who were on the Island during the fire heard from family and friends from around the world. It will not soon, if ever, be forgotten by the Islanders!

I have been asked to tell some of the "behind the scenes" stories, from my perspective. I am sure that many Islanders, who are reading this, have their own stories to share and this would be a great opportunity to share them. Send YOUR stories to: liddell@catalinas.net and I’ll post them on my blog. Maybe your story should be part of the Catalina Island Oral History program.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

1) The fire started at 12:32PM, May 10, 2007, in the interior of the Island, about four miles North/West of the town of Avalon, at the KBRT radio station. It was started when soldering was being done on the guide lines of the antenna tower. The red-hot end of one of the wires fell into the nearby dry brush (we had only 3" of rainfall that season) and the fire exploded from there, ground zero.

2) The fire reached the town of Avalon at approximately 5:00 PM requiring that thirty-eight hundred men, women, and children be evacuated to the mainland throughout the night. People ran to the ocean, some fully expecting to die in the flames there.

3) 771 firefighters fought the fire. Including the California Department of Forestry, Orange County Fire Department, Glendale Fire Department, Long Beach Fire Department, Monrovia Fire Department, and United States Forest Service, 29 camp crews consisting of 350 inmates from the California Department of Corrections, 73 fire engines arrived by barge, 10 helicopters, 5 fixed wing aircraft and 2 military hovercraft. As well as the United States Marines from Camp Pendleton, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Navy. All of whom were brought from the mainland to assist our small city and county fire departments with much needed equipment and man power. What an impressive display of emergency personnel deployed to Catalina Island that day.

I had just completed a presentation for the Chamber of Commerce orienting new employees from several Avalon businesses to life in Avalon. I had told them about the 1915 fire, which had destroyed 1/2 of the town of Avalon and given them a "walking tour" of the town, to help to orient them.

When the tour was over, I was walking back to my home when I noticed a huge cloud of smoke coming over the hills on the West side of town. I then heard the evacuation sirens and saw people scrambling to get out of the way of the approaching fire.

I belong to a local organization called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). We are trained to back up the local fire and sheriff's department, in case of disasters. I ran home, put on my gear, green helmet and green vest, and headed out to City Hall, which was now the Central Command Post. I was assigned to stand at the foot of Country Club Road and direct traffic down toward the ocean front. Additionally, I was to keep anyone from returning, up the hill, to their homes.

After a few hours, I was reassigned to a position near the "Sand Trap" restaurant, adjacent to the golf course fairways. I was ordered to keep sight seers away from the area, which included the hospital, golf course, horse stables, and the school. The fire was racing toward Avalon from that direction and my job was to keep people out of the away and keep the roads clear so that the helicopters could land on the golf course, and so that the press could be directed to safe areas to televise and report on the fire. Within and hour or two, the patients had been moved from the hospital to the City Hall and the horses had been moved from the stables to the "Field of Dreams" baseball field (where the Chicago Cubs held their Spring Training from 1921-51).




As I stood and watched the fire heading toward the school, I was sure that it was going to catch on fire. This would have meant that the hospital was next and then the town would have been in major jeopardy! I was "ordered" three times by my superiors to leave the area and three times I had to say "NO"! After all, I was born in this town and if it was going to burn down, an Islander and historian needed to be there to see it happen. I know that sounds pretty odd, but that was the way I felt. If the town was to burn, an Islander needed to be a witness to it.

I stood transfixed by the fire (when you stare at fire long enough, you almost become hypnotized) coming down the back of school. Wayne Herbst, the Vice-Principal, who had been watering down the school grounds and had been forced to give up, came down to join me. We agreed that prayer was definitely appropriate now! Believe it or not, as we prayed, the fire seemed to lay down, and when we stopped praying, the fire would flare up again. I kidded with Wayne that we would have to pray even harder. He asked why and I told him that there were only two of us praying for the saving of the school and over seven hundred students praying that the school would burn down! At times like this, humor and prayer are both needed, especially prayer!

The horses, now moved from the stables, were being tightly monitored by their owners. Not only could they see the fire, but also smell it. When the trees and power-telephone poles (150 power poles) started exploding, from the extreme heat, the horses would let out screams that I will never forget.

As I stood with Wayne praying, I experienced a miracle! When the fire got within forty feet of the back of the school buildings, the winds suddenly shifted Eastward, and the fire missed the school completely. Unfortunately, one home did burn down, as well as eight businesses, on the outskirts of town. !!!BUT AVALON WAS SAVED!!!

There was an amazing outpouring of community support during the entire ordeal. Most of the kitchen staff in the restaurants had to be evacuated. Most of the restaurants, except "Rosie's Fish Market", at the end of the Pleasure Pier and "Mr. Ning's Chinese Restaurant", on Sumner Ave, were closed. Both restaurants stayed open during the fire to feed those who stayed behind, but had no homes to go back to, until the fire danger was over. "Mr. Ning's" even provided free meals to anyone who was involved in protecting Avalon. Even the staff wouldn't accept tips. They turned me down several times when I tried to thank them.

There were weddings and parties planned during the fire period which also supplied food that would otherwise spoil and had to be eaten soon! Local volunteers served 6,000 meals during the 90 hours of the fire, including 50 gallons of marinara sauce, 500 pounds of potatoes, 18 gallons of ranch dressing, 15 gallons of salsa, not to mention all of the gourmet party meals that were served.

As a testimony to the divine cuisine that was served, a sign went up in the fire station which changed the name of the incident to the "Five Pound Fire", which soon became the "Ten Pound Fire", and by the end it was called the "Twenty Pound Fire". This was the amount of weight that the firemen and others claimed they gained eating the glorious food during the disaster.

The fire was finally contained on May 15, 2007, at 6:00 PM. Eventually 4,750 acres, approximately 1/10 of the Island, was burned in the fire.

During the fire, physical and verbal signs of love and support appeared all over town. On May 16, most of the remaining Islanders went down to the dock to tearfully wave good-bye to the brave men and women who saved our town. I was personally told by many of these mainland saviors that they had never been treated as well as the Islanders treated them. I guess that a lot of communities take these wonderful people for granted. Besides, we had Avalon to lose. Maybe other communities don't love their home as much as we love ours!

This might sound strange, but May 10th, 2007, was the most perfect day for our fire to start. These same brave firefighters were battling the Griffith Park Fire, (only 26 miles across the sea) which was, "conveniently", extinguished on May 10th. If our fire had started on May 9th, we would have been told that we were on our own as the fire fighters couldn't leave a largely populated area to help a town as small as ours. If the fire had started here on May 11, most of the fire fighters would have already left for home, which would mean that it would have taken many hours, if not days, to deploy them again.

As it was, it only took around two hours for the fire fighters to leave the mainland and get to our little Island. Those two hours meant the difference between our town being saved or being only a memory!

If anyone doesn't believe God is still performing miracles, read this whole story over again.

2007 Catalina Fire slide show (click both links) SignonSanDiego.com: and CBS.com