LOS ANGELES _ It was clear from the beginning that the Woolsey fire had the potential to be a monster.
It broke out mid-afternoon Nov. 8 on Boeing property near the Santa Susana Pass, fueled by strengthening winds and burning toward populated areas.
But during the critical first hours, the Woolsey fire took second priority.
Ventura County firefighters were already engaged in a pitched battle with another blaze, called the Hill fire, about 15 miles to the west that had jumped the 101 Freeway and was threatening hundreds of homes and businesses.
The Woolsey fire was growing but still far enough from subdivisions that it got fewer resources from Ventura County. Neighboring fire agencies sent some help, but it would take hours before they launched an all-out attack at the fire lines.
These turned out to be fateful choices in what would become the most destructive fire in Los Angeles and Ventura county history.
A Los Angeles Times review of hundreds of pages of public records and several hours of radio transmissions show that first responders on the front lines of the Woolsey fire struggled during those first critical hours, stymied by communication breakdowns and a scarcity of air tanker support, equipment and firefighters.
Los Angeles County Fire Department sent some firefighters to the front lines but decided early on to deploy dozens more several miles away in the Agoura Hills area, according to interviews, incident logs and planning reports obtained under the California Public Records Act.
L.A. County Fire Capt. Tony Imbrenda said the department knew the fire was headed toward L.A. County and staged four strike teams _ 20 engines and 88 firefighters total _ in Agoura Hills to assess how the fire would affect homes and businesses once it reached the area.
Imbrenda said the department didn't send the strike teams, each comprised of five engines and 22 firefighters, directly to the Woolsey fire line "because the fire hadn't crossed into L.A. County yet. These resources were all set up to protect L.A. County."
Imbrenda said sending the strike teams to the fire line earlier would not have made a difference. "There was no way, no engine, no apparatus, no aircraft in this world that could have possibly stopped that fire from making it to L.A. County," he said.
The Los Angeles Fire Department, the city's fire agency, also sent engines toward the Woolsey fire, but its firefighters seemed to grow frustrated with the lack of a plan and resources on the scene, according to radio transmissions. Some firefighters said in radio transmissions they were hampered by a lack of water at the Boeing facility and by poor cellphone service, which forced them to move the command center to a Ventura County fire station.
By 5 p.m., the L.A. city fire department had completed a map modeling how the Woolsey fire would burn, showing with a high degree of accuracy its ultimate path through Bell Canyon, the Santa Monica Mountains and Oak Park.
Even as the Woolsey fire worsened through that first afternoon and evening, firefighters struggled to get more boots on the ground. By 7:30 p.m., the Hill fire was being battled by 400 personnel while only 150 firefighters from three agencies were on the Woolsey fire, according to incident updates released by fire officials.
Over the next three days, the Woolsey fire made a devastating march to the Pacific Ocean, destroying more than 1,500 structures from Oak Park to Malibu, burning almost 97,000 acres and killing three people.
The Hill fire, by contrast, destroyed just four structures and burned 4,500 acres.
