Escondido working to repair park used as firefighting command post

Escondido working to repair park used as firefighting command post
Turf trampled and torn in Kit Carson Park

By: DAVID GARRICK - Staff Writer
ESCONDIDO -- Many of the grass fields in Kit Carson Park were severely trampled and torn up last month when the 258-acre park served as a campground and command post for 2,000 firefighters who were brought in to help to suppress the devastating wildfires.

City maintenance crews and some volunteers have been scrambling to repair the fields since the park re-opened to the public Nov. 6, but some of the largest fields will have to be re-seeded next month, said Robin Bettin, the city's recreation superintendent.

"The grass is really worn out from the heavy equipment and the human traffic," said Bettin. "All that machinery and 2,000 firefighters really takes its toll."

The park became a small city of its own for nearly two weeks during last month's wildfires, with firefighters eating meals together and waiting to be deployed. The news media swarmed the park Oct. 25 when President Bush shook hands there with dozens of firefighters during a four-hour tour of the region.

The fires scorched 368,316 acres, destroyed 1,751 homes and took the lives of eight people.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has agreed to reimburse the city more than $82,000 for field damage, excessive electricity use from running the ball field lights around the clock and lost rental fees for some of the park's facilities, said Bettin.

The presence of the firefighters and the resulting damage forced Escondido Pop Warner football to move its games to Ryan Park, and Escondido Youth Baseball canceled the final month of the season for teams scheduled to play at Kit Carson.

Park officials also canceled all tennis leagues because the park's 10 courts needed to be thoroughly washed clean of ash and debris, and the skate park and sports center were closed for several days, said Bettin.

"The high-use areas of the park suffered the most damage, because the wide-open spaces get the most use and that's the kind of areas the firefighters needed for their tents and equipment," said Bettin.

CalFire officials said Monday that they are enormously grateful to the city.

"We very much appreciate that they made the park available to us on such short notice," said Matt Streck, a CalFire spokesman. "Every hour we spent looking for a command post was an hour we were delayed from fighting the fires."

Streck said the park's location in southern Escondido was nearly perfect for firefighters, because it was close enough to the fires to provide easy access but far enough away to be safe.

Streck also said he was not surprised that the price tag for using the park surpassed $80,000.

"A park like that is not set up to deal with the kind of traffic we created," said Streck.

Money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover 75 percent of the Kit Carson costs, said Streck.

Bettin said city officials are pleased their park played a key role in fighting the fires. She also credited labor crews from CalFire for helping to clear brush for three days before the park re-opened.

Bettin said another problem for the grass was that the presence of the firefighters prevented crews from watering it. She said the city is optimistic that the fields will be fully restored by the spring, but she said visual evidence of the fires will probably remain a lot longer.

"It will probably be several months before you can come into the park and not notice anything different from before the fires," she said.

Source: North County Times