Cedar Fire - Fire Chronology

Fire Chronology

The Cedar Fire began in the Cleveland National Forest and was reported at 5:37 p.m. PDT on October 25, 2003 south of Ramona in central San Diego County. Within ten minutes of the initial report of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service had deployed 10 fire engines, two water tenders, two hand crews and two chief officers. Within 30 minutes, 320 firefighters and six fire chiefs were en route. A San Diego County Sheriff's Department ASTREA helicopter that was rescuing a hunter spotted the fire at about the same time as the first phone report was received and called for an air response. Another Sheriff's helicopter equipped with a Bambi bucket was dispatched to drop water on the fire. When the helicopter was only minutes away from the fire, a Forest Service fire chief cancelled the water drop because policy cut-off aerial firefighting 30 minutes before sunset.

Between the time the fire started and midnight the predicted strong easterly (Santa Ana) winds surfaced and the fire burned 5,319 acres. By 3:00 AM, 62,000 acres (250 km2) had burned. Overnight, the fast-moving fire killed 12 people living in Wildcat Canyon and Eucalyptus Hills, in the northern part of Lakeside, who had little or no warning that the fire was approaching. The fire destroyed 28 homes on the Barona Indian Reservation. In only a few hours, the Cedar Fire had pushed southwest over 30 miles (48.3 km) and had burned over 100,000 acres (400 km2) at an average rate of 5,000 acres (20 km2) per hour and crossed several large highways including I-15. By noon on October 26, the fire was burning hundreds of homes in the Scripps Ranch community of San Diego, and was threatening many others.

On October 26, the fire forged into Alpine, Harbison Canyon and Crest burning hundreds more homes in areas that had been devastated by the Laguna Fire 33 years earlier. By October 28, the strong easterly Santa Ana winds died down and the fire turned east consuming another 114,000 acres (460 km2). The entire community of Cuyamaca and most of nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and many homes in the town of Julian were destroyed. On October 29, a fire company who were attempting to defend a house in the Riverwood Estates near Santa Ysabel became entrapped and overrun by the fire. One firefighter died. Another firefighter sustained severe injuries, and two firefighters were hurt.

The fire forced the evacuation of the main air traffic control facility for arriving and departing aircraft in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas, shutting down all commercial and general aviation in the region and disrupting air traffic across the United States. Firefighters achieved full containment on November 3 and complete control on December 5.