How the 1971 Selmar Earthquake Changed Lives of First Responders – Pasadena Star News

Robert Lee and his family woke up to the swaying and shaking of the walls of his home on the morning of February 9, 1971.

The seismic tremor, the worst since 1893 to hit the region, caught everyone’s attention and withdrew from their beds – including his two young sons.

He remembers me, “They both came running there and said, ‘Do it again, Dad! Repeat it! ”

This wasn’t a children’s play, and the young Los Angeles County deputy sheriff knew it.

He rose to a ruined home in what was then known as Sepulveda – now North Hills. Cracks in the ceiling. Cracks in the corridors. Cracks in swimming pool partially emptied, low water level due to vibration.

Fortunately, the family was fine. He would need work, but the house was not in ruins. Elsewhere, the scenario was much bleaker and messier.

The morning fury that struck the 6.6-magnitude Silmar earthquake destroyed highway lanes, destroyed hospitals, power stations, and caused fires.

When all is said and done, the 1971 Selmar-San Fernando earthquake kills 64 people. More than 2,500 people were injured.

That morning, as a first responder, he checked me out with his family, then drove off to do his job.

With phones dying in an era long before cell phones, the attorney headed to his base of operations – West Hollywood Station, where it wasn’t long before he received startling news from a sergeant.

He remembered it as it was yesterday, when he arrived:

Sergeant Lee: “Don’t you live in that area?”

Lee: Yes.

Sgt: They just issued a warning to the dam.

Robert Lee, in his garage holding a copy of TheValley News at the time, was deputy mayor at the time of the Selmar San Fernando earthquake. He and his family woke up that morning 50 years ago to shake. That morning he found his house cracked and severely damaged. After this, his family was evacuated because the Van Norman Dam, a few miles north, was unstable and could break. He and his family had to evacuate. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News / SCNG)

right. Dam.

That morning, Frank Borden’s father, Stan, a battalion commander for the Los Angeles City Fire Department, was surveying the damage to the Van Norman Dam, a structure northwest of San Fernando. It was storing about 3.6 billion gallons of drinking water.

“When he got there, he mentioned that the dam was about to collapse,” Borden said.

The prospect was terrifying for Lee and the thousands who lived and worked their way through a potential dam break.

The top 30 feet of the Dam Eden collapsed. As aftershocks crumbled into more ground, the water level rose dangerously high, approaching the top of the remaining structure. If it collapses, scientists will later conclude, it could kill between 70,000 and 120,000 people.

A news helicopter flying over the damaged section of the Van Norman Reservoir. Hundreds of residents were evacuated under the dam. (Daily News File Picture)

The battalion chief Stan Borden’s letter prompted the complete evacuation of more than 80,000 people in the area beneath the dam – no such areas had been seen in the area.

Not only did the live evacuation involve direct Lee, but it also included 10 square miles along the San Diego Highway.

Lee was driving back up the hill, heading towards what was rapidly worsening in the disaster area. And his home and his family stood in the way of the dam.

The order came on his police radio: Immediate evacuation. “Van Norman Dam is questionable.”

He told me, “I knew that if it broke, we’d get water.” “How much we did not know.”

Meanwhile, Frank Borden, himself a captain with the LAFD Fire Protection Office, was on his way from his South Bay home to the San Fernando Valley on a mission.

The Borden Division’s firefighting units are tasked with dramatic rescue efforts.

His goal: to study those efforts. Learn from them. Get everything on paper.

His mission led him to the Veterans Hospital, where a cluster of buildings collapsed, killing nearly 50 people, and to Olive View Hospital in Sylmar, where a newly opened six-story psychiatric ward collapsed, killing three more.

Former Los Angeles City firefighter, Frank Borden. (Image provided by Frank Borden)

Amidst the stunning deaths across the region, many lives have been saved by our fast-acting rescuers.

With an eye on disaster preparedness already, Borden noted the ingenuity of these efforts, despite the low-tech equipment available at the time.

He said, “I saw people alive who were being rescued.” “I looked at those buildings and thought no one would survive there.”

But as the roofs of the Virginia Building collapsed almost flat, rescuers were able to obtain blueprints and building plans to find out which sections of the room the victims might be in.

“They made holes in the ceiling in those sections, and they looked down there… as they were dragging people through the roof,” he said. “That was such an integral part of my mind.”

It was a formative moment for a young Borden, who will continue to create the department’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and upgrade the department’s urban search and rescue efforts.

Borden will continue to study disasters, including major earthquakes from Mexico to Northridge, and from Whittier to Japan, all while gaining knowledge about how societies have come together to form rescue efforts.

Borden, who is now the Operations Director for the LAFD Historical Society, said Silmar was a wake-up call to people everywhere.

The 1971 earthquake was the first strong tremor to hit the valley since the Pico Canyon earthquake of 1893. The epicenter of this chakir was several miles west of Sylmar.

“People weren’t really ready until Selmar,” said Borden. “Once that happened, people started saying, ‘Hey, it could happen again. “

Structural engineers sought better ways to reinforce the new structures. The Fire Department enhanced community preparedness efforts. It is certain that in a relatively short geological time, the land of Southern California was shaken again in a major way in 1994, when the Northridge earthquake struck.

“In 1971, most people weren’t prepared,” said Lee, who honed his skills in emergency preparedness as a specialty, becoming Director of Security and Emergency Management at Great Western Financial Corp. He would eventually collaborate with Borden on consulting work.

At the time, Lee’s home had not been hit as badly as many others. The water was diverted from the modest dam, preventing major flooding. Still, Lee’s house will take a lot of work.

He said, “It was a mess.” His wife and children took refuge in his mother-in-law’s house that night. After spending hours and hours sifting through rubble, picking up debris and “help only”, Lee fell asleep at Sharif Station.

It will be weeks before Lee’s family can return home.

But normal was a long time. For weeks, residents faced shortages of water, gas and electricity with the Salvation Army rotating hot food trucks every day.

He told me, “I feel lucky, even though I’m in bad shape, I’m still able to find a place for my family and do something useful at that time.” “At least I felt like I was doing something.”

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