Photo: AFP
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus was an active participant in the effort to battle the Greenwood Lake wildfire that wreaked havoc on the area near Jennings Creek this past fall. It was his responsibility to keep the residents and property on the New York side of the lake safe. As chance would have it, Neuhaus found himself in southern California last week, so he was able to witness first-hand the effects of the devastating wildfires that continue to plague the West Coast. Neuhaus appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to describe how the experience unfolded.
“I’m a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves,” Neuhaus told Larry Mendte, “I’m assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and we were having our major senior officer planning conference in San Diego. So I showed up there Wednesday, and by Wednesday night the fire has doubled in size, [and] by then they had numbers of people missing, and it became all hands on deck, including the Department of Defense had to stand up- not only helicopters, but also C-130s to start dumping water on the fire to help the state of California.”
Neuhaus wasn’t pressed into service, so he was able to merely observe the wildfires in all their fury. He saw two things that left an impression on him. “One, it’s like your entire town- so people who live on Long Island, New York City, or wherever- just imagine your entire community gone: the bank, the schools, all the houses, the deli, the restaurant, just wiped out off the face of the earth and it just looks like a moon landscape. There’s maybe a couple of chimneys sticking up, but literally, that is what it looks like. The other disturbing thing is… so, while I was there, the police are there. They’re fighting looters. I couldn’t believe it; it just blew my mind. The LAPD was actively arresting and fighting professional criminals from these different gangs that are, so they’re basically- ‘Hey Larry, you and your family have to leave’, so you reluctantly leave your house. As soon as you leave, people come in and rob it while the fire is just blocks away.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images
