Responsibility for Wildfire
Sergio Martinez pleaded guilty to intentionally setting off the catastrophic Cedar fire at the height of the 2003 fire season (March 11), but much of the blame lies with the U.S. Forest Service.
It was the Forest Service that set the stage for this tragedy by failing to close the Cleveland National Forest when all fire danger indicators were flashing red.
In late October 2003, large fires were already burning out of control in the San Bernardino Mountains, the San Gabriel Mountains and Ventura County, and the Paradise and Otay fires were burning in San Diego County.
Fire crews fighting those blazes were overstretched, and a searing Santa Ana wind was still blowing across the region.
Yet Forest Service officials, apparently afraid to upset hunters on the opening day of deer season by shutting the forest down, did nothing -- until it was too late.
Len Gardner
Laguna Woods
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