MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- While watching television Sept. 22, a news story on a local station put a stranglehold on Russell Maynard's ear.
"It said there was a fire on Pendleton that originated at the paintball park," said Maynard, the park's operator.
So the Mira Mesa resident did what any concerned businessman would do when his investment is going up in smoke.
He sat there.
There wasn't much else he could do, he said.
"They were fully developed with bunkers," he said, pointing to the now-blackened earth around him. "All that's left is ash."
After surveying the two demolished playing fields the next day, he began buying wood to rebuild the lost obstacles.
Eighty house-shaped bunkers had to be rebuilt. Fortunately, Maynard had plenty of help Ñ mostly devoted paintballers who often referee weekend games in exchange for some free play.
"We have a lot of guys who ref on Saturday and play on Sunday," said Maynard, 54.
Those same paintball fanatics rushed to his aid after this fire, he said, helping him build new obstacles and run the park that weekend.
"I like it when the people get excited, because we set up a good park," said Adrian Ortiz, 25, who said he's played on Pendleton almost every weekend for the past decade. "A lot of thought goes into where we put the obstacles; we think strategically."
About 120 people showed up each day that weekend, Maynard said. This time of year, he tends to see around 150 people per day.
"We've only closed the park for one weekend in about 10 years, and that was for 9/11," Maynard said. "I just didn't feel like playing."
If not for Camp Pendleton firefighters, at least another weekend of pastel warfare may have been lost, he said.
They responded to the fire within 15 minutes of it being reported Ñ just in time, Maynard said, to stop the fire from closing in on the park's larger structures.
"If it had burned where my buildings are, I would have lost $50-60,000 worth of equipment," Maynard said of the fire, which scorched 160 acres along Rattlesnake Canyon Road and forced evacuation of some Mainside barracks.
Instead, firefighters' quick reaction protected six of the park's eight fields and limited rebuilding costs to only $6,000 worth of small obstacles, he said.
It wasn't the first time the park, across the street and down the road from the air station in 24 Area, has been threatened by fire.
Three smaller electrical fires have been put out on the 50-acre lot over the years. Each time, firefighters took control of the flames immediately and prevented the blazes from spreading.
The park is open every Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and weekdays by reservation only.