Wednesday Morning & Afternoon

October, 24, 2007, 13:34 Filed in: Community
We are moving rooms this afternoon (we are staying here at least 3 more nights). Last night, we spent dinner time with some friends who have a house in Dart Canyon. We will share a BBQ at their Palm Springs home this evening. We slept a little better last night; nonetheless, I did keep an eye on the iPhone sites all night. Today, there is a MAJOR focus with high activity with the winds dying down a bit. Let's ALL hope for the best for everyone. Here is a PDF of pictures given to me by Mark Malone to share (it is a 3.5mb file, so have patience downloading it).

From ROTW.net (scanner monitors and site posts):
• "Rim of the World schools will continue to be closed through Friday, October 26th. Schools will reopen once it is safe again for public travel and access. Continue to monitor the media for more information." Ron Peavy, Interim Superintendent - Rim of the World Unified School District.

• 1:27pm: Despite poor visibility, firefighters are making good progress on the Slide and Grass Fires today. Poor visiblity has prevented the fixed wing aircraft from making drops, but 14 helicopters are working both the Slide and Grass Fires along with over a thousand fire personnel. The fire has continued to burn toward Big Bear with news helicopters placing it 2 miles to the west of the Big Bear Dam. However, its progress has slowed as it has moved into the burn area for the Butler Fires, and firefighters are optimistic about the eastward progress halting.

Chief Michael Sherman, from the Crest Forest Fire District, stated that the department is "cautiously optimistic" about the progress of the firefighting in the district communities. Crest Forest Fire District serves Crestline, Cedarpines Park, Valley of Enchantment, Rim Forest and Twin Peaks. He stated that the district "has not suffered any structural losses at this time."

• 1:23pm: "We're on Sonoma and Brentwood; looks like we're going to be on Sonoma for a while (mop up?); send someone over here with supplies."

• 11:54am: Phone interview with USFS PIO John Miller - Person was arrested in VOE last night for arson, he was observed in the act and was followed by chopper to a house and arrested by SO. He is now named as a person of interest in the other fires according to CHP PIO Fernandez.

• 12:04pm: {via email} We are in Twin Peaks 189/Bear Springs Area. If anyone needs their pets that where left behind the can contact us. sealtightconst@hotmail.com or 909-499-0422 leave contact info, address phone # and we will gladly contact you and arange to check on them/feed them. After contact with County Animal Control Program Managers, the Crestline Chamber of Commerce is referring all mountain residents to the Toll-Free Hotline 1-800-472-5609. Organized resources are availble for both household pets as well as large animals such as horses.

• 11:38am: "I just got word from my daughter in law, an evacuee from Blue Jay, that all the houses on Sandalwood, Teakwood and Ironwood are okay at this time. This was confirmed by a deputy who did a drive by."

11:03pm: {via email} "We just went personally to see if our spec home at 1084 Brentwood survived. It did. Here are addresses we can confirm: 1141 Brentwood is okay, 1110 Brentwood burned, 1114 Brentwood burned, 1157 Brentwood is okay, 1036 Sandalwood (Scharer home) is okay, 1106 Sandalwood (Franks home) is okay. 1156 Grass Valley Road is okay (as are all the homes we saw around that). The road was blocked off at Brentwood and Grass Valley Road and we don't know about Brentwood from there on."

• According to John Miller of the US Forest Service, the westward advance of the Slide Fire stalled overnight. Flames got as far west as Heaps Peak between the waste transfer station and the radio towers. The front to the south of Green Valley Lake has moved toward Highway 18 and Snow Valley. It was less than 1/4 mile from the highway.

• In the Running Springs area, catastrophic fire activity burned through Fredalba and Smiley Park with widespread losses. The fire burned along the southern edge of Running Springs, eastward, to the Rimwood Ranch area. In Green Valley Lake, only 80 of the nearly 1,200 homes were destroyed, according to news reports.

• Damage assessment teams have begun the difficult task of surveying property and intrastructure damage. They began in the Green Valley Lake area and will work their way westward into Arrowbear Lake and the Running Springs area. Maps will be available as soon as the survey is complete. A briefing is being planned at the evacuation center at the Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino this afternoon. We will update the site when a time has been determined.

• With an evergrowing air force of fixed wing, rotary wing, and jet tankers, fire officials are gearing up for a massive assault. Miller stated that super scooper aircraft and other resources are being moved into California from other states and Canada.


From Other Sources:
• Here is a link of Twin Peaks/Lake Arrowhead area on Google Maps. LINK

• 11:43am: From FireUpdate.com-- In response to a request from state and federal officials, NASA today dispatched an aircraft equipped with sophisticated infrared imaging equipment to help firefighters battling the Southern California wildfires. The "Ikhana," an unmanned aircraft, was launched at Edwards Air Force Base at 8:45 a.m., said Beth Hagenauer of the NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. The aircraft is carrying a thermal infrared imaging system that can peer through heavy smoke and darkness to see hot spots, flames and temperature differences, Hagenauer said. Images are processed onboard, and then transmitted in "near real time" to help incident commanders allocate firefighting resources. The remote-controlled aircraft is expected to fly over the major blazes in the Lake Arrowhead/Running Springs area today, and possibly into San Diego County. A second imaging flight may take place tomorrow, officials said.

• 10:15am: Heavy smoke in the Twin Peaks area from an eyewitness.

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