This is an archived page for Wednesday, September 13, 2006
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Health problems linger with the ashes of October fires
By: TIM MAYER - Staff Writer
A year after the October firestorms ravaged much of the county, health, school and fire officials report there are lingering effects of the fires on both the mental and physical health of residents.
Charities remain committed to helping victims
By: ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer
When the wildfires roared through the county last year with devastating results, local charitable organizations were quick to offer emergency aid to the hundreds of people who lost their homes.
Firefighting advances on the way
By: YVETTE URREA - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was the whipping boy in last year's Cedar and Paradise fires. The state agency most often called to help out during major disasters, the department was roundly criticized for not responding quickly enough, or with adequate resources, during the firestorm that swept across North County in October 2003.
Some fire victims turning to the courts
By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- Many area residents are turning to the legal system to help them recover some of what they lost when fast-moving flames last year took their loved ones, their homes and the belongings they left behind in the final frantic moments before they fled advancing fires.
Group wants grand jury to probe Cedar fire
By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer
A group of county residents has asked federal officials for a grand jury investigation into the cause of last year's Cedar fire, based on the group's allegations that the blaze was reported earlier than officials said it was.
Fire victims remembered one year later
By: ERIN MASSEY - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- The one-year anniversary of the October wildfires is no different than any other day since the Paradise and Cedar fires killed three people in North County and changed lives forever, according to friends and family.
Service brings community, victims together a year after Paradise fire
By: JESSICA MUSICAR - For the North County Times
VALLEY CENTER ---- Almost a year to the day after the Paradise wildfires ravaged their homes, a group of about 100 fire victims, volunteers, firefighters and community members joined together Monday night to give thanks for the help and hope they've received from the community.
Questions still nag on consolidation of firefighting agencies
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
For five nightmarish days last year, the Cedar and Paradise wildfires were battled not by a single unified agency but by dozens of local fire agencies ---- some large, many small; some trained and equipped by property tax and benefit-fee support, others by whatever bake sales could generate; most with different policies; nearly all with incompatible radio systems that literally barred firefighters from talking to each other for several minutes at a time.
Residents want grand jury to look into Cedar fire
By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer
A group of county residents has asked federal officials for a grand jury investigation into the cause of last year's Cedar fire, based on the group's allegations the blaze was reported earlier than officials said it was.
Funding killed for Paradise fire book
By: Erika Ayn Finch - For the North County Times
VALLEY CENTER ---- Since January, Petei McHenry has been gathering stories, photos and drawings from local adults and children, for a book documenting their memories of the Paradise fire that tore through North County a year ago.
Insurance commissioner: Post-fire complaints disturbing
By: QUINN EASTMAN - Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO ---- Citing a "disturbing" number of complaints from homeowners after last year's wildfires, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Monday advocated new regulations to end the problem of under-insurance.
Schools have been very supportive to young victims
By: TANYA RODRIGUES - Staff Writer
Like their classmates, these children smile shyly, giggle, offer impulsive hugs. They talk about staying focused in math class, relying on friends and disliking certain teachers.
Tribes also suffered in the fires
By: AGNES DIGGS - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- Hell came to Paradise last year, and when the flames were extinguished, local Indian reservations had suffered many losses.
In a year, fire communications slowly improve
By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer
Smoke in a bedroom. A panicky phone call from a neighbor. A sheriff's deputy urgently banging on the front door.
Residents need to be more self-reliant when fire threatens, officials say
By: KATHERINE MARKS - Staff Writer
If the number of lessons learned is proportionate to the size of a disaster, then last year's wildfires provided public safety officials countless lessons, especially when it comes to evacuating residents in a fire's path.
Story misstated effects of fire
By: North County Times -
A story that ran Monday about the effects of the Paradise fire on local Indian tribes included some misleading and incorrect information. The story cited 24 deaths, 750,043 acres burned and 3,710 homes destroyed by wild fire in October 2003 but should have stated that those figures were for all of Southern California. The story also said that two deaths were reported on the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians reservation. The two people who died in the Paradise fire were killed near their Valley Center homes.
In spite of best efforts, firestorms could happen again --- and probably will
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- For many, it was like waking from a bad dream ---- and then discovering it was not a nightmare, but real, and that it was just beginning. The twin wildfires, Cedar and Paradise, that tore a destructive path the size of Los Angeles across wilderness and suburbia one year ago roared out of control while North County was asleep. Jarred out of their slumber by door pounding and telephone ringing as sheriff's deputies and anxious neighbors warned of approaching danger, residents of communities such as Ramona, Valley Center and Poway awoke to terrible scenes.
Fire officials lay out preparation tips
By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- Have a plan. Pack your things. Don't be a hero. Get out while you still can. Those are among the messages fire officials are giving residents of at-risk areas with the anniversary approaching of the Cedar fire that scorched more than 280,000 acres last October.
Fires left deep psychological scars
By: ANNE RILEY-KATZ - Staff Writer
For most North County residents, a warm breeze, a stiff wind or a whiff of smoke are scarcely worth noting. For others, though, the weather changes can trigger terrifying memories of last fall's firestorm.
Some escaped with their lives, and nothing more
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
PAUMA VALLEY ---- One year later, memories of that horrible Sunday morning remain so immediate. Hortensia Garcia and Carmen Ortega recall the panic, the rush to corral their many children into the family vans, smoke so black and thick that to drive was impossible, everywhere the flames, consuming the scrubby hills where they lived near Valley Center and searing the paint of the vans to which they fled.
Remembering the firestorm
By: ADRIENNE A. AGUIRRE - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- "It never gets easier," says Bill Clayton, who has fought fires for 45 years and seen 171 deaths. Clayton, 64, was the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's "incident commander" during last year's devastating Paradise and Cedar wildfires.
How did fires start?
By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer
It has been eight months since investigators declared that the Paradise fire that started on the Rincon Indian Reservation on Oct. 26, 2003, was intentionally set.
Fire victims gather to put disaster behind them
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer
RAMONA ---- A sparse and emotionally torn group of fire victims braved the damp and chill in Ramona Saturday night, hoping that a party might make the first anniversary of the wildfires that ripped their lives apart easier to deal with.
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