Named the Louisiana fire, it began from a burning car in the Cajon Pass near Pitman Canyon. Fanned by 20 mph winds, it grew to more than 200 acres in two hours and destroyed three residences and three outbuildings.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS SGX wrote it up.
Named the Louisiana fire, it began from a burning car in the Cajon Pass near Pitman Canyon. Fanned by 20 mph winds, it grew to more than 200 acres in two hours and destroyed three residences and three outbuildings. Before the first day was over, 1300 acres had burned. Eventually 6532 acres would be burned, along with numerous infrastructure supporting utilities and highway transportation before it was fully contained three days later. Smoke, flames, and heat from the fire halted ground and air transportation across the San Bernardino Mountains and between the High Desert and the Inland Empire of San Bernardino County for two days. Between 50 to 70 trains and 13,000 trucks move through the Cajon Pass on a daily basis. This blockage affected shipping in and out of Long Beach Harbor, a major West Coast shipping port. In addition to burning 57 power poles, heat from the fire forced the shutting down of all power transmission lines and a natural gas line across the mountains. These outages in turn affected about 500,000 customers in communities far removed from the incident site. Initially 40 homes were evacuated the first day in the Swarthout Canyon area. A flare up on the second day forced an evacuation of 100 homes in the Mormon Rocks area. Smoke blown over the Victor Valley caused air quality to dip below healthful levels at times. In addition to the property damage, an additional $3 million was spent fighting the fire.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS San Diego, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 26, 1:30 PM PST, 1 hour 45 minutes earlier.
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 230 PM PDT WED JUN 26 2002 .SYNOPSIS...FAIR WEATHER WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE WEEKEND WITH NIGHT AND MORNING LOW CLOUDS EXTENDING LOCALLY INTO THE INLAND VALLEYS. TEMPERATURES WILL BE A LITTLE COOLER THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. A WARMING TREND IS EXPECTED EARLY NEXT WEEK. .DISCUSSION...SAME WX EXPECTED THROUGH SAT. MARINE LAYER WILL DEEPEN SLIGHTLY AND IT WILL COOL A FEW DEGREES INLAND AS A WEAK UPPER LOW GENTLY SAGS OVER SOCAL THE NEXT FEW DAYS. A COASTAL EDDY IS POSSIBLE TOO...BUT IF IT FORMS IT WILL BE WEAK. THE UPPER LOW CUTS OFF AND DRIFTS SW OF CA BY SUN. STARTING SUN...TEMPS WILL GO UP A LITTLE AND THE RESULTING SE FLOW BETWEEN THE LOW AND THE 4 CORNERS HIGH MAY BRING IN SOME MONSOONAL MOISTURE. CONVECTION FCST BY MODELS TO INCREASE OVER S AZ AND SONORA SO PARTLY CLOUDY FOR ERN ZONES IS A GOOD FCST UNTIL ANY CHANCE OF TSTORMS COMES MORE INTO FOCUS. .SAN...NONE. MM
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in California, June 2002
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5297240.