Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger was briefed Thursday, October 30, 2003, at the San Bernardino Incident Command Center by senior fire and law enforcement officials and Esri staff. Esri's GIS software was used to show the Grand Prix and Old Fire perimeters, contingency plans, and vegetation mortality for the Southern California wildfires.

The briefing, which lasted approximately 20 minutes, included incident commanders sharing with the governor-elect how evacuations were successfully carried out, areas actually affected by the fires, contingency plans for San Bernardino mountain communities, and more. The Esri staff presentation featured ArcGIS 3D Analyst software showing 3D mapping of fire areas and communities.

Cedar Incident Base

In a separate briefing for President George W. Bush, with Governor Gray Davis and Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger also present, GIS-produced hard-copy maps were used to show fire extent, property damage, and other fire-related information for the San Diego wildfires.

On November 5, Bush flew to the Cedar Incident Base at Gillespie Airfield in El Cajon, California. During the briefing by incident commanders and fire officials, Bush, Schwarzenegger, Davis, and others saw maps of all of the Southern California fires. In addition, there were maps of the San Diego wildfires depicting fire lines, fire perimeters, drop points, division breaks, fire origin and progression maps, and more.

Incident Commander Chief John Hawkins used the maps to communicate where particular fire control problems might exist, where most of the structure loss occurred, and other information. Chief Jeff Bowman of the San Diego Fire Department; Chief Bill McCammon, president of the California Association of Fire Chiefs; and Chief Ernest Mitchell, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs also gave presentations to the President and discussed how to improve performance and prevent incidents of this magnitude in the future.

For more information, contact Russ Johnson, Esri (tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-1836; e-mail: russ_Johnson@esri.com).