The fire bosses had more on their minds than rough terrain and a stubborn adversary. As more of the West is scorched, wildfires are being fought in a pressure cooker of public and political expectations. "You get the media pressure. The homeowners calling, elected officials calling," said Scott Vail, a retired Forest Service incident commander in California. "Political people have to get in and say, 'We're doing everything we can.' "
On Aug. 3, the Zaca sprinted toward Santa Barbara, pumping out giant clouds of smoke and showers of ash. By coincidence, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flew to the area that day to visit a friend. He took a detour to the Santa Barbara County emergency operations center, arriving just as county supervisors were meeting to declare an emergency.
"The county administrator was reading the proclamation, and somebody came in and whispered to me, 'The governor is in the parking lot,' " Supervisor Brooks Firestone recalled. "While we were having our meeting, he was looking at the big cloud over the hill and talking to his office."
There and then, Schwarzenegger signed a state proclamation of emergency, officially making the Zaca battle a California priority.
The next day, an additional 740 firefighters were on the scene.
By mid-August, the Zaca had burned into its second month and was less than 10 miles from Santa Barbara. Calls to the Forest Service picked up. Residents wanted an end to smoky skies and daily anxiety, and a Montecito woman was ready to do her part.
"She wants this fire to stop and is willing to provide resources ($) to make it happen," reads the entry in a Forest Service phone log. "She doesn't care about the fires across the nation. She feels this area must be protected and the fire put out."
Creature comforts
On Aug. 21, the Zaca army reached a peak of 3,100 firefighters from across the West.
Most of them ate, slept and got their orders in two elaborately equipped camps on either side of Los Padres.
When Lee Belau started out in the 1950s, fire camps were primitive.
"I remember the biggest improvement was when they got tables with chairs so you could sit down to eat," said Belau, a retired Forest Service fire management officer who lives in Porterville.
"The toilets were a slit trench in the ground. . . . You slept on the ground. There were no tents."
There were no showers either. Meals were cooked by inmate crews.
Forest Service financial records from the Zaca fire reveal just how much things have changed.
Not only did firefighters have tents, some of them retired to private berths in sleeping trailers supplied by the Mobile Sleeper Co. of Corona for $1,982 a day each. Each berth had its own temperature controls. Sheets were changed by an attendant.
Fire crews scrubbed down in 12-stall shower trailers that cost $2,100 a day. The gray water was hauled away in $1,667-a-day trucks.
A $400-an-hour mobile laundry washed their sooty clothes.
A mobile kitchen, run by an El Segundo company that caters movie shoots, served scrambled eggs and hot cakes for breakfast, curried chicken and barbecue ribs for dinner. For vegetarians, there was curried tofu or veggie fajitas.
The firm, For Stars Catering, grossed $4.7 million on the Zaca, according to Forest Service records.
On Aug. 3, the Zaca sprinted toward Santa Barbara, pumping out giant clouds of smoke and showers of ash. By coincidence, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger flew to the area that day to visit a friend. He took a detour to the Santa Barbara County emergency operations center, arriving just as county supervisors were meeting to declare an emergency.
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Air tanker drops in wildfires are often just for show
There and then, Schwarzenegger signed a state proclamation of emergency, officially making the Zaca battle a California priority.
The next day, an additional 740 firefighters were on the scene.
By mid-August, the Zaca had burned into its second month and was less than 10 miles from Santa Barbara. Calls to the Forest Service picked up. Residents wanted an end to smoky skies and daily anxiety, and a Montecito woman was ready to do her part.
"She wants this fire to stop and is willing to provide resources ($) to make it happen," reads the entry in a Forest Service phone log. "She doesn't care about the fires across the nation. She feels this area must be protected and the fire put out."
Creature comforts
On Aug. 21, the Zaca army reached a peak of 3,100 firefighters from across the West.
Most of them ate, slept and got their orders in two elaborately equipped camps on either side of Los Padres.
When Lee Belau started out in the 1950s, fire camps were primitive.
"I remember the biggest improvement was when they got tables with chairs so you could sit down to eat," said Belau, a retired Forest Service fire management officer who lives in Porterville.
"The toilets were a slit trench in the ground. . . . You slept on the ground. There were no tents."
There were no showers either. Meals were cooked by inmate crews.
Forest Service financial records from the Zaca fire reveal just how much things have changed.
Not only did firefighters have tents, some of them retired to private berths in sleeping trailers supplied by the Mobile Sleeper Co. of Corona for $1,982 a day each. Each berth had its own temperature controls. Sheets were changed by an attendant.
Fire crews scrubbed down in 12-stall shower trailers that cost $2,100 a day. The gray water was hauled away in $1,667-a-day trucks.
A $400-an-hour mobile laundry washed their sooty clothes.
A mobile kitchen, run by an El Segundo company that caters movie shoots, served scrambled eggs and hot cakes for breakfast, curried chicken and barbecue ribs for dinner. For vegetarians, there was curried tofu or veggie fajitas.
The firm, For Stars Catering, grossed $4.7 million on the Zaca, according to Forest Service records.
