Tasting soot and defeatFirefighters in San Diego County sensed from the start that they were outmatched this time. Maddeningly intense blazes met explosive suburban growth.By Scott Gold and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 25, 2007
Poway, Calif.
As the last of the ashes fell and the fire moved on, they returned, like vanquished warriors, to survey their losses.
In northern San Diego County on Wednesday, firefighters went back in to douse hot spots left behind after the Witch fire ravaged the region before marching on toward the coast. But before attending to their task, some paused on the blackened hills, removing their helmets and, holding them to their chests, allowing themselves a moment to take in the destruction.
For three days, this had been their battleground. Some went 70 hours without sleep. Some were left coughing up wads of soot. They had taken on one of the fiercest blazes to ever strike the state. And in many instances they had lost decisively -- a troubling experience for many of the 9,000 firefighters working this week across Southern California.
"Firefighters are a particular breed," said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Doug Lannon, a 35-year veteran and a commander of the effort to fight the Witch fire. "We do not like to lose." And yet, by Wednesday evening, more than 1,800 structures, including 1,600 homes, had been destroyed in blazes that stretched from Santa Paula to the Mexican border.
The mop-up that began Wednesday was conducted with as much resignation as resolve. This fire, many firefighters said, was particularly tough, leaving them with the sense that they had been overwhelmed and outwitted by the flames, undermanned from the start.
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