Not enough engines to fight Yorba Linda fire
A new report on the Yorba Linda fire says that firefighters had to make tough decisions about which homes to save and which ones to let burn. Orange County fire officials said the fire was moving just too fast, and they didn't have the engines to be everywhere. More from the Orange County Register:
Triage-type decisions made while fire crews drove down smoke-filled streets in the hopes of saving as many homes as possible forced them to drive past burning homes and frustrated residents as winds threw embers up to a mile ahead of the Freeway Complex fire, a preliminary report on the blaze said.
“However, even with the best training and practice, it takes great discipline to trade off the life of one patient for another, just as it takes the same discipline to drive past a structure that is on fire to defend one that is not,” Orange County Fire Authority's preliminary report stated. Those decisions were not easy, Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said during Tuesday's Yorba Linda City Council meeting, but they had to be made as crews faced a fire without a discernable front, gusting winds hurling ember showers in every direction and no water in some Yorba Linda neighborhoods.
-- Shelby Grad
Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
