Reminder: 2008 Sayre Fire Anniversary
When: Thursday, 14 November 2019
Where:San Gabriel Mountain Foothills - Los Angeles County
Organizer: Kim Patrick Noyes
Description: The Sayre Fire, also known as the Sylmar Fire, was a November 2008 wildfire that resulted in the loss of 489 residences in Los Angeles, California, United States, the "worst loss of homes due to fire" in the city's history. The fire was first reported at 10:29 p.m. PDT on November 14, 2008, in the Sylmar section of Los Angeles. As of November 20, 2008, the fire was 100% contained, had burned 11,262 acres (46 km2) and destroyed more than 600 structures (480 mobile homes, nine single-family homes, 104 outbuildings and 10 commercial buildings). The number of homes lost in the Sayre fire exceeded the prior record set in 1961 by the 1961 Bel Air fire which claimed 484 homes. There were no fatalities, just minor injuries to five firefighters and one civilian.
County fire officials reported on November 19, 2008 that the Sayre Fire had destroyed more than 600 structures, including 480 mobile homes, nine single-family homes, 104 outbuildings and 10 commercial buildings. The Los Angeles Times called it "the worst loss of homes due to fire in the city of Los Angeles" and reported that it "appeared to be the largest number of housing units lost to fire in the city of Los Angeles, surpassing the 484 residences destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air fire." Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a lifelong city resident, noted: "This is as bad a fire as I can remember since the Bel-Air Fire. The human devastation that's involved, whether you live in a mobile home or an estate, it's devastating. We can't even begin to weigh their loss."
In the pre-dawn hours on November 15, 2008, the fire devastated the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, destroying 480 of the park's 600 mobile homes. Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Steve Ruda described the scene as "an absolute firestorm" with 50-foot (15 m) high flames and added, "Hoses were melting into the cement and concrete. That's how hot the fire was." Firefighters rescued several individuals from their mobile homes, and four civilians rescued a 300-pound disabled woman, who was trapped in her mobile home, as fire was breaking the glass. Though Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton initially expressed concern that some elderly residents might have perished at the mobile home park, cadaver-sniffing dogs searched the ruins and found no evidence of any fatalities.
The San Fernando Valley based Daily News described the Oakridge park, parts of which were also burned after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, as follows:
"With 600 households, well-manicured lawns and luxury amenities, Oakridge Mobile Home Park was no trailer park. The gated community, most of which was reduced to ash by a roaring wildfire that swept through the Sylmar hills late Friday and early Saturday, featured a putting green, an Olympic-size swimming pool and tennis courts. 'It wasn't just a mobile home (park),' said Linda Pogacnik, 63, whose home was destroyed. 'It was the Beverly Hills of mobile homes.'
After the effort in Oakridge, a firefighter produced a burned U.S. flag on a broken stick taken from a home that was destroyed in Oakridge. The firefighter offered it as a sign of hope and bravery for firefighters. It was later framed and hung in the new clubhouse at Oakridge, where it can still be seen today.
In a press briefing on November 16, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger noted that the homes in the Oakridge community had ignited "like matches," and called for a review of fire retardancy standards applicable to mobile homes and mobile home parks.Shortly after 1:00 a.m. PDT on November 15, 2008, flames from the Sayre Fire threatened Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar. The Los Angeles Times reported that, around midnight, "tall walls of flames quickly surrounded Olive View Medical Center," as "embers blew down streets, catching trees and shrubs on fire around the hospital," and "before long, the hospital was surrounded on all sides by fire." Some 200 patients were sheltered in place as firefighters fought the flames outside the hospital. The hospital lost power, generators failed to work, and the smell of smoke filled darkened hallways, as staff tended to patients with flashlights, and critical patients were kept alive with hand-powered ventilators. A number of infants and critical patients were evacuated in ambulances. In the end, more than 40 buildings on the Olive View campus were damaged in the fire, and the child care center was totally destroyed.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayre_Fire
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