Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889
The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 (previously called the Great Fire of 1889) was a wildfire in California which burned large parts of Orange County and San Diego County during the last week of September, 1889.
Assistant Regional Forester (USFS), L.A. Barrett, who wrote a 1935 report on California wildfires, said of it: "I was living in Orange County at the time and well remember the great fire reported herein from September 24 to 26. Nothing like it occurred in California since the National Forests have been administered. In fact in my 33 years in the Service I have never seen a forest or brush fire to equal it. This one covered an enormous scope of country and burned very rapidly."
Conditions leading up to this 1889 fire event included a much longer and more severe annual drought than usual, with rains largely ceasing in March and less than 1 cm of precipitation being recorded for the 5½ months prior (records from the National Archives). This was coupled with multiple katabatic wind events (known as “northers” or Santa Anas) that month, one of which occurred about 10 days prior and likely added to the dryness of fuels. Temperatures during the week prior remained high and were coupled with several severe fires in San Diego County in which “at least 10,000 acres (40 km2) have burned over, a dwelling house consumed and other property destroyed”.
In addition to the Santiago Canyon Fire, there were several other significant fires fanned by the same gale force Santa Ana winds in San Diego and San Bernardino counties. The Santiago Canyon Fire was the largest and has been estimated as being greater than 300,000 acres (125,000 ha). Another in San Diego County has been estimated to have been greater than 60,000 acres. The Orange County fire burned through areas of chaparral and coastal sage scrub, as well as a number of farm fields in the Santa Ana Valley, where farmers attempted to control the fire by plowing ahead of it. A detailed analysis of the fire can be found in Keeley and Zedler.
USFS Regional Forester L.A. Barrett (1935), in reference to the size stated that "Nothing like it occurred in California since the National Forests have been administered. In fact in my 33 years in the Service I have never seen a forest or brush fire to equal it." Since his career included the 1932 Matilija Fire, which was over 220,000 acres (~89,000 ha), we can infer it was much larger than 200,000 acres (810 km2). A thorough study of newspaper accounts suggests it was on the order of 310,000 acres (130,000 ha). Other estimates have claimed a smaller size.
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