Post #340536 by Bay Park Buzzy on Thu, Oct 25, 2007 6:06 PM

Former fire chief defies order to evacuate home
By Tony Manolatos
STAFF WRITER

October 25, 2007
DAN TREVAN / Union-Tribune
Former San Diego Fire Chief Jeff Bowman, in his Escondido backyard yesterday, said of his decision not to evacuate, “I obviously know what the threat is to my property, and I'm not threatened.”
Every night before he goes to bed, Jeff Bowman steps onto his patio and scans the sky above his 2.5-acre property in Escondido. Before him, stretched out on the lawn, are two garden hoses in case he needs to douse flaming embers.
Bowman, who resigned 18 months ago as San Diego's fire chief, is likely the best-known homeowner to defy evacuation orders and remain in a house threatened by fires.
He and his wife, Denise, were ordered Tuesday to leave their Spanish-style home, which they built about a year ago. So far, they've ignored the warning, which is exactly what fire officials tell people not to do.
The Reverse 911 recording sent to Bowman's home said residents of the unincorporated community of Hidden Meadows should evacuate immediately. Some of the Bowmans' 30 or so neighbors packed up and left. A few called Bowman and asked what he was doing. He said he was staying.
“I don't live in Hidden Meadows. I live in Escondido,” Bowman quipped in an interview yesterday. “If I was a fire chief, I'd be mad at myself (for not leaving) – but I obviously know what the threat is to my property, and I'm not threatened.”
Bowman's home is as close to fireproof as a house can get.
Trees and brush have been cleared within 100 feet of the perimeter. The roof is made of heat-resistant tile. The windows are dual-paned. Stucco shields most of the wood. The inside is protected by sprinklers.
The property includes a 1-acre vineyard, an outdoor fireplace and a patio bar made from Eldorado Stone.
“I've poured my life savings into this,” Bowman said from the vineyard, dressed in jeans and a San Diego Fire Department T-shirt. “I want to protect it. . . . If we left, it would be a robber's paradise.”
While the former chief feels comfortable in his home, he's not yet comfortable with his role as a civilian.
Bowman misses his old job more than ever now that a new round of wildfires has hit the county. At 55, he seems restless spending his days tending his vineyard, fielding calls from the media and playing with his dogs.
Bowman resigned because the city would not give him the additional personnel and equipment he said he needed after the Cedar fire, which killed 15 people and destroyed 2,300 homes in 2003.
Bowman had asked for $100 million to build and staff 22 fire stations, which would have cost $40 million a year to operate. The city responded by building one temporary station in Mission Valley.
Although Bowman agrees additional manpower wouldn't have prevented the current fires, he said the firefighters wouldn't have sat idle.
“They could have helped clear out areas in front of the fire, and you could have staged them in surrounding areas” to extinguish fireballs that travel a mile or more and spark additional blazes, Bowman said. “If they didn't need more firefighters, why are they sending so many here?”
Bowman said he tries not to be hypercritical or to second-guess decision-makers, but his frustration is great.
Bowman said some Fire Department officials have called and asked for advice. He'd like to be more involved, but a former fire chief can't just show up uninvited and start giving directions.
“You hope the people you put in place are doing what needs to be done, so you stay out of it,” Bowman said. “That's what's tough – staying out of it.”
He said he's not criticizing Mayor Jerry Sanders or San Diego's current fire chief, Tracy Jarman, whom he picked as his replacement. But he also said the people in charge fell short.
He said he's seen too many “talking heads patting themselves on the back” at the news briefings he watches from his living-room sofa.
“They've done a good job in some areas, but they could have done more,” Bowman said. “And then I see (Gov. Arnold) Schwarzenegger up there saying everything is hunky-dory. It's not.”
Bowman, who was critical of authorities after the 2003 wildfires, was San Diego's fire chief for four years. He took over in 2002 after resigning as Anaheim's fire chief, a position he held for 15 years.
Bowman said he enjoys his new life, which includes working as a fire department consultant and tending to the Malbec and Cabernet Franc grapes he planted 10 months ago. He even has a bocce ball court.
But he clearly misses the limelight.
“I got a call from the president during the Cedar fire,” he said. “You miss that.”
This week, Bowman tried to drive up a nearby road to check out the nearest fire, which he suspected was about five miles away. But he couldn't get past the sheriff's deputy who was blocking the road, even after he identified himself as a former fire chief.
“Yeah. You and everybody else in the county,” the deputy said.
Jarman said she appreciates what she learned from her former boss. She said she called Bowman this week to make sure she was asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for everything she needed.
Although Jarman is proud of her firefighters' efforts, she agrees with Bowman – more work needs to be done.
Jarman said she's already spoken with some of the state fire officials who, along with Bowman, developed a long list of recommendations after the Cedar and Paradise fires. The recommendations that weren't implemented will be reconsidered, along with new ones, Jarman said.
“We're going to get together and come up with a plan on where we need to go from here,” she said.
Bowman, meanwhile, doesn't want to be viewed as a chronic complainer. To that end, he plans to form a committee of retired fire experts to assess what went right and what didn't this time.
For now, he plans to keep his eye on the sky. If a fire crew knocks on his door and tells him to leave, Bowman said he will send his wife away. But he'll stay.
“I'll pull some hose,” he said. “Those guys are going to need the help.”