As Fire Raged, County Faltered

As last fall’s deadly wildfires were becoming one of the state’s worst natural disasters, San Bernardino County officials had trouble keeping track of firefighters and had serious problems with a hotline for residents facing evacuation, a recent grand jury report found.

The 70-page report recommended that county officials relocate and upgrade their communication center and consider purchasing state-of-the-art global satellite positioning equipment to keep track of fire engines.

“At various times, while actually fighting the fires, command teams were not always aware of where the fire engines were all located,” according to the county grand jury report released last week.

Denise Benson, division manager for the San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Emergency Operations Center, said she saw the report Tuesday but had yet to study all the findings and recommendations.

Benson said county officials had already identified some of the problems mentioned and were working on solutions.

For example, county officials are trying to change a computer system design that blocks county workers from getting to their e-mail accounts while working out of the Emergency Operations Center in Rialto, she said.

The Grand Prix fire that started Oct. 21, 2003, charred nearly 60,000 acres, destroyed nearly 200 structures and was blamed for six stress-related deaths.

When the fires began to spread, some mountain residents could get no answer from a fire information number and instead got word to evacuate from neighbors, the report said.

Once they arrived at evacuation centers, the report said, the evacuees relied primarily on television and radio newscasts for information about the fire in their neighborhood.

The grand jury also criticized the various evacuation centers that housed thousands of displaced mountain residents. Some people staying at the centers reported that personal belongings were stolen.

The grand jury also said the centers had no reliable system of keeping track of evacuees who moved from once center to another. The centers were so overcrowded that evacuees checked out soon after arriving, the grand jury found.

A Fontana center that served hundreds had only four shower stalls and only a limited supply of hot water, according to the report.

The grand jury also said the system for accepting and distributing donated clothes was disorganized, making it difficult for evacuees to find the clothing they needed.

In a separate review, the grand jury criticized the Board of Supervisors for cutting the grand jury’s budget by 33%.

The grand jury also accused the board of “interference and micromanaging” the daily operations of the county.

The report noted that the county had had five chief administrative officers in the last three years. It said eight department heads had resigned, were fired or forced out in the last year.

In response, county spokesman David Wert said none of the five former CAOs had complained about board members micromanaging.