Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman, and other county officials, faced angry questioning by Corral Canyon residents about firefighting and safety efforts during the Nov. 24 fire.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman faced an angry and upset audience last Thursday night at Malibu High School when he addressed the Corral Canyon Safety Committee and Corral Canyon residents, many of whom lost their homes in the fire of last November.
Freeman attended the meeting, organized by the group Operation Recovery 2007, in response to a request from the Corral Canyon Safety Committee to the Fire Department.
Speaking with a committee of visiting officials from Los Angeles County, including then Chief Deputy of Emergency Operations Michael Dyer, Deputy Chief Tommey Massey, Battalion Chief Anthony Williams, new Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Graham and Sheriff’s Captain Tom Martin from the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, Chief Freeman outlined a time line of the Nov. 24 fire and, to an often critical audience, an overview of his department’s response, including deployment of resources and the scope of evacuations.
“We realize that many of you are still coping with the devastating effects of the fire,” Freeman said. “We are here to help form a working committee of Corral Canyon residents to analyze the events of last November, and prepare plans to better move forward in future emergencies.”
Using a PowerPoint presentation, Freeman began by summarizing conditions of the fire, known as the Corral Canyon Fire: high winds, low humidity, dry brush and high temperatures that “created a design for disaster.”
Noting that prior to the fire he had already requested the purchase of more reserve engines for major emergencies, Freeman said the morning of the fire he “asked for 150 engines and all available helicopters to be staffed, including nine county helicopters and additional leased copters.”
As the day progressed, he ended up asking for more than 300 engines.
The command officer during the fire, Chief Anthony Williams, then enumerated the firefighting efforts.
“When I arrived on the scene, I knew we had a major incident,” Williams said. “The Topanga Fire [in September, 2005] didn’t burn the fuel [dry brush] above the Newell Tract, so when everything lined up, it blew like a blow torch. Twelve engines were dispatched by 3:30 a.m. We dispatched helicopters, but a lot of calls in were erroneous about the location of the fire.
“We asked for 20 strike teams,” Williams continued. “And by 9 a.m., we had 196 engines onsite, with 15 helicopters, 16 planes and two Super Scoopers deployed during the fire. We ended up with almost the full firefighting strength of L.A., city and county combined, including 1,826 fire fighters, focused on life safety, structure protection and perimeter control.”
Emphasizing, “Every fire is different,” Freeman said that while homes were lost and others damaged, there were no fatalities and only one firefighter suffered minor injuries.
“But we’ve learned we have to consider reflex time in evacuation of both residents and large animals, which take time,” Freeman said, noting the Fire Department prepared a draft “after-action” report and wanted community input by forming a “working group” or committee with residents.
“We believe it is important to work with you directly to make the report complete,” Freeman said. “We’ve come to conclusions and recommendations, but we need yours. We’re here to listen.”
The audience responded with a plethora of questions.
Residents wondered why fire hydrants weren’t used [Freeman replied that hydrants were used to fill tankers], why there wasn’t a rapid-response plan to notify residents of evacuation and, primarily, why they saw no evidence of fire trucks on Corral Canyon streets as they were fleeing.
Bob Bailey, who lost his home on Ingleside Way, said, “There seems to be a disconnect between your glorious presentation and our experience of how the fire was handled. How many trucks were deployed? Where were they?”
Bailey echoed many residents’ observations that, while he saw many trucks parked on Pacific Coast Highway, there were few actually seen on Corral Canyon streets.
Freeman replied, “I think the working group can work with these issues. We can show you dispatch times. There were 17 engines in Corral Canyon early on and two trucks in El Nido.”
“No there weren’t!” several residents cried out.
Many residents said that individual firefighters had told them they were ordered not to go up into the canyon, and one man asked if there had been any such command policy. Freeman said no.
The residents’ consensus was the bridge over Solstice Creek, near Pacific Coast Highway, narrowed to one lane during construction was a major factor in preventing timely deployment of engines and tankers to neighborhoods in the canyon.
Freeman said the bridge condition did not hamper firefighters, but the issue had alarmed the Corral Canyon Safety Committee enough to request a meeting with the city back in early October.
Bill Brown, co-founder of the CC Safety Committee with Beverly Taki, said his group met with former Assistant Fire Chief Reginald Lee and Malibu Public Works Director Bob Brager to devise a plan for emergency evacuation of Corral Canyon as soon as construction began on the bridge last fall, before the fire.
“We came down one day and found the bridge down to one lane,” Brown said. “When we questioned the wisdom of starting a construction project that would narrow the bridge to one lane during fire season, we were told that there was no ‘good time’ for this type of construction, but they assured us it should not present a problem.
“When I asked Reginald Lee at the meeting what his strategy for evacuation was in an emergency, he said his focus would be on human life,” Brown continued. “So that’s what happened-they waited till residents were out before they sent firefighters up.”
Taki said she received assurances from Brager at the October meeting that alternative access roads would be opened through the RV Park and Beau Rivage parking lot, and a letter from the city dated Oct. 18 was delivered to Corral Canyon residents about emergency evacuation procedures.
This point seemed moot, however, Taki said, as the alternate access gates were not opened until 8 a.m., the morning of the fire, which started at approximately 3 a.m.
The bombardment of questions from an exasperated audience had the county officials looking uncomfortable, and Freeman repeated many times that he could not answer all their questions that night and that every concern would be addressed by the working group.
Several residents volunteered to help with the working group. Jennifer Grossman lost her home on Lockwood and believes “we need to figure out what variables contributed to the fire and avoid those in the future. But a good start would be a realistic statement about the bridge, which was the biggest factor.”
Freeman said, “We are here to listen and work through everything with you. After we’ve established a working group, we expect to analyze all your issues and deliver a full draft report within 90 days.”