Laguna Fire

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The Laguna Fire, previously known as the Kitchen Creek Fire and the Boulder Oaks Fire, was, at its time, the second largest fire in the history of California. The largest was the September 1889 Orange/San Diego County fire that is estimated to have burned as much as 800,000 acres. According to Assistant District Forester (USFS) L.A. Barrett who wrote a 1935 report on California wildfires, "I was living in Orange County at the time and well remember the great fire reported herein from September 24 to 26. Nothing like it occurred in California since the National Forests have been administered. In fact in my 33 years in the Service I have never seen a forest or brush fire to equal it. This one covered an enormous scope of country and burned very rapidly."

The Laguna fire was started by downed power lines during Santa Ana winds in the Kitchen Creek area of the Laguna Mountains in eastern San Diego County on the morning of September 26, 1970. In only 24 hours it burned westward about 30 miles (50 km) to the outskirts of El Cajon and Spring Valley. The fire devastated the communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest. In the end the fire burned 175,425 acres (710 km²) and 382 homes killing eight people.

The Laguna Fire was surpassed as the second largest fire in California history by the 280,278 acre (1,134 km²) Cedar Fire in October 2003.

Controversy

At at time when high Santa Ana winds grounded other firefighting aircraft, a representative of Canadair brought a CL-215 to southern California to demonstrate its capabilities. He was turned away by firefighting officials. Nevertheless, while other firefighting aircraft were unable to fly safely he operated his "Super Scooper" out of El Capitan Reservoir and dropped water on the Laguna Fire wherever he saw fit. The firefighting officials were unimpressed and such aircraft are not used in southern California to fight fires to this day (with the exception of two CL-415s leased by Los Angeles County during the fire season).