by Peter Mertz
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- A investigative report by CBS has found that the mass destruction caused by the Caldor Fire in Northern California last year could have been lessened had the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) acted to implement a forest management plan as promised.
The massive Caldor Fire in Northern California last year engulfed 221,835 acres (897.7 square km) and destroyed over 1,000 structures. The two-month-long fire cost 271 million U.S. dollars to extinguish. Two people were seriously injured.
A 60 Minutes Investigation that aired Sunday on CBS revealed how broken promises and gross mismanagement by USFS officials led to the destruction of the historic Grizzly Flats community, where more than 600 homes were destroyed in minutes.
Retired fire captain Grant Ingram, who had fought fires for 35 years for both the USFS and Cal Fire, delivered a play-by-play account of what transpired that fateful night, reported 60 Minutes.
The USFS Incident Commander ordered firefighting crews to "turn back, go home" because it was nighttime, said Ingram. Local firefighters confirmed Ingram's story.
"On the second day, August 15, the fire engulfed 200 acres. On August 16, 700 acres. That night, the winds in the canyon whipped the flames into a frenzy and Caldor exploded, consuming 11,000 acres," said the CBS investigative program.
The devastating scene was described as flames jumping "from treetop to treetop, picking up speed. The Eldorado National Forest was so dense with dead trees and parched underbrush, it was like a pyre waiting for a match."
"Ingram investigated the initial spread of the fire for the local fire district, and he told us he believes the USFS management team bears much of the blame," according to the program.
Local media also revealed that a fire-prevention plan promised by the USFS, which was supposed to be completed by 2020, was postponed to 2032.
The USFS committed to a plan to reduce overgrown brush and establish a protective buffer a decade later. The USFS turned out to stall on implementing a wildfire prevention plan and arbitrarily extended the plan's 2020 completion date until it was too late to affect the Caldor blaze, according to the Grizzly Flats Fire Safe Council, a decade-old volunteer group of local residents, many of whom lost their homes in the inferno.
USFS officials told local media that several hurdles stood in the way of the project's completion, including limited funding and pushback from environmentalists.
According to a report from the U.S. National Public Radio in September, the agency finished only 14 percent of the planned work before the Caldor Fire, which burned through the unfinished project before devastating Grizzly Flats. ■