Crime & Safety

MOUNTAIN FIRE: Some Residents Stay, but Most of Idyllwild is 'Ghost Town'

Update 4:16 p.m. Some residents in Idyllwild ignored or defied mandatory evacuation orders issued due to the Mountain Fire burning within a few miles of the vulnerable forest-shrouded town.

Idyllwild Fire Protection District Chief Patrick Reitz warned people who refused to leave they were risking their lives and the lives of public safety workers who remained to protect Idyllwild.

But by and large, most people cooperated with the orders to leave town, a member of a Cal Fire San Bernardino strike team said while doing structure triage on Fern Valley Road.

"It's a ghost town here," he said. "It's good to see people cooperating and making the job easier. Hopefully nothing is going to happen down here, but we have to be prepared for the worst."

Strike team members were filling out blank structure triage forms and posting them as placards outside homes that already had yellow tape tied to a tree or a mailbox, to indicate law enforcement had checked each taped residence for compliance with evacuation orders.

"It shows somebody checked," the firefighter said. "Whether they really left or not, who knows?"

Turning his attention back to structure triage, he emphasized "we don't pick winners and losers. We just gather intel."

Each form asks whether the residence in question has:

- Type 1 Engine Access?

- Water Source?

- 100 Feet Defensible Space?

- Civilians Present?

There is also space for firefighters to record "Special Notes" or "Hazards."

The bottom of the form states:
"The final decision to defend a structure is always up to the assigned resource."

Update 2:59 p.m. 
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians estimates more than a fourth of the mountain watershed acreage burned by the Mountain Fire is on their reservation, according to a statement issued by the tribe Thursday afternoon.

"We have been fortunate to this point because the thousands of acres of reservation land burned are located deep in the mountains without severe threat to culturally sensitive areas or human lives," Tribal Chairman Jeff Grubbe said. "We are all deeply saddened by both those who have been displaced by this unfortunate event and those who have lost homes and property."

The tribe used GIS mapping to calculate that of the 22,800 acres burned as of 6 a.m. July 18, more than 6,000 acres of that is on the reservation.

The Agua Caliente continue "to work with multiple agencies involved in the suppression efforts at Mountain Fire, a wildfire that started at 1:43 p.m. Monday near the junction of Highway 243 and Highway 74 near the town of Idyllwild," the statement said.

"We appreciate the many agencies and thousands of firefighters who are on the scene tackling this fire," Grubbe said.

The Agua Caliente own and manage the Indian Canyons, an approximate 56-square mile recreational area that includes more than 60 miles of trails. They are a federally recognized Indian tribe with 32,000 acres of reservation lands in Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, and into the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains.

Update 12:05 p.m. 
A spokeswoman for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway announced Thursday morning the attraction on the northeast edge of Mount San Jacinto State Park is closed due to smoke from the Mountain Fire.

The tram and the state park were closed because of unhealthy air quality due to smoke, Lena Zimmerschied of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway said.

Smoke advisories were issued again Thursday for the San Gorgonio Pass, the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley, northeast Anza, and the Coachella Valley.

Areas directly impacted by smoke and ash may experience air quality in the unhealthy range or higher, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Posted 9:49 a.m.
 An Idyllwild engine crew was alone on Fern Valley Road before sunrise Thursday, in a fog of pungent smoke from the Mountain Fire with Tahquitz Rock looming in the darkness above.

To the east near Lake Hemet, hundreds more firefighters and crew supervisors attended a 6 a.m. briefing where they heard incident commanders say the Mountain Fire had grown to an estimated 22,800 acres. Idyllwild crews were among 2,985 firefighters assigned to the Mountain Fire as of Thursday morning.

Idyllwild Fire Protection District Chief Patrick Reitz spoke with Banning-Beaumont Patch after the briefing.

"The evacuation went smoothly, no incidents," Reitz said. "People obeyed the order. We got good compliance. We appreciate that. It makes it a lot easier, a lot safer for our firefighters.

"Idyllwild is under threat," Reitz said. "We're looking forward to having a large tanker contingecy, they'll be working the area above Idyllwild heavily, trying to suppress, keep that fire from cresting or coming over the line down into Idyllwild.

"Additionally we've got resources that are actually on the ground, re-enforcing that line, and we've got strike teams and engines that have been brought in, they'll be doing structure protection," Reitz said. "Right now their job is to get familiar with Idyllwild, go around structures, look for hazards, identify where they can make their stand, where they can't, and defend those structures.

"The goal is to get everybody home, keep everybody safe and protect as much property as we can in the process."

To read previous Patch coverage of the Mountain Fire click the following links:

MOUNTAIN FIRE UPDATE: Blaze Now 19,400 Acres, 4,100 Homes Threatened, Evac Orders for Idyllwild, Fern Valley

Beaumont High School Transformed Into Emergency Shelter for Fire Evacuees

MOUNTAIN FIRE PHOTOS: Property Damage, Watershed Damage, Firefighters, Pilots

MOUNTAIN FIRE: Now 9,000 Acres Burned, 2,200+ Personnel, 21 Structures Destroyed

MOUNTAIN FIRE UPDATE: Blaze Now Est. 2,400 Acres, Structure Damage Reported, Mandatory Evacs at Bonita Vista, Fleming Ranch, Animal Sanctuary


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