Many Lessons to Learn From Bernardo Fire: Report

The SDFD released its after-action report Monday, which gives 90 recommendations for fire response improvements

This week, as Santa Ana winds bring high fire potential to the county, San Diego Fire-Rescue officials reflect and learn from a similar day in May, when those winds stoked a fire that burned 1,500 acres in North County.

The city of San Diego released its 72-page after-action report on the Bernardo Fire Monday, evaluating what went right and what sparked problems with the SDFD response on May 13, 2014.

β€œI would give us a good β€˜B’ on this one. I think we can do even better,” said SDFD Chief Javier Mainar.

The main reason for the good grade is no homes or lives were lost over the five days it burned. The fire started off Nighthawk Lane, southwest of Rancho Bernardo.

But the report made it clear they have room for improvement, especially in training. Procedures that were fixed after the devastating 2003 and 2007 wildfires were lost when multiple firefighters retired or moved in recent years.

Because of the turnover, staff manning the department operations center had not properly trained to command such a large operation that involved multiple agencies from across Southern California, according to the report.

Mainar told NBC 7 the community emergency response team did not deploy as quickly as it should have, which was another lesson they thought they had corrected after 2007. The department also lacked medical and personal hygiene supplies and suffered communications issues when they did not have enough radios and batteries for all firefighters.

β€œSo these are things that you've fixed along the way, sounds like low-hanging fruit, and then they pop up again when you do another review,” said Mainar.

In all, the evaluation lists 90 recommendations to improve preparedness – 35 of which Mainar says have already been completed in the SDFD.

One of the biggest changes Mainar would like to see is the addition of a third helicopter. The report said having two firefighter helicopters working the Bernardo Fire was instrumental to saving many of the homes in the area, but if one or both were forced to go down for some reason, things would have been very different.

Therefore, the SDFD hopes there is enough room in the city's 2016 budget to add another chopper so at least two will always be available for large-scale incidents.

β€œWe’re going to have to go back to the city council and mayor and say we think it is in the region’s best interest and city’s interest to spend another $14 million to buy a third fire-rescue helicopter,” said Mainar.

The chief would also like hire more people to inspect properties regularly to ensure they have adequate defensible space. Homeowners who cleared brush near their homes made a huge difference in fighting the Bernardo Fire, the report says.

Better coordination, better air support – including night flying – and an organized, aggressive fire attack were some of the accolades included in the report.

The Bernardo Fire was the first of nine blazes to engulf in county in mid-May, forcing thousands to flee their homes. Officials later determined construction work sparked the Bernardo Fire, which scorched 1,548 acres. It was fully contained by May 17, leaving three people with minor injuries.

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