Barger tours fire devastation
Landscape is lunar-like with burned trees, bushes
PEARBLOSSOM — Supervisor Kathryn Barger joined Los Angeles County fire, public works and planning officials Thursday morning for an update on the Bobcat Fire and a tour of the devastation.
Officials met at LA County Fire Station 79 on Longview Road prior to the tour.
A caravan of vehicles was led by a fire engine from Station 79 down Longview Road to Fort Tejon Road and through Juniper Hills.
The skeletal remains of burned trees and bushes on the scorched landscape looked like a lunar landscape with a layer of gray ash on the ground. A white plastic rural post and rail fence in front of one property sat twisted across the front of the property, melted from the heat.
The tour concluded at Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area and Nature Center. Approximately 90% of the 1,310 acre geological won
der burned. The Nature Center was lost.
“We’re going to rebuild,” Barger said as she stood near the rubble of the Nature Center.
Barger urged people to maintain hope.
“I just can’t get over it. It’s still beautiful, just different,” she said.
As of Thursday morning the fire burned 114,901 acres with 75% containment. The fire destroyed 83 homes and damaged 28 others. It destroyed 79 other structures and damaged 19 others.
LA County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said his department is conducting a watershed assessment. That includes utilities, road and drainage systems, as well as water, habitat, soil and geology impacts related to the burn scar.
“We’re anticipating a debris potential up near seven million cubic yards,” Pestrella said.
Seven million cubic yards is a lot. To put that into perspective, a large dump truck carries about 10 cubic yards. That means the equivalent of about 700,000 dump trucks worth of mud and debris that could damage people’s homes and property. That could go on and on each until they get watershed recovery, Pestrella said.
“We are very concerned about the subsequent damage to homes and property due to mud and debris flow,” Pestrella said. “We’re actively involved in sizing up the potential incident.”
North Regional Operations Bureau Deputy Fire Chief Vince Peña gave a brief overview of the Bobcat Fire, which started Sept. 6 in the Angeles National Forest near the Cogswell Dam.
“The fire concerned us; that incident concerned us from the very beginning,” Peña said.
About 11 days into the Bobcat Fire, it jumped Highway 2 and threatened southeastern Antelope Valley including Juniper Hills and Valyermo.
“We incurred damages,” Peña said. “We had structure loss and structure damage — over 100 homes in these areas here. As it came down we were pretty successful with the evacuation. We evacuated thousands of people with LA County Sheriff’s (Department).”
At times, firefighters were unable to fight the fire from the air because of poor visibility.
“At some point we had that nuclear winter type of effect, where it’s just so much smoke, nowhere to go, it’s hanging. We can’t get aircraft into there,” Peña said.
Homes and other structures were lost on Sept. 18, after which no structures were lost.
“I saw stuff out there that I hadn’t seen before,” North Regional Operations Bureau Assistant Fire Chief Tom Sullivan,
Sullivan said the aircraft fighting the fire were trying to get in underneath the smoke.
“That wasn’t good to do and they were doing everything they could,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also credited the LA County Sheriff’s Department.
“Your sheriff’s department were doing stuff that’s not going to make the front page of the news,” Sullivan said. “They were doing hero stuff, where I actually had to reel them back and make sure that they didn’t get themselves into something. Because all we wanted to do is help everybody within this community.”
Sullivan urged people to be prepared.
“I cannot overemphasize of seeing it, being it, doing it — ready, set, go,” Sullivan said. “When that order comes out be ready to go.”
Kevin McGowan, director of the LA County office of Emergency Management, said as they continue to go through the emergency they focus on recovery.
“We try and create a onestop shop, a whole community, one voice type of perspective on recovery,” McGowan said.
McGowan added they are still focused on recovery from the 2018 Woolsey Fire.
“We still have threats from the Woolsey Fire as it relates to storms and things, so this is going to be a long-term community process that we all have to be committed to and engaged in,” McGowan said.