1,400 homes protected in Viejas fire, CDF says
Jan 23, 2001
by Irene McCormack Jackson

ALPINE (San Diego, CA) -- In the final tally, five houses and 11 mobile homes* were destroyed by the Viejas fire, which roared through more than 10,000 acres earlier this month.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) said more than 1,400 homes in the fire's path were spared. Using general real estate estimates, the CDF said about $336 million in property was saved.

"I think it was a great effort of many different agencies," CDF Chief Jim Barta said yesterday. "We had a wind-driven fire, and no matter how many resources were available, it was going to burn.

"When you talk about 1,400 homes protected and saved, that's a pretty good number."

Barta said the six-day fire damaged 12 homes and one mobile home. He said 67 barns, sheds and outbuildings burned down, and four were damaged. Fifty-seven recreational vehicles, cars, utility vehicles, trailers and motorcycles were destroyed, and 15 damaged.

The total property loss estimate was $1.86 million, Barta said.

Started Jan. 3 by a cigarette tossed by a motorist into the median of Interstate 8, the fire consumed 10,300 acres, most in the first two days.

Within hours of ignition, local fire chiefs called for help from throughout the state and Arizona. Some 2,000 firefighters were on the lines within 24 hours.

When the firefighters went home, the paperwork, research and numbers-crunching started, Barta said.

The fire cost $7.8 million to fight, he said. The three main agencies -- the U.S. Forest Service, CDF and the Bureau of Indian Affairs -- will negotiate to determine who will pay for what.

The split is loosely determined by the number of acres burned within each jurisdiction. The fire started in the Cleveland National Forest and moved onto the Viejas and Sycuan Indian reservations and CDF (State of CA) land.

Efforts to help the victims of the fire should receive a boost today from the county Board of Supervisors. The board is set to vote on giving $20,000 to the Alpine Emergency Relief Fund. The money would come from a fund set aside for reinvestment in communities.

The emergency fund was started by the Alpine Chamber of Commerce, service organizations and community leaders. A committee has been created to review requests for aid.

Copyright 2001 San Diego Union - Tribune

*Added for clarification, as CDF is now downplaying the fire's damage from 16 homes to 5 homes, because 11 were manufactured or mobile "trailer" homes. A mobile home near San Diego, CA, can easily be worth $75,000 to $150,000 or more on a country lot.