Fire Officials Blame Slow Air Response in Station Fire

A congressional panel in Pasadena on Tuesday delved into the question of whether a quicker air response to last year's devastating Station Fire could have stopped it when it was still just a small 15-acre blaze.

Though nobody interviewed by the panel would speculate if the record-setting fire could have been averted, the incident commander in charge of fighting the fire testified Tuesday that firefighters missed "a window of opportunity" to make progress containing the fire in the early hour mornings of the second day of the blaze.

Will Spyrison, the then-Angeles National Forest Fire Chief who was the on-scene commander at the fire during its first night, said he started making requests for additional morning air support around midnight, but that the full number of planes and helicopters he requested were not on scene until 9 a.m.

He said he requested that the full air support be on scene at 7 a.m. Spyrison declined to speculate how big a difference it would have made.

"It might have made a difference, but it is hard to say," Spyrison said.

Congressional members questioning the officials wanted to know why water drops couldn't have started shortly after dawn, but neither Spyrison nor the other officials in attendance was able to provide a clear answer. 

Spyrison said in his experience helicopters and air craft rarely make it to a fire before 8 a.m., even if they are requested the night before. The first helicopter made it to the fire at 7:43 a.m., according to Forest Service officials, but the full contigent of air craft was not in place until 9 a.m.

The panel was called by one of Altadena's congressional representatives, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), and Altadena's other congress member, Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) also was in attendance.  Rep. Brad Sherman (D- Sherman Oaks), Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) also were there.

The panel was also attended by dozens of members of the public, including local residents who lost their homes in the fire.

Spyrison's testimony was in line with testimony from several other Forest Service and county fire officials who defended the response to the fire as "aggressive."

At the same time, several retired fire officials and local homeowners who lost property in the fire testified that the slow air response, communication issues and prohibitions over flying at night made it hard to get the fire under control.

"Our feeling is there were numerous missed opportunities to put this fire under control early on," said William Derr, a retired Forest Service investigator.

The Forest Service has been repeatedly criticized over its air response, starting before the 250 miles burned by the Station Fire had even been contained.

In recent days, more information has come to light as the results of a U.S. Department of Agriculture internal report was published in the Los Angeles Times and referenced by several members of Congress on Tuesday.

The report suggests that the decision not to launch a larger air response could have been related to federal directives not to use state and county resources unless absolutely necessary, in order to save money.

Schiff posed several questions about whether that study was accurate, and said it is a key question for his constituents.

"[The study] vindicated people's worst fears that in [the] zeal to save money, the fire was allowed to get out of control," Schiff said.

Angeles Forest Supervisor Jody Noiron was steadfast in denying that financial concerns played any role in the response to the fire

"If [the incident commander] requests a resource, nobody is going to question him about whether comes from the state, county or the federal government," Noiron said.

Other concerns were raised by Big Tujunga Canyon homeowners who lost their homes in the fire. Duncan Baird, a retired Pasadena Fire Department battalion chief whose home was destroyed in the fire, said he and his neighbors felt firefighters did not attempt to save their properties.

''It seems that our enclave of homes may have been sacrificed for the sake of the overall incident strategy,'' Baird said.

John Tripp, a chief deputy in the county fire department, said that unusual and extreme heat and downdrafts from a massive smoke cloud created conditions that made it impossible for firefighters to contain the fire in Big Tujunga Canyon.

"I've been with the department for 26 years," Tripp said. "We've never seen in recorded history fire behavior like that."

Additionally, there was much discussion about what the county's policy is on night flights to combat fires.

For the last year, various elected officials have criticized the Forest Service for having a policy of not flying at night and traced the origin of the policy back to a 1977 mid-air collision that happened at night.

But Don Feser, a retired Angeles Forest fire aviation official, said his recollection is the flights stopped in 1983, and that he believed they had ceased over budget concerns rather than the accident.

Feser said he does not know if there is an official policy banning night flights.  The Forest Service currently has an internal investigation on the future of the night flight policy.

More answers about what happened in the first days of the fire could be coming soon. Members of Congress requested last month that the federal Government Accountability Office start an investigation.

Noiron said she welcomes the scrutiny of the agency.

"We're hoping they can find some answers to some of the questions we couldn't find," Noiron said.