Old fire in San Bernardino mirrors 1980 blaze

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Old fire in San Bernardino mirrors 1980 blaze
By Zachary Amendt, Aggie Features
November 04, 2003

Last week’s scene was all too familiar to San Bernardino residents.

An autumn fire, whipped by Santa Ana winds, came down from the foothills into cul-de-sacs. Thousands of retirees were evacuated, some of whom couldn’t survive the shock. Pets were lost. Looters prowled around the deserted homes.

The Old Fire scorched over 91,000 acres and destroyed 976 homes. It burned into the mountains, where bark beetles and drought had turned once lush treetops into fuel for the fire.

Something eerily similar happened 23 years ago, the week of Thanksgiving.

The Panorama Fire of 1980 was sparked in Waterman Canyon , at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains . It moved quickly into communities that could not be promptly evacuated because roads were already clogged.

Those evacuated or displaced by the Panorama Fire sought shelter at the National Orange Show Fairgrounds in downtown San Bernardino .

And when several National Red Cross shelters for Old Fire victims closed Sunday, remaining evacuees were sent to the fairgrounds, according to Red Cross volunteer Jo Ann Dopp.

Her home is in Wrightwood, on the fringes of the Old Fire’s flames

“I was concerned about my own home, but I try not to think about that. People [in the shelters] have been devastated, I know that. So I try to focus and help the people who have already lost their homes.”

In addition to the dozens who lost their property in the blaze, four elderly people died in the Panorama Fire — including Earl and Edith Welty. Their charred bodies were found in their backyard.

The Old Fire caused four fatalities in North San Bernardino , which is heavily populated with retirees from Norton Air Force Base and Kaiser Steel in Fontana , Calif.

Charles Cunningham, 90, stepped out into the street to watch his house burn on Oct. 25. He collapsed and died of heart failure.

The Old Fire is currently over 80 percent contained, but firefighters are now battling the cold. Drizzle and fog helped slow the blaze this weekend. During the Panorama Fire, fire crews also had to battle paralyzing cold. Temperatures dropped so low that fire hoses froze solid.

The Panorama Fire had been fueled by dry vegetation and swirling Santa Ana winds. The Old Fire was precipitated by the same winds, the same lack of rain. The Panorama Fire had been caused by arson — a man with a grenade launcher, according to local lore. The Old Fire was sparked by a man who is now among America ’s most wanted criminals.

Then, Gov. Jerry Brown ate Thanksgiving dinner with the over 2,000 firefighters deployed to fight the Panorama Fire over two decades ago. Now, Gov. Gray Davis comforted affected residents set up in triage hangers at the former Norton AFB.

Firefighters had been deployed throughout Southern California to combat a slew of fires in the fall of 1980. Fire crews were stretched thin last week, simultaneously fighting infernos in San Diego and Simi Valley .

Four looters were arrested during the Panorama Fire, and three in evacuated communities last week.

Many homes burned last week had been built near a bamboo forest in a wash where San Bernardino ’s homeless take refuge.

Even the homeless have been displaced by the Old Fire.