Memories of the Grand Prix Fire in October 2003

Prior to July 2006, the last big fire we had in the Inland Empire was the Grand Prix fire in October of 2003.

Although I have lived in the foothills (Monrovia, Azusa, Upland, and Rancho Cucamonga) all my life - and never any further from the mountains than 1/4-mile, never had a brush fire affected my family the way the Grand-Prix fire did.

My carpool partner and I noticed the Grand Prix fire on a Wednesday, as we walked from our office in the San Gabriel Valley to our car. We saw a large plume of smoke far off in the distance. "..another brush fire..", we joked, and thought nothing more of it.

But by Friday morning, the fire had traveled miles westward and was getting uncomfortably close to Rancho Cucamonga, where we live. But by Friday afternoon, it had become painfully clear that this was one of the largest fires in California history. All day at work I listed to news updates on the radio as the fire crept closer and closer, burning hundreds of homes along the way.

By Friday evening the fire had jumped Interstate 15 and was moving steadily west of the Cajon Pass. Around 4PM firefighters were gathering at the top of Haven Avenue in Rancho, making a stand to protect the homes in Deer Creek. The picture below was taken at about that time at the extreme top of Haven avenue, the fire is visible in the far distance.



By 11PM Friday the fire continued it's march westward, and toward our neighborhood.

It was at this point that we began to get nervous. Our home was located in "The Woods" of Alta Loma, an area between Hermosa Avenue and Haven Avenue, north of Wilson Avenue. "The Woods" had been a Eucalyptus tree farm about 80 years ago, and today still has thousands of the trees throughout the area.

Many homes have 100 or more on their lot. Our 1/2 acre lot had 119 of them. The bad thing about Eucalyptus trees (besides being smelly and dirty) is that because of the amount of oil that they contain, they turn into what firefighters call "tree bombs". When a fire approaches and the temperature rises, the oil in the tree begins to boil, until it eventually bursts into flames, shooting hot, flaming, napalm-like Eucalyptus oil in every direction. Although the thought of a 'tree-bomb' sounds interesting, I did not want to witness 119 of them in my own yard! As we got ready for bed, we wondered what the weekend had in store for us. The picture below is the exact same area as the one above, but taken 6 hours later (11PM).

Saturday morning began with a bang. At about 4AM we were awakened by strange noises and flashing red-lights shining thru the bedroom window. Just as we realized what was happening, we heard a loud, official-sounding banging on the front door. A Riverside county firefighter was there telling us to leave.. NOW! Visions of tree-bombs in our head, we gathered the dogs and packed them into our already packed and ready to evacuate cars, and headed to Grandma's house. We took the picture below as we drove away - The fire looming ever closer.

By the time we reached grandma's house in Duarte, the fire had already burned nearly 1,000 homes and it was headline news on every channel. We watched intently all day fearing CNN would be showing exclusive coverage of exploding tree-bombs in "The Woods" of Alta Loma. Saturday afternoon the fire had slowed it's pace. It was still moving westward toward our neighborhood, but it took the entire day just to go the few miles from where it was Saturday morning to our street. At about 8PM I decided to drive back to the neighborhood. If my house was going to burn, I wanted to be there. As I drove up Hermosa Avenue the fire was still a mile or so east, at about Haven. All the roads were blocked at Wilson, so I parked the car and walked up to the police lines. As the fire approached, I was amazed by the intense winds that came with it. They say that fires create their own weather, and it's true. As the fire approached, the winds must have been blowing steady at 30MPH. Me and my neighbors watched in awe as the fire approached, then continued past us. Amazingly not a single house in The Woods burned. Unfortunately one or two homes further up on the mountain above us were not as lucky.

The fire burned for several more days, making it's way as far east as Glendora. In all thousands of homes were destroyed. We were allowed back into our homes Sunday night and spent the next two weeks cleaning ash out of the yard, and every nook & cranny of the house. It was a close call, but we made it, thanks to the amazing armies of the firefighters that fought through the night, to protect the homes in our neighborhood and countless others.