The Laguna Fire, previously known as the Kitchen Creek Fire and the Boulder Oaks Fire, was, at its time, the largest wildfire in the history of California; and an episode of a massive conflagration that spanned the whole state from September 22, - October 4, 1970.

The Laguna fire was started by downed power lines during Santa Ana winds in the Kitchen Creek area of the Laguna Mountains in eastern San Diego County on the morning of September 26, 1970. In only 24 hours it burned westward about 30 miles (50 km) to the outskirts of El Cajon and Spring Valley. The fire devastated the communities of Harbison Canyon and Crest. In the end the fire burned 175,425 acres (710 km²) and 382 homes killing eight people.

The Laguna Fire was surpassed as the largest fire in California history by the 280,278 acre (1,134 km²) Cedar Fire in October 2003. It was surpassed again by the 197,990 acre (801 km²) Witch Creek Fire in October 2007.

Controversy

At a time when high Santa Ana winds grounded other firefighting aircraft, a representative of Canadair brought a CL-215 to southern California to demonstrate its capabilities. He was turned away by firefighting officials. Nevertheless, while other firefighting aircraft were unable to fly safely he operated his "Super Scooper" out of El Capitan Reservoir and dropped water on the Laguna Fire wherever he saw fit. The firefighting officials were unimpressed, and such aircraft were not used again in southern California to fight fires until the San Bernardino National Forest used one several years ago to fight the Lytle Fire when other aircraft were grounded. With the exception of two CL-415s leased by Los Angeles County during the fire season, the CL-215 and CL-415 are rarely used.

Aftermath

In the wake of the fire, Congress directed the establishment of the Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) which would allow military transport aircraft to be able to respond to wildfires if the commercial air tankers are unavailable or committed elsewhere. Also note that retardant is generally ineffective when dropped from air during a foehn wind event where winds are blowing from 45-70 mph. The retardant gets intermixed with the wind and is dispersed, thus it never reaches it's intended target. This makes southern California unique when fighting fire during a Santa Ana wind event from the sky.

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