West Fire in Kern County CA destroys 33 homes (7/27/10-8/2/10)

When I was in Vermont, NPR made a brief report on Morning Edition on July 28 about a wildfire burning near Tehachapi CA with references to residences being destroyed and tankers working the fire. I happened to have a telephone conversation the next day with a friend and former airtanker pilot about another matter when I brought up this short report that I heard on NPR. He told me that this was the West Fire (CA-KRN-WEST), that residences were destroyed, and yes there were a lot of tankers and helos working this fire. Since I had heard a brief report about this fire while I was in rural Vermont, I decided to write an article on the fire for my blog.

I found the news report (from July 28, I believe) from a local ABC affiliate from a search of the internet yesterday. Then I went to the wildland fire hotlist forums to see what they had to say. The hotlist thread is a long one, and I found a link to this incident on a Kern County Fire Dept. webpage where they report that the fire was contained on August 2 (along with pictures, a map, and archived reports) The final tally:

1,658 acres
23 structures destroyed
41 outbuildings destroyed
fire started: Tuesday, July 27, 3 PM PDT
fire contained: Monday, August 2