Richard Rider Rant: Tales from San Diego Firestorm 2007

Eight items, all related to the San Diego area fires. Interesting tales from folks affected by the blazes.

1. RIDER COMMENT: I’ve contracted with the LA TIMES to do a series of online debates this week on their website concerning the San Diego County fires. I’m debating Big Government advocate Richard Carson, a fire policy professor from UCSD. From Monday through Friday of this week, we will each post a daily 500+ word point-counterpoint essay on the question of the day. It’s a LOT of work!

I think you might find the exchange interesting. The Monday and Tuesday exchanges are already posted. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/web/la-op-dustup29oct29,1,736094.sto...

I STRONGLY encourage you to post comments at the bottom of the articles. The more play this gets, the closer I get to being a columnist for the LA TIMES! Well, that may be a stretch, but I can hope.

2. RIDER COMMENT: Everybody loves firefighters. But does that mean we have to love the chief and his senior bureaucrats? I sure hope not!

Consider this example of gross ineptitude of the City of San Diego fire department management.

This is PRIME fire season. A week before the fires started, forecasters predicted the pending dangerously high winds of a Santa Ana.

Did the fire department make preparations? Apparently not.

At the Kearny Mesa Fire Station #28, the department stores many of the older fire engines in "mothballs." For you young whippersnappers, that means that something is stored away without the intent to use it for a long time (if ever), often in protective wraps.

The fires got rolling Sunday afternoon, 20 October About 2 AM the next morning, as the county wild fires raged out of control, the city fire officials realized that these old but perfectly functional trucks could help battle the blazes. So they started the process of taking these vehicles out of mothballs and readying them to do battle. Fire hoses had to be retrieved from Pt Loma for use on the trucks.

The mechanics, the CERT volunteers and the firefighters worked feverously, getting the vehicles ready ASAP. Doubtless the engines had to be lubed, the firefighting gear inspected, added, or replaced, tires checked, etc. Before 8 AM the first trucks started to roll. It took several more hours for them all to be made fully operational.

In the meantime, off-duty firefighters had been called in, but they didn’t have trucks. So they stood around at station 28, waiting impatiently to be assigned a truck that they could take out to fight the fires.

Due to the remarkable lack of advance preparation, precious hours were lost. Doubtless so too were many homes. This screw-up was the DIRECT fault of the clueless fire department honchos.

The lesson? If you are incompetent, get a senior bureaucratic government job. No accountability comes with the position. You’ll still get your pay, seniority and fat pension, regardless of your poor job performance.

3. RIDER COMMENT: I’ve gotten a LOT of feedback on my previous fire rant. Many people have stories to tell. The one below from a real estate investor (who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid government reprisals) is instructive for anyone burned out in the recent fire:

Each day I am reminded of the difference between what the politicos say and what actually happens. My 2003 nightmare is being relived by others. Trust me, I have been there.

City Councilman Maienschein said today "We will rebuild Rancho Bernardo. It will be better." English translation: If you have an older home which was perfectly safe and you were perfectly happy with, be prepared for the government to make you build back an entirely different home to their standards. You are about to learn the meaning of insurance policy endorsements that have to do with Building Code Upgrade coverage.

One of the things I did right four years ago was to IMMEDIATELY HIRE AN ARCHITECH to draw plans and get those plans into plan check. There is a VERY BRIEF time that fire victims get priority. There is no evidence that the bureaucrats are any more lenient in applying the (fuzzy indeterminable) regulations but they MAY lean your way while the smoke is still in the air.

Remember: They were the lowest form of life before the fire and they are not different after the fire. They have a short memory. When the press forgets the fire (Paris Hilton is arrested again or so equivalent crisis will easily divert the press) they will forget you. But you CAN'T forget because your house is in ashes. In 2003 the fire "memory" at the bureaucrat level was about six months. After that, the response to a fire victim was "Fire? What fire? I don’t remember a fire." When I finished my restoration two years after the Cedar fire there were still 2/3 of the victims who had not even had their permit processed. I have a neighbor who occupied his rebuilt home last month.

Also, be aware of attempts at various levels to collect fees and taxes. They guys are opportunistic. The politicos will announce fee relief in the days immediately after the fire but that will be a general breast-beating self-serving public pronouncement. In truth you will have to fight for fee waivers ("Oh, they did not waive that fee, only building permit fees"). I had to go to appeal on one item to prove that the only way the fee was being collected was because of the chance event that I had a fire. These guys want your money and are prepared to get it any way they can.

Keep your insurance company in front of you. You will be assigned an adjuster. I was assigned five in sequence as each one learned that I was not going to be bowled over. English translation of the term “adjust the claim” is “not pay the claim”. Insurance companies prey on people (most Americans) deep in credit card debt by handing out quick money before the full amount of the loss is known. You have NO IDEA what it will take to replace your home. It will take at least two years and prices will rise over that time. DO NOT sign a release until you are satisfied that you have no further coverage. Be prepared for the insurance company to act in their own interests. Hire an attorney who specializes in insurance bad faith law if you need to. You are no match for the insurance company’s adjusters. They begin with a sweetness-and-light attitude in the interest of getting you to sign off early. Once they know you won’t you will be treated very differently.

The government is not your friend

The insurance company is not your friend

The contractor is not your friend.

All of these people, PROPERLY, are out to protect or advance their own interests. You are out to protect yours There is a conflict inherent in that. It is unavoidable. If you are not prepared for conflict, it is best to avoid having a fire!!

4. RIDER COMMENT: Here’s an interesting story sent to me by Greg Todd, Managing Editor of Fox 6 TV News. He stayed behind and successfully fought the fires.

Richard - "Mandatory Evacuation" is kind of like the "Patriot Act." It isn't what it sounds like. Mandatory Evacuation orders have the legal clout of "pretty please."

You can't be forced to evacuate your property. But if you do, government is in charge of saying when and how you may reenter.

I'm in Rancho Bernardo and also stayed behind. There were several attempts to make me leave. They kept saying "it is a MANDATORY evacuation order." I understood, like you, that the behavior of a fire in a suburban setting is very unlike fire in the back country. It was an amazing sight to watch the fire tear across the back of my property at probably 50 mph. After the initial brush fire died down I put out small fires that quite possibly could have set the entire house on fire. For the next several hours I could see probably 20 houses burn. I didn't see any catch fire as the initial fire blasted through, it was many minutes and even hours later as the remaining fire crept along.

You are very correct. Many if not most suburban homes that burned could have been saved if home owners stayed behind. Doing so is treated as if it is unpatriotic and putting firefighters at risk, but it is a fact.

I love your idea of a civilian fire corps. Sign me up. I have experience now.

Greg Todd
Managing Editor
FOX6 News, XETV

5. RIDER COMMENT: Here’s another tale of woe from a person who had to fight the San Diego city building department tooth and nail to get her buildings replaced. It may be a bit detailed for your interest. It includes a remote controlled sprinkler system for his abode. I just provide the story for you to consider.

Where I live, 35 feet around the perimeter, is raining – just like I planned it. I heard Diane Jacobs on the radio mouthing the usual crap about listening to official announcements, evacuate when asked. Here I quote: “Remember that people are important, property can be replaced”. Partially true, only PARTIALLY.

Here is the truth from a Cedar Fire survivor that lost 75% (3 out of 4 four buildings) of his property in 2003:

The fire service is in overwhelm. They are good people but they cannot possibly cover all the area and all the roads, people, structures. The ONLY real protection you have is your own resourcefulness. Sadly, we now live it a society where no one is self-reliant and everyone thinks government will take care of them. I thought that was true about fire (the small part of government I actually believe in) until 2003. After the fire I put in a MASSIVE free-standing sprinkler system. It is gravity fed by 2 inch lines with brass rainbirds on 1 inch risers. The system is controlled by a device I can operate from anywhere in the world where I can get a cell phone signal. It is battery backed up and uses valves that WILL NOT close if the power fails. Once I open the valves it runs until I call it again and close it. I don’t need wires, I don’t need the government.

As for the myth that "property can be replaced" that is the biggest lie of all. Sure it is PHYSICALLY possible to rebuild. BUT IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE LEGALLY. San Diego County has a bureaucratic infrastructure that has ONE GOAL: WHICH IS TO STOP ANYONE FROM BUILDING ANYTHING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. They don’t care if your home burned. They look at it as a chance to obtain control over your life. I had a huge battle with the Nazis at the County building department to build back what I lost. I lost a free standing separate building that I use as a shop. At first they would not allow it to be rebuilt. Then they said I could not have any windows in it. They finally allowed windows (after an appeal) so long as there was no plumbing or insulation. They are so afraid that someone will have a place to live in San Diego. They do not want that. I had a rental house that burned. It was a misery to get rebuilt. Then they made me build it at the HIGHEST possible cost. Before the fire it rented at $600 per month – a reasonable rate – now it is $850 because of all the useless, costly, wasteful nonsense the County made me hang on it. It is illegal to build affordable housing in San Diego County!!

So, as you suspected, you can trust your government – to give orders and collect their paychecks. If you are unfortunate enough to lose a building, be prepared for a battle to replace it. The communists that want to control all land and private resources and the environmentalists who don’t want any housing anywhere (except their homes of course) look at the fire as an opportunity to REMOVE housing and control the live of those who once did not need them.

6. RIDER COMMENT: Another home fire defender testimonial – this one from Lynn Badler

The 2003 fire was right in our old neighborhood – shortly after we moved out of state to Utah. The neighborhood was evacuated, but many, many of my former neighbors stayed.

Guess what? They all saved their homes, and even a couple of others that were near by.

One had heavy equipment (he works in the construction industry) ...He mowed down underbrush like crazy, and then watered down roofs. Weeks later the Forest Service (or maybe the agriculture service) came to visit. They said they'd sue him because he mowed down some of their precious weeds on the land adjacent to his house. It would have all burnt, for heaven's sake!!!!!

Anyway they did sue a homeowner a few blocks away and the jury just laughed them out of court so they never bothered him again.

Free country? I don't think so.

7. RIDER COMMENT: And read this uplifting story from my friend Allen Hemphill:

The basic goodness of people has never been more obvious than what has happened to me recently. While evacuating through Temecula we were stopped at a coffee shop, and my wife was talking on the cell to family back East, when a woman overheard the conversation and offered us a place in her house!

Today, as a Realtor, I was checking the vacant home of a client in North Poway -- it was still standing, virtually untouched. The $3 million home next door was burned to the ground, and I found out that the family had tried to save their home with garden hoses, but finding they were losing ground had instead had saved my client's home. And the home next to that!

The heroic family had never met my client, who has yet to move in! I am overwhelmed with the kindness of people.

8. RIDER COMMENT: I recommend a 10/28/07 blog entry from rabid partisan Democrat Pat Flannery concerning the Cal Fire Director Ruben Grijalva at http://www.blogofsandiego.com/. While Flannery thinks that Republican Grijalva might have held back the needed military air assets to aid private air firefighting contractors, I tend to believe that, in most cases, incompetence trumps conspiracies. But who knows?

At any rate, no one has been able to explain why Cal Fire was INSISTENT on the need for a Cal Fire spotter for each military helo, and then later it was perfectly okay to fly without these supposedly critical spotters.

Did I mention that Schwarzenegger is in way, WAY over his head? By Jove, I think I did! Arnold blindly backs his hack appointee, without seemingly having a clue about the issue or the consequences.