On a scorching September afternoon, an Orange County public works crew moving boulders with heavy machinery sparked a brush fire. The blaze ignited less than two miles from the U.S. Forest Service’s Trabuco Station, but the station was unstaffed by federal firefighters. The only crew there was the Orange County Fire Authority’s Engine 18.
When that engine arrived on scene, the fire was just half an acre, burning in medium brush with a moderate rate of spread, according to radio communications provided by Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy. The crew also encountered two people who required treatment for smoke inhalation, he said.
Fennessy wonders whether, had a Forest Service engine responded with them, the firefighters could have contained the flames to the grassy flats. Instead, the fire raced up steep slopes into forested areas, growing into a 23,000-acre behemoth that destroyed 160 structures and injured 22 people.