Fires:

A Compendium of Some Major Incidents

It is probably fair to say that any emergency within a given building, ranch, household or on a public street could be called a "major incident" by anyone directly involved. The Los Angeles County Fire Department treats each emergency response as such; however, many large incidents have occurred in which hundreds of emergency personnel have participated. In such cases, it is almost inevitable that Los Angeles County will work closely with other agencies, such as the United States Forest Service, the California Division of Forestry, and the Los Angeles City Fire Department. In addition, major coordinated support has come from such agencies as the Southern California Edison Company, the Gas Company, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Arny, to name a few.

Here are some of the largest and most memorable incidents handled primarily by the Los Angeles County Fire Department over the years. There are many others in which we provided half or more of the equipment and personnel, but were not the agency of jurisdiction, including the giant "San Gabriel" forest fire in 1924, the "Monrovia Peak" brush fire in 1953, the "Woodwardia" brush fire in 1959, the "Mill" forest and brush fire in 1975, and both the Watts Riot in 1965 and Los Angeles City Riot in 1992.

	Pickens Canyon Fire of November 1933 and the subsequent LaCrescenta-Montrose flood of January 1, 1934. 45 people dead or missing, 483 homes destroyed.
	Latigo-Lake Sherwood fires of October 1935. 12,000 acres and several dozen homes destroyed in the Malibu Hills.
	Trippet Ranch Fire of November 1938 in the Malibu Hills. 14,000 acres and 118 homes destroyed.
	Topanga Canyon Fire of November 1948 in the Malibu Hills. Less than 4,000 acres destroyed; however, tractor operator James Simons given Presidential Award for saving 1,250 homes with his tractor and bulldozer.
	Turnbull, San Dimas and La Habra Heights fires of September 1955. 3,000 acres and many buildings in southern San Dimas destroyed; 1,000 acres in La Habra Heights, one fire captain and four hand crewmen killed in Puente Hills and Whittier Hills.
	Newton-Hume-Sherwood brush fires of December 1956 in the Malibu Hills. 35,000 acres and 250 structures destroyed.
	Liberty Canyon Fire in between two smaller fires in December 1958, all set by arsonists in the Malibu Hills. 25,000 acres and 42 structures destroyed.
	The Canyon Inn Fire at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon, north of Azusa, on August 23, 1968. 19,000 acres burned, one camp crew foreman and eight crewmen killed in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
	Wright and Clampitt fires, Newhall to the Pacific Ocean over two mountain ranges, in Septemeber 1970. 135,000 acres burned and 226 structures destroyed (Oat Mountain through Chatsworth Hills through Malibu Hills).
	The Kanan Fire of October 1978. 25,000 acres and 230 structures destroyed. Burned from Ladyface Mountain to the ocean at Broad Beach in 2-1/2 hours (Malibu Hills).
	The Pinecrest Fire in the Foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains north of Altadena in September 1979. 11,000 acres destroyed, mostly in 80-year-old brush and trees.
	The Stable Fire north of Duarte and in Bradbury, November 1980. While several thousand acres of brush burned, 50 large homes made up the bulk of the dollar loss.
	The Dayton Fire, Bell Canyon in the Chatsworth Hills south to the Pacific Ocean at Malibu Colony, October 1982. 42,000 acres and 85 homes destroyed.
	The Kinneloa Fire of October 1993. 5,500 acres and 150 homes destroyed in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains north of Altadena, Sierra Madre and Arcadia.
	The Old Topanga Fire of 1993. 16,500 acres and 385 homes destroyed both sides of Malibu Canyon from the head of Topanga Canyon to the Pacific Ocean.

Trendsetting

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Los Angeles County Fire Department worked with the United States Forest Service and the California Divison of Forestry on developing ways to combat large watershed fires. Los Angeles City aided our structural training efforts by agreeing to train our first District Captains (1925) at the "Fire College." Primary research and development by Los Angeles County has resulted in the creation of numerous pieces of emergency equipment over the years, such as using a bulldozer blade on a tractor for firefighting for the first time in Los Angeles County (1930); the first use of two-way radios for firefighting anywhere in the United States (1923); the designing and construction of 18 lookout towers for forest fire detection for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, Glendale and the United States Forest Service under a cooperative agreement (1921-1971); the extensive use of motorcycles for firefighting and fire patrol (1921-1948); design and use of the largest fire pumper/tanker to date west of the Mississippi River (1939 Seagrave, 2,500-gallons, Engine 20, Norwalk); the first use of a helicopter on a forest/brush fire (Big Tujunga Canyon, 1948); the design and construction of a pumper/tanker mixing device for loading fire retardant (borate) onto aircraft (1958); the subsequent design and development of the first aluminum drop tank for helicopter use (Pilot Roland Barton, 1960-61), and becoming the first fire department to develop a full-time and fully paid paramedic program (1968-69).

Adapted from text written by David Boucher