Glendale (PDF) - Hazard Mitigation Web Portal - State of California

Natural Hazards Mitigation PlanCity of Glendale, CaliforniaSection 7 – Wildfiresin San Diego County alone consumed 2,800 homes and burned over a quarter of a million acres(see Table 7.2).Table 7.2: October 2003 Firestorm StatisticsCounty FireNameDateBeganAcresBurnedHomesLostHomesDamagedLivesLostRiverside Pass 10/21/03 2,397 3 7 0Los Angeles Padua 10/21/03 10,446 59 0 0San Bernardino Grand Prix 10/21/03 69,894 136 71 0San Diego Roblar 2 10/21/03 8,592 0 0 0Ventura Piru 10/23/03 63,991 8 0 0Los Angeles Verdale 10/24/03 8,650 1 0 0Ventura Simi 10/25/03 108,204 300 11 0San Diego Cedar 10/25/03 273,246 2,820 63 14San Bernardino Old 10/25/03 91,281 1,003 7 6San Diego Otay / 10/26/03 46,000 6 11 0MineRiverside Mountain 10/26/03 10,000 61 0 0San Diego Paradise 10/26/03 56,700 415 15 2Total Losses 749,401 4,812 185 22Source: http://www.fire.ca.gov/php/fire_er_content/downloads/2003LargeFires.pdfThe 2003 California fires caused an estimated $975 million in damages, a significant loss. Yet,this loss is still below the cost of fighting fires in previous years at the national level. Forexample, during the 2002 fire season, more than 6.9 million acres of public and private landsburned in the United States, resulting in loss of property, damage to resources and disruption ofcommunity services. Taxpayers spent more than $1.6 billion to combat more than 88,400 firesnationwide. Many of these fires burned in wildland/urban interface areas and exceeded the firesuppression capabilities of those areas. Similar losses were reported in the year 2000. Table 7.3summarizes the fire suppression costs for state, private and federal lands for the years 2000through 2002.Table 7.3: National Fire Suppression CostsYear Suppression Costs Acres Burned Structures Burned2000 $1.3 billion 8,422,237 8612001 $0.5 billion 3,570,911 7312002 $1.6 billion 6,937,584 815http://research.yale.edu/gisf/assets/pdf/ppf/wildfire_report.pdfWildfire CharacteristicsThere are three categories of interface fire: The classic wildland/urban interface occurs wherewell-defined urban and suburban development presses up against open expanses of wildlandareas; the mixed wildland/urban interface characterized by isolated homes, subdivisions andsmall communities situated predominantly in wildland settings; and the occluded2006 PAGE 7 - 4