Laguna Fire
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox wildfire
The Laguna Fire, also known as the Kitchen Creek Fire or the Boulder Oaks Fire, was a Template:Convert wildfire that burned from September 22 to October 4, 1970, in the Laguna Mountains and East County region of San Diego County in Southern California.<ref name="WFToday">Template:Cite news</ref> It was one of many wildfires in a massive conflagration that spanned across the state from September 22 to October 4, 1970.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> At the time, it was the second-largest fire in the recorded history of California after the 1932 Matilija Fire<ref name="WFToday" /> (not counting the Santiago Canyon Fire in 1889, which experts estimate burned approximately Template:Convert).<ref name="California's largest">Template:Cite news</ref>
ProgressionEdit
The Laguna Fire was started by downed power lines during Santa Ana winds in the Kitchen Creek area of the Laguna Mountains on the morning of September 26, 1970. In only 30 hours, it burned westward about Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert before it was contained on October 3, 1970.<ref name="recalled">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="WFToday" />
EffectsEdit
The Laguna Fire remained among the twenty largest California wildfires until as late as 2020, fifty years later,<ref name=":0" /> but it was surpassed by larger, more recent fires and no longer ranks among them.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Cal Fire records the Laguna Fire as having destroyed 382 structures,<ref name="top 20 largest">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but reporting by The San Diego Union-Tribune indicates that that figure accounts only for the number of homes destroyed, with more than 1,000 additional structures (such as outbuildings or commercial buildings) lost.<ref name="recalled" /><ref name=":0" />
Additionally, Cal Fire lists a death toll of five for the Laguna Fire,<ref name="top 20 largest" /> while the Union-Tribune reports that eight civilians died, but were never identified and were believed to have been undocumented immigrants.<ref name=":0" />