Video: Residents Return Home
Video: 10/30: Residents Return Home
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October 30, 2007
Grass Valley resident who lost their homes receive gift from the county
San Bernardino County has delivered a potted plant with a message that says “Our heartfelt support is with each of you in this difficult time” into the driveway of each house that burned in the Grass Valley area in Lake Arrowhead.
Each household was also given a bag with a mask, Kleenex and trash bags.
Updated Schedule for Mountain Visits
The following is the updated schedule for site visits and re-entry of Grass Valley in Lake Arrowhead, as well as the Running Springs area and Arrowbear.
Grass Valley in Lake Arrowhead:
SITE VISIT: Residents are able to view their homes and properties and salvage belongings Tuesday Oct. 30 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents interested in viewing their properties must attend a required briefing at Mary Putnam Henck Intermediate School at 730 Rhine Road in Lake Arrowhead between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. where they will be given a pass necessary for participation in the visit. The mandatory evacuation order for this area will remain in effect during the visit and persons attending the site visit will have to leave the area by 5 p.m. Residents must provide proof of residency and identification can include driver’s license, utility bill, credit card bill, a check, or an official document showing the resident’s name and a physical address (not a PO Box).
RE-ENTRY: At 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31, the Grass Valley community area will be under a voluntary evacuation order and all residents will be allowed to return home without restrictions.
Running Springs Area and Arrowbear:
SITE VISIT: Residents are able to view their homes and properties and salvage belongings Wednesday Oct. 31 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents interested in viewing their properties must attend a required briefing at Rim of The World High School between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. where they will be given a pass necessary for participation in the visit. The mandatory evacuation order for this area will remain in effect during the visit and persons visiting the site must leave the area by 5 p.m. Residents must provide proof of residency. Identification can include driver’s license, utility bill, credit card bill, a check, or an official document showing the resident’s name and a physical address (not a PO Box).
RE-ENTRY: At 6:00 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, the Running Springs area and Arrowbear will be under a voluntary evacuation order and all residents will be allowed to return home without restrictions.
* Site visits and re-entry for the Community of Green Valley Lake are in the planning stages. Public safety officials and utility companies are working tirelessly to prepare the area for site visits and re-entry.
FOR ALL THE SITE VISITS:
Firefighters and law enforcement will be present, as well as counselors from the county Department of Behavioral Health, county Department of Public Health professionals, health care personnel, and representatives from the American Red Cross and the FEMA Community Relations Field Specialists.
People attending the site visit are advised to bring canvas gloves, sturdy footwear, eye protection, and to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts. The county Department of Public Health will provide plastic bags for salvaged belongings, rubber gloves, and facemasks.
Information on the ongoing fire emergency, including the status of the fires, assistance resources, damaged and destroyed homes, is available via a disaster link on the county website, www.sbcounty.gov.
Information on assistance is also available by calling 211 or (888) 435-7565, and by visiting the Fire Emergency Local Assistance Center (FELAC) at the Dome building at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino.
State Route 330 remains closed between Highland and Running Springs.
Curfew orders between sunset and sunrise are in effect for all mandatory evacuation areas.
-- George Watson
Breakdown on Fire Losses
The Slide Fire, which burned in Green Valley Lake, Running Springs, Enchanted Forest and Smiley Park, destroyed 272 homes and damaged 43, according to Adam Aleman, the county's assistant assessor.
The Grass Valley Fire, which burned primarily in Lake Arrowhead, destroyed 178 homes and damaged 22, he said.
-- George Watson
October 29, 2007
SB Mountain Wildfires Destroyed 450 Homes
The Grass Valley and Slide fires together destroyed at least 450 houses in the San Bernardino Mountains, said Adam Aleman, a county assistant assessor.
The two blazes also damaged 65 homes, he added.
Aleman was still working on breaking down the total number of homes consumed by each fire.
-- George Watson
Baca Wants Tax Relief for Wildfire Victims
Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would provide tax relief to the victims of the California Wildfires. The California Wildfire Tax Relief Act of 2007 has already garnered bipartisan support and would provide special exemptions to the more than 2,000 homeowners who had their houses destroyed.
“Nothing we can do will replace the losses suffered by too many Californians this past week,” Baca said. “But we can help to make the rebuilding process as smooth as possible. Giving tax relief to those who have already suffered through so much is a good start in helping them return their lives to normal.”
The California Wildfire Tax Relief Act helps wildfire victims by:
* Providing special rules for the use of retirement funds to let people tap into savings without federal penalties.
* Suspending the limitation on individual and corporate tax deductions to motivate charitable giving.
* Excluding from gross income certain non-business discharges of indebtedness of individuals – allowing people to not pay income tax on discharged debt from creditors.
“Our brave men and women on the ground did a great job in stopping the devastation of the wildfires, and sheltering and caring for those affected by this tragedy,” Baca said. “It is now time for the federal government to ensure our recovering communities have all the resources they need. While this tax relief is on an individual scale, it will hopefully make the rebuilding process a little easier for our families and communities.”
The wildfires that began on October 21, 2007, swept through San Bernardino , Riverside , San Diego , Los Angeles , Ventura , Santa Barbara and Orange Counties . Recent estimates show that the fires destroyed 2,813 structures – including 2,007 homes. They are estimated to have burnt 518,489 acres - an area more than double the size of New York City - while killing seven people and injuring 113 firefighters and 26 civilians.
“After all the fires are out, and everyone is housed, fed, and clothed - we must craft a long-term solution that takes a realistic look at how to prevent future disasters of this magnitude,” Baca said. “But for now, I am glad to introduce this legislation that provides more immediate relief to the victims of the wildfires.”
The California Wildfire Tax Relief Act currently is co-sponsored by seven Members of the House of Representatives. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Budget to await further activity.
-- George Watson
Fire Relief Fund Accepting Donations
The Rim Resource Network, a Rebuilding Mountain Hearts & Lives program, is now accepting donations to assist those affected in the San Bernardino Mountain communities impacted by the Slide and Grass Valley Fires.
“Once again our residents must join together to assist those whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the two fires that ravaged the communities of Green Valley Lake, Arrowbear, Running Springs, Fredalba, Smiley Park, Twin Peaks, and Lake Arrowhead,” according to Rebuilding Mountain Hearts & Lives Executive Director David Stuart.
“When the fires are finally out and all mountain residents are allowed to return,” Stuart explained in a prepared statement sent to The Sun, adding, “many of them will be in need of immediate basic needs including food, clothing, shelter, and school supplies. Still others will need funds for rental housing deposits, utilities, transportation and living expenses.
“Should the evacuation of some areas continue for an extended period,” Stuart continued, “others will need financial assistance to help them overcome the loss of wages. And when the long-term recovery begins, donations will be needed for rebuilding including non-cash donations of materials, volunteer labor, and construction funding.”
Stuart urges residents to send tax deductible cash donations to: Rebuilding Mountain Hearts & Lives, P.O. Box 4644, Blue Jay, CA 92317. Persons wishing to donate non-cash items (new clothing, housing opportunities, volunteer labor, rebuilding materials, etc.) may send a letter to RMHL at the aforementioned address or e-mail the organization at donations@rimresourcenetwork.org.
“Please list the items you wish to donate,” Stuart added, “so we can properly match the generous contributions with someone in need.
“Remember,” Stuart concluded, “as in the past, the community will rise from the ashes like a Phoenix but it cannot do it without assistance from caring individuals and companies. Please help!”
Rebuilding Mountain Hearts & Lives, a 501©3 non-profit organization (Tax Identification #20-0867845), was created after the devastating 2003 Old Fire. The organization was responsible for coordinating needs and resources as well as providing valuable information for those residents affected by the disaster. Its efforts helped the survivors and the community recover and rebuild as quickly as possible.
Additional information is available at www.rimresourcenetwork.org and www.heartsandlives.org.
-- George Watson
DMV Re-opens
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has re-opened offices in San Bernardino County today after being shut down due to the wildfires. Offices re-opening here include the Redlands office at 1659 W. Lugonia Ave. and the Fontana office, 16499 Merrill Ave.
For more information, log on to www.dmv.ca.gov.
--Michael Munoz
County to Lead Tours of Grass Valley
Residents and property owners of Grass Valley can view their homes and properties and salvage belongings during an organized site visit from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The mandatory evacuation order for this area will remain in effect during the visit. Those attending the site visit will have to leave the area following the visit.
Those interested in viewing their lots must check in at Mary Putnam Henck Intermediate School at 730 Rhine Road, Lake Arrowhead, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and attend a short briefing, where they will be given a pass necessary for participation in the visit.
Firefighters and law enforcement will be present, as well as counselors from the county Department of Behavioral Health, county Department of Public Health professionals, health care personnel, and representatives from the American Red Cross and the FEMA Community Services Division.
People attending the site visit are advised to bring canvas gloves, sturdy footwear, eye protection, and to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts. The county Department of Public Health will provide plastic bags for salvaged belongings, rubber gloves, and facemasks.
Information on the ongoing fire emergency, including the status of the fires, assistance resources, damaged and destroyed homes, is available via a disaster link on the county website, www.sbcounty.gov.
Information on assistance is also available by calling 211 within the county and 1 (888) 435-7565 from outside the county, and by visiting the Fire Emergency Local Assistance Center (FELAC) at the Dome building at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino.
-- George Watson
Post Offices Up And Running
In San Bernardino County, mail delivery resumes today at local Post Offices in Blue Jay 92317, Cedar Glen 92321, Crestline 92325, Lake Arrowhead 92352, Rimforest 92378, Skyforest 92385 and Twin Peaks 92391. Mail from these zip codes had previously been relocated to San Bernardino International Airport.
Mail for Running Springs and Green Valley Lake will remain at the airport for people to pick up.
Post Office officials urge residents to check their mail daily, especially for those customers who have Post Office Boxes. Accumulated mail volume is filling mail receptacles beyond capacity.
Residents experiencing damaged or destroyed homes or businesses and can no longer receive mail there should contact their local Post Office to make alternative arrangements. Mail that is undeliverable due to property damage will be held for pick-up at local Post Offices or wherever mail is available for that ZIP Code.
--Michael Munoz
Assessor's Office Releases More Info
The county Assessor's Office has released its third report of damaged or destroyed properties caused by the recent fires.
The report is a partial listing. More reports are forthcoming, includes addresses of damaged and destroyed properties in the community of Running Springs that have been confirmed by appraisers.
Reports Numbers One and Two are also available on the official website of the County Assessor’s Office: Assessor's Homepage.
-- George Watson
Fire videos from YouTube
Here's an example of some of the extraordinary fire videos submitted to YouTube. This one is from Casper News Service.
The Debate on Development
With state and federal lawmakers now raising questions about where we as a society build homes, it's worth noting that The Sun investigated that very subject three years ago in a project dubbed, "Unnatural Disasters."
For those interested in perusing what the newspaper did, check out the following:
-- George Watson
October 28, 2007
Some of the best photos from our users
We had nearly 100 photos submitted to sbsun.com by our users, and we want to show off some of the best shots with this slideshow. To see more photos click to:
LACSD Finds Water is Safe
Per the LAKE ARROWHEAD COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT:
The Lake Arrowhead Community Services District, in conjunction with the California Department of Public Health and the San Bernardino County Health Department, has determined that water within the District's service area is safe to drink.
The water system is fully functional, pressurized, and ready for customers' use after evacuation orders are lifted. The District's water system serves Arrowhead Woods and Deer Lodge Park.
For more information call:
Water Utility contact: Bob Bernier, Water Operations Supervisor, (909) 336-7162 or Ken Nelsen, Interim General Manager, (909) 336-7102. After hours call (909) 336-7100.
California Department of Public Health – Drinking Water Field Operations Branch- District Office: (909) 383-4328.
Local Environmental Health Jurisdiction: San Bernardino County at (909) 387-4666.
-- George Watson
Damaged / destroyed properties listed
Most addresses of damaged or destroyed properties in Lake Arrowhead and Green Valley Lake can be found at: www.sbcounty.gov/assessor/
-Matt Wrye
Seen and heard: fire video from sbsun.com
We had a lot of great video shot by our videographers and photographers, but this one really demonstrates the tough fight firefighters faced during the Slide Fire. This video was produced by Eric Reed of The Sun.
Assessor's office delays address list
Running Springs residents will have to wait until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning for the San Bernardino County office of the Assessor to release specific addresses of properties that were destroyed or damaged in the Slide Fire.
The office will release the information inside the Dome building at the National Orange Show Events Center.
Bill Postmus, county assessor, repeatedly promised on Sunday while walking around the Dome building that a list would be released by 5 p.m.
However, around mid-afternoon, county employees staffing booths inside the building said they were told the list wouldn't be complete by 5 p.m., and that Postmus had left.
Postmus couldn't be reached by cell phone from mid-afternoon to early evening.
Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman said the mountain region's terrain has made it difficult to assess people's properties.
"With the terrain and topography, a lot of these homes fell down in a (different) parcel than they were originally in," he said. "It's difficult to assess the damage."
Some areas still pose a fire danger to assessors and appraisers, Aleman said.
Most addresses of damaged or destroyed properties in Lake Arrowhead and Green Valley Lake can be found at: www.sbcounty.gov/assessor/
-Matt Wrye
Note on re-entry from the Sheriff's Department
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
The mandatory evacuation order for the communities of Twin Peaks, Rim Forest, Blue Jay, Agua Fria, Deer Lodge Park, Sky Forest, Cedar Glen and the majority of Lake Arrowhead will be reduced to voluntary evacuation effective 12:00 p.m. on October 28, 2007.
The area will be open to residents and re-entry passes will not be issued and are not required.
The areas that suffered extensive fire damage will remain under a mandatory evacuation area with road closures at the following locations:
•· Brentwood Drive @ Sonoma Drive
•· San Benito Drive @ Pinehurst Drive
•· Brentwood Drive @ Pinehurst Drive
•· Brentwood Drive @ Oakmont Drive
•· Brentwood Drive @ Grass Valley Drive
Other areas under a mandatory evacuation remain in effect until further notice (Running Springs, Arrow Bear and Green Valley Lake).
Residents returning to their homes should be aware of the following:
All of the affected areas suffered power outages for some period of time during the fire. Use caution before eating food in your refrigerator or freezer. Food can be spoiled due to power outages. Spoiled food must be disposed of safely and properly. Pick up a food disposal bag, mask, gloves and more information at all Fire Stations.
A light amount of smoke coming from the fire lines is to be expected. Within Lake Arrowhead, there will still be fire patrols monitoring both fire perimeters.
Please call the San Bernardino County Fire Information Line at (909) 355-8800 for updated information.
Contact: Sheriff's Public Affairs at (909) 387-3700
The lastest on the fires
(Gov. Schwarzenegger getting a tour of fire damage near Lake Arrowhead.)
SLIDE FIRE as of 11 a.m.
Total Personnel: 2,129
Size: 12,789 acres
Percent Contained: 75%
Estimated Containment Date :10/30/2007 at hrs.
Fuels Involved : Timber (grass understory)
Fire Behavior : Low intensity surface fire.
Significant Events" Made good progress containing fire spread on all flanks.
GRASS VALLEY FIRE as of 11 a.m.
Total Personnel: 563
Size: 1,140 acres
Percent Contained: 95%
Estimated Containment Date: 10/28/2007 at hrs.
Fuels Involved : Timber (grass understory)
Fire Behavior :Backing, creeping and smoldering.
Significant Events: Closure orders remain in effect for a large area surrounding the Grass Valley and Slide Fires. Effective mop up of the perimeter is on-going.
Some evacuation orders lifted for mountains
This is from the U.S. Forest Service: Mandatory evacuation for east of Crestline to Snow Valley. Voluntary evacuations in place for Crestline, Cedar Pines Park, Lake Gregory and Valley of Enchantment. Voluntary evacuation for Highland has been lifted. Evacuation Centers are located at National Orange Show in San Bernardino and the Victorville Fairgrounds in Victorville. All highways in the San Bernardino Mountains west of Big Bear Dam are closed to upbound traffic except for those with Sheriff's passes to voluntary areas. Access to Big Bear is via Hwy 38 from I-10 in Redlands or from Hwy 18 through the Hi-Desert in Lucerne Valley.
October 27, 2007
Postmus releases damage report
County Assessor Bill Postmus has released the first report of damage or destroyed properties caused by this past week’s firestorm.
The report, which is a partial listing as more reports are forthcoming, includes addresses of damaged and destroyed properties that have been confirmed by staff of the Office of the County Assessor.
It is available on the Web site of the County Assessor’s Office at www.sbassessor.org
For further information regarding a potential loss and other county services that may be provided, property owners are encouraged to dial “211” or call (888) 435-7565.
Governor's radio address
Listen to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's weekly radio address where he discusses the fires that have swept across Southern California.
LISTEN HERE
Here's the transcript:
My fellow Californians, this week's devastating wildfires have brought terrible destruction to our state.
The damage is staggering and the loss of 7 lives is tragic.
Maria and I join all Californians in sending our deepest condolences and prayers to the victims of these fires.
Over the course of the week, I saw entire rows of houses going up in flames.
From the air, I could see smoke and ruin that extended for miles.
I also toured communities where the fires left nothing in their path.
There is so much loss and there is so much suffering but there is also hope.
The donations are already pouring in and people have reached out to help each other since the beginning of these fires.
And for every heartbreaking moment that I spent assessing the fires, or inspecting the damage, I witnessed countless more moments of courage, kindness and heroism.
In San Diego at the Qualcomm Stadium and other shelters, evacuees were offering support to complete strangers and assisting the doctors, nurses and the staff we had on site.
In the command centers, federal, state and local officials were working side by side.
On the front lines, courageous firefighters were risking their lives.
I cannot say enough about the firefighters in our state.
In California we are always asking them to confront the deadliest disasters.
And they have proven time and time again that they are the best, the bravest and the most experienced firefighters in the world and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart.
Now our recovery efforts have just begun and the fires are still burning.
We have a lot of difficult work ahead.
Homes, churches, businesses and entire communities must be rebuilt.
So I invite everyone to visit the CaliforniaVolunteers Web site to learn how you can help us also.
I promise you that we will not rest until every person is safe and that every person's life is back to normal.
I know we can do this.
We are resolute in our spirit. We are determined to rebuild.
We are, after all, Californians.
Thank you for listening.
Answers to mountain dwellers' big question
San Bernardino County officials on Saturday began releasing information to evacuees regarding whether their homes survived the Grass Valley Fire.
Information on communities affected by the Slide Fire was not yet available.
Megan Blaney, a spokeswoman for the county's Office of Emergency Services, said address-specific information is currently available for most of the Grass Valley Lake area. Additional information regarding homes in Running Springs and other mountain communities should be available soon, but officials want to very cautious about releasing data.
"The feeling of everyone in the county on this is one piece of wrong information can be so devastating," she said.
The Grass Valley Fire, which burned near Lake Arrowhead's western shore, destroyed 162 structures, Blaney said. The Slide Fire which raged near around Running Springs and Green Valley Lake, destroyed 201 structures.
Residents will be able to obtain information at the evacuation centers that have been set up at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino and San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville. Blaney said county Assessor Bill Postmus visited both locations Saturday to meet with displaced persons.
A woman at the San Bernardino evacuation center was consoled Saturday night by 5th District Supervisor Josie Gonzales after the woman learned that information for her community, Green Valley Lake, was not yet available.
The evacuee, who said Saturday was her birthday, embraced Gonzales before telling the supervisor that she was happy to simply have survived the Slide Fire's flames.
"I have a pulse. Everything else is icing on the cake," she said.
Since address-specific information is not yet available for all fire-affected communities, Blaney said evacuees can call 211 or visit www.sbcounty.gov to find out if data from their neighborhood is available. Blaney also said information will be posted on the Assessor's Web site, which can be accessed from the county's home page.
-Andrew Edwards
Schwarzenegger announces aid for wildfire victims
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced Saturday that the California Department of Social Services will head a grant program that will allow people who suffered losses during the past week's wildfires to obtain cash grants of up to $10,000.
The full text of the governor's announcement can be accessed by clicking on the link:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced cash grants of up to $10,000 are available to help some individuals who have suffered losses in the southern California fires. The grants are administered by the California Department of Social Services as a supplemental program to FEMA-administered assistance. The grants help fire victims with expenses caused by a direct result of the disaster such as housing, replacing household items, medical costs and transportation.
“California stands ready to provide fire victims all the assistance they need to get their lives back on track. Even after the fires are extinguished, we will still be here to help fire victims in need,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Individuals must first apply for assistance through FEMA, which forwards applications to the California Department of Social Services. Only individuals who have received the maximum FEMA award are eligible for state supplemental grants. California Department of Social Services staff are at local assistance centers to help with information about the program. For more information, contact the California Department of Social Services, State Supplemental Grant Program at 1-800-759-6807 (TTY for hearing and speech impaired: 1-800-822-6268).
In addition to providing state cash assistance, departments throughout the California Health and Human Services Agency continue to help individuals affected by the fires by offering medical assistance at shelters, assisting residents in returning to skilled-nursing and residential care facilities and helping fire victims get disaster food stamps and replacement medication.
Specifically:
In San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, California Medical Assistance Teams (CalMATs) continued to provide care and assess for unmet medical needs. CALMATS are teams of 35 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other support personnel who are deployed during disasters and coordinated by the Emergency Medical Services Authority.
Licensing staff from the Department of Public Health and Department of Health Care Services continued their efforts to help residents return to skilled nursing facilities and hospitals in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. As of Friday afternoon, 22 of 26 facilities affected by the fires had been cleared by state licensing staff to reopen. Three evacuated facilities in Fallbrook remained under fire threat and an evacuated intermediate care facility in Ramona had no running water.
The Department of Health Care Services expedited requests for approximately 20 Medi-Cal beneficiaries who lost their medicines in the fires.
Staff members from the Department of Developmental Services evaluated regional centers in the areas affected by the fires to assess the impact of the fires on developmentally disabled consumers. In addition, staff helped arrange transportation, served as language interpreters and conducted functional assessments of people with disabilities arriving in shelters.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi visits Lake Arrowhead
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi toured the San Bernardino Mountains Saturday after receiving a briefing on fire crews’ efforts to contain the Grass Valley and Slide fires.
Garamendi arrived at Rim of the World High School, where fire commanders have been directing the fight against the Grass Valley blaze, around 3 p.m., about the same time a light drizzle began to fall over the Lake Arrowhead area.
Standing before a large map that shows the fires’ footprint and where fire crews have established lines to block the fires’ progress, Darren Feldman, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection battalion chief, outlined recent efforts against the fires.
As Feldman explained, fire crews fighting the Grass Valley fire spent Friday working in on the western edge of the fire in Miller Canyon, the toughest country where that blaze is burning.
Feldman also said firefighters must still build 8 to 10 miles of fire line along the western end of the Slide Fire to contain that blaze.
Three fire chiefs, Mike Dietrich of the San Bernardino National Forest, Tom O’Keefe of the CDF’s San Bernardino unit and Pat Dennen of the county fire department conversed with the lieutenant governor at the briefing, where officials also discussed previous and potential fire prevention efforts.
Dietrich told Garamendi he was confident that tree removal work in the aftermath of the 2003 fires – the one-millionth tree that was felled as part of those efforts was cut down earlier this year – reduced the amount of fuels that available to the fire and consequently prevented the past week’s fires from being even more intense.
“My feeling out of driving in the area is the loss (of homes) would have been in the 3,000 range rather than the 300 range,” he said.
After being briefed, Garamendi said he was interested in the Forest Care program that was launched in the San Bernardino Mountains last December. The program, administered by the CDF and nonprofit San Bernardino National Forest Association, is funded by federal dollars and partially reimburses property owners for the cost of removing potentially-combustible vegetation from their lands.
But the issue with establishing a similar program in other parts of California is finding funding.
“It doesn’t get done without money,” Garamendi said. “You can invest your money ahead of the fire or you can invest your money fighting the fires and rebuilding.”
Garamendi also said he favors the creation of a statewide blue ribbon commission to review this October’s wildfires and look for ways to improve fire prevention policies.
While touring lands burned by Grass Valley’s flames, Garamendi was driven past streets lined by blackened trees, scorched vehicles and destroyed homes.
At one stop along the tour O’Keefe and San Bernardino County Fire Marshall Peter Brierty told Garamendi that a recent project to create a firebreak by cutting away vegetation between along the top of a steep canyon slope facing Edgecliff Drive.
Edgecliff is the site of multiple wooden 1930s-style homes. Brierty told Garamendi that the Grass Valley fire would have destroyed those homes if the firebreak had not been built.
“Everybody’s convinced we’d have dead bodies over here if we didn’t have this,” Brierty said.
Garamendi's next scheduled stop on Saturday was a visit to the evacuation facility at National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino.
-Andrew Edwards
From the wires: Overview of California fires
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
AP National Writer
SAN DIEGO — They know what the winds can do. They forecast them. Fight the fires the winds fan. Prepare for
evacuations that, in years past, never came. They thought they knew, until seven days of fury began a week ago.
From almost the beginning, this Santa Ana was different somehow.
Meteorologist Philip Gonsalves recognized it when he saw the smoke through the picture windows of the National Weather Service station in Rancho Bernardo closing in on the office itself. He had helped forecast the tempest: an ominous combination of strong gusts, low humidity and soaring temperatures. In weather speak: red flag fire conditions.
Fire Battalion Chief Tom Zeulner understood it, too, when en route to his first blaze of the week, his wife called to tell him five more fires had begun.
Dan Crane thought it was “situation normal,” his words for the Santa Ana fire season that torments Californians every October through February, when blustery winds blow out of the desert. He’s lived through a half-century of them, and never once had to evacuate — not even during the two-week onslaught of 2003, when fires burned 750,000 acres and killed 22
people.
This time, he awoke to neighbors honking and smoke wafting through his windows.
By Saturday, more than a half-million acres would be gone, 1,700 homes destroyed, with the damage surpassing $1 billion.
Stunned homeowners who just last weekend were setting out Halloween decorations and watching football would find themselves sifting through kindling and ash, mumbling things like: This used to be my kitchen. This used to be my bedroom.
\This used to be ...
Even a week after it all started, several thousand would remain evacuated as blazes burned on relentlessly.
There would be questions about prevention in the midst of persistent drought, lack of preparation in a fire-plagued state and whether resources were put to use as fast as possible.
But first, before all of that, came the winds.
They were different, undoubtedly, although no one could have predicted just how deadly and destructive.
Gonsalves is a man who usually takes things in stride, especially the weather, perhaps because he knows it so well. He knows how easily a fire can kick up when the winds get going, and computer models at work had predicted a nasty Santa Ana for
days.
And so, on Sunday morning when he stepped out of church and sniffed smoke, he was hardly surprised.
“It’s begun,” he thought. “Here we go again.”
The surprise came hours later, when Gonsalves arrived home from the gym and turned on the news.
Fires — plural — were everywhere:
The Ranch Fire, sparked at 9:42 p.m. the night before, racing through 500 acres some 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The Canyon Fire, ignited at 4:50 a.m. in Malibu, forcing 1,500 people — even Hollywood’s elite — to evacuate.
The Harris Fire, begun at 9:23 a.m. southeast of San Diego, exploding to 500 acres in just over three hours.
The Witch Creek Fire, burning at 12:37 p.m. in a mountain town northeast of San Diego, consuming 3,000 acres in two hours.
At the Weather Service office in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Bernardo, Gonsalves’ colleagues watched as satellite images showed plume after plume of smoke roaring over a swath of Southern California. Their computers are programmed to display wildfire hot spots as little red squares. Red squares seemed to cover the lower half of the state.
By evening, the forecasters had to shut off the air conditioning to stop smoke from seeping into the office. Back at home, on his day off, Gonsalves was thinking about what to pack — just in case his own family had to flee.
Sunday was an off-day for Zeulner, as well. He, too, had gone to church, near his home in San Luis Obispo, and was having
lunch when he got word: “You guys are going.”
A battalion chief with the city fire department, Zeulner commands a 20-member strike team that operates five, Type 1 fire engines, ideal for defending homes and structures. The team, when called upon, can be dispatched anywhere.
They were summoned to the Ranch Fire, to help protect homes in the tiny citrus-growing village of Piru.
“Immediate need,” Zeulner had been told. In other words: Get there fast.
By 2 p.m., the caravan of engines was on the road, Zeulner monitoring AM radio for fire updates. The 33-year veteran was alarmed by what he heard. Winds were gusting from 60 to 80 mph; in some places, they exceeded 100 mph.
“That’s hurricane force,” thought Zeulner, who knew from experience that anything over 60 mph was unusual during Santa Ana season.
When the team arrived at the fire, they were told to bed down and be ready to work at dawn the next day. Zeulner set up camp in a park under the smoky sky, but rest was hard to come by.
His sleeping bag rocked back and forth throughout the night, the mighty winds tossing him about like a leaf.
Crane awoke early Monday and looked at the clock: 4 a.m. He smelled smoke coming through his bedroom window, but when he got up to shut it, he heard something on the street below. A car honking, he thought. He peered
outside.
Rancho Bernardo’s Lancashire Way, Crane’s home for 20 years, looked like an erupting volcano.
“We gotta go!” he yelled to his wife, Sherry, still in bed. “Now!”
Their neighbor’s wooden fence was ablaze, the palm trees in front of that house igniting like matchsticks. Glowing embers shot horizontally across the street. To the north and east, a line of flames lit up the ridge near a subdivision called The Trails. To the south, Battle Mountain, directly behind Crane’s home, went up like a Roman candle.
Terrified neighbors roused one another with phone calls and knocks on the door, driving past police officers who cruised a nearby street, shouting through bullhorns, “Evacuate! Now!”
Elsewhere across San Diego County, reverse 911 calls alerted residents to fires that had gone out of control overnight. In a day, the Witch Creek Fire grew from 3,000 acres to 30,000, eating through the communities of Rancho Bernardo, Escondido, Rancho Santa Fe, Poway — taking out multimillion-dollar estates and modest ranch homes.
The biggest evacuation in California state history was just getting started. Some 560,000 would be forced from their homes in San Diego County alone. Qualcomm Stadium, home to the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, was opened to evacuees in a scene reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. The Del Mar Fairgrounds and schools housed others.
At the Weather Service office, Gonsalves arrived just after 6 a.m. to start his regular shift. He saw the smoke hanging low out the window, the line of cars snaking down West Bernardo Drive. Three hours later, the forecasters received a reverse 911.
They, too, packed up and decamped.
By nightfall, more than 500 homes had already been demolished in San Diego County. Two fires that began just that day in the mountain vacation haven of Lake Arrowhead would destroy 300 more. Elsewhere across California, more than a dozen fires were now burning, incinerating 374 square miles in seven counties.
And Monday afternoon, this warning from the Weather Service: “Strong winds are expected to redevelop tonight.”
The wrath of the Santa Anas was far from over.
All the chatter on the radio was about San Diego. But Zeulner and his crew had their own firefight to deal with — for 4½ hours Tuesday afternoon near Piru, after a blowing ember landed in steep vegetation.
They had spent much of their time doing structure protection: clearing away brush and moving wood piles stacked next to wood-sided homes, work homeowners themselves should have done in this drought-stricken state. The Ranch Fire, 1,000 acres when Zeulner first got the assignment, had grown to almost 40,000.
But he was proud that his crew had yet to lose a home.
In San Diego, Crane couldn’t say the same. Tuesday, watching the news with his son at a friend’s house where they’d taken refuge, he saw a reporter walking up and down Lancashire Way. Flames still burned from the remnants of some houses.
“Twenty-five homes, on this one block ... have burned to the ground,” the reporter was saying.
And, then, he started reading off house numbers.
For a moment, Crane and his son thought they didn’t hear 18626. Then: “635 ... 629 ... 626 ...” the reporter said.
Crane and his boy, whose own family lived a mile away but whose house survived, looked at each other.
“Now we know,” Crane said.
Over the next two days, such heartbreaking discoveries happened again and again across the region. At a blaze farther north in Santa Clarita, Don Benson found his house and prized 1957 Thunderbird in ruins. A neighbor drove by, sending a wish for better days: “I hope God is good to you.” “I believe in him,” Benson called back, “but sometimes it wears thin.”
Zeulner, whose team late Wednesday was dispatched to San Diego to pitch in, escorted an elderly couple to their lost home in Escondido the next day. “We’re sorry for your loss,” he told them. “We’re here to help.” What else could he say?
Even as President Bush arrived on Thursday, offering words of comfort, there was more devastating news: A 58-year-old mortgage broker and his 55-year-old wife, a teacher, were found in the rubble of an Escondido home. Another 52-year-old man died after refusing to leave his house during evacuations. The charred remains of four others, believed to be illegal immigrants, were found in the woods near the border. Authorities were investigating whether the deaths were due to the fires.
Word that at least one of the major blazes, in Orange County, was deliberately set spread further outrage.
And still more towns faced new evacuations, among them Julian, an apple-picking hamlet in the mountains northeast of San Diego, and Jamul, a community near the border where homes can go for a million-plus.
There was, however, one reason for optimism. By Thursday night, the ruthless winds that fueled the calamity had finally died.
Come Friday, Gonsalves and his colleagues were back at their computers at the weather office, swapping war stories in between work about their own fire encounters. The office was unscathed, but for the lingering stench of smoke.
Gonsalves was lucky; his family never had to evacuate. One colleague remained displaced from his home in Julian, though even that evacuation order had lifted by Saturday morning.
Zeulner was enjoying his first 24 hours off in five days, although, given the circumstances, enjoying hardly seemed the right word. He still had no idea when he might head home, or whether he’d miss a vacation to see his 5-month-old granddaughter.
And at 6 a.m. Saturday, he and his crew reported for yet another day of duty in San Diego.
He joked that he’d better at least be back by Dec. 28 — the day he retires from the fire department.
“I got in the fire service to help people,” he said, his eyes reddening with tears because, despite so much loss, he
believes he did help people this past week. “It’s a good feeling.”
At the remains of his home on Lancashire Way, Crane’s eyes were noticeably dry of tears. Instead, there was a sense of optimism in him and the neighbors who flooded back to begin cleaning up, and returned Saturday to pick up more pieces. They exchanged hugs and “I’m so sorrys,” talked about getting together, already, in the coming days to discuss rebuilding.
“Did I want to start over at this time in my life? No,” 60-year-old Crane said. “But my family is fine. I’m fine.”
Everything else, he said, “is just stuff. I can make it through this.”
Like the soot-covered CorningWare dish, the ceramic salt shaker and his father’s old circular saw that he recovered from the ashes — “little miracles,” a neighbor called such precious finds, so desperately needed in a week of so few.
From the National Weather Service
The forecast for Running Springs:
Saturday: 20 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms. Cloudy skies with a high of 61 degrees. South wind blowing at 5 mph.
Saturday night: Cloudy with a low of 49 degrees. West wind blowing at 5 mph.
Sunday: Sunny with a high of 64 degrees. West wind blowing between 5 and 10 mph.
Arrowbear Home Burns
Firefighters extinguished a fire today that destoyed a home on on Carlock Drive in Arrowbear.
The cause of the fire is not believed to be related to the Slide Fire, said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
The house fire was fully involved when fire crews arrived, she said. A county Sheriff's Department helicopter assisted them.
No one was injured. The house was a total loss, she said.
"They attacked it pretty quickly so they kept it from getting into the vegetation and any other houses," she said.
The cause is under investigation.
-- George Watson
A house that still stands
The following report is taken from an interview that a Sun reporter conducted Wednesday with a couple whose Grass Valley Lake home survived Monday's fire. Theis part of the story wasn't included here in the newspaper, and is instead presented as part of The Sun's online coverage of Grass Valley and Slide fires.
Two people whose home survived Monday’s firestorm are Elliott Gotfredson, 33, and Kimberly Trzcinski, 38, who share a house on Black Oaks Drive that stands next a house that was destroyed.
Gotfredson and Trzcinski didn’t know the house that they rent was spared until Tuesday morning, they said. Monday morning, when the power went out, they got ready for work by the glow of candle and flashlight and saw fire trucks rolling towards Grass Valley Lake as they headed down the mountain on their morning commute but didn’t realize there was a fire burning until they drove down to their jobs with the San Bernardino Unified School District.
The pair returned home around 8;15 a.m. Monday, Gotfredson said, just before the roads leading to their home were closed off. He said they had about five minutes to grab photo albums and other belongings
before California Highway Patrol officers required them to evacuate.
By that time, Gotfredson said, the air was so choked with ashes that he could barely see 25 feet in front of his face.
“It (visibility), was next to nothing. We could barely see the car and the wind was howling,” he said.
The couple spent the Monday night watching the fire burn on television, not able to discern from TV news if their home was among the lost.
Tuesday, they drove home past house after burned house, not expecting to find their home still standing.
“We thought ours was down too, but all of a sudden, we saw our house here,” Trzcinski said.
-Andrew Edwards
Fire Update
The Grass Valley Fire is 85 percent contained, said spokeswoman Ramona DeGeorgio-Venegas.
If the weather holds, fire officials believe they will have full containment by Sunday night, she added.
But she doesn't expect evacuated residents to be allowed back anytime soon.
"There is still a huge amount of power lines and infrastructure that needs to be repaired before people can go back up," DeGeorgio-Venegas said.
The wildfire has burned 1,140 acres, destroyed 162 homes, damaged 20 and still threatens 6,000 more. Total cost of the fire is $3.65 million.
She drove around the area last night. In addition to the downed power lines, giant holes that were homes to trees still smolder, sometimes as deep as six-feet in the ground, she said.
"It's going to take a while before all of those hot spots are safe enough to let people in to work on the infrastructure," she explained. "People are chomping at the bit to go in and do their job but we can't let them in there until it's safe."
The Slide Fire is 35 percent contained, having burned 13,800 acres. It's cost $4.5 million to fight this fire.
"That's the one that is putting up all the smoke," DeGeorgio-Venegas said.
More than 10,000 homes are still threatened, she said.
The blaze destroyed 201 homes and three outbuildings.
-- George Watson
October 26, 2007
More on the fire briefing
As reported earlier, the evacuees who attended a mass briefing at the National Orange Show Events Center Friday night didn't get an answer to their most pressing question - whether or not their home survived.
"We want answers. Is my house there?," said Lori Bright, who lives in Running Springs.
Although Bright will have to wait to learn the answer to that question, she accepted County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer's explanation that the Slide Fire, which still threatens the Running Springs area, has presented too much of a danger for assessment teams to get into neighborhoods and complete a list of which homes burned and which ones remain.
Green Valley Lake resident Brenda Bell had a similar take on the meeting.
"They (evacuees) got what they could get. I think most people came to get the list," she said. "I'm frustrated but not angry."
Bright. Bell and others in the crowd of a few hundred or so did get a pretty comprehensive update on the latest news from the fire lines from high-level San Bernardino County officials and U.S. Forest Service fire commanders.
As of Friday night, the Grass Valley Fire, which is burning northwest of Lake Arrowhead in the Miller Canyon drainage, is 70 percent contained after burning 1,100 acres. Grass Valley incident commander Bill Kaage said after he delivered his remarks that firefighters are closing a box around the fire.
The Slide Fire is 20 percent contained and has burned 13,700 acres near Running Springs.
Remarks at Friday's briefing were translated for audience members by a Spanish-speaking interpretor and another interpreter who communicated in sign language. Dan Kleinman, the deputy incident commander on the Slide Fire team, scored a few laughs among evacuees with a few comedic asides to the man who repeated his words in Spanish.
"You're doing OK," Kleinman said to the interpreter after the man translated a long stretch of words. "You ought to hear how much I normally talk."
The audience later responded with applause when Kleinman said crews are expected to establish a solid line to block flames on the western side of the fire by Saturday morning.
But Kleinman did not want the audience to think the battle against the Slide Fire has already been won.
"I'm not trying to build your hopes up at all," he said. "There's a lot of potential there."
Sheriff's Capt. Joe Catalano, who commands the sheriff's Twin Peaks station, told audience members that law enforcement officers are working 12-hour shifts to patrol evacuated communities and that any time, 120 people with guns and badges are on duty near the fire zones.
Catalano said about 50 people have been arrested inside the evacuation zones since Monday, including two people who were busted Friday on suspicion of breaking into a home.
"If we catch anybody doing anything wrong, they're going to jail," Catalano said.
Catalano said it's not yet known when it will be safe for people living near Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs to return home.
Denise Benson, division manager of San Bernardino County's Office of Emergency Services said, as did Uffer, that assessment teams are still gathering information on which homes survived the fires and which ones were lost. Benson and Uffer said they hope to release that information to evacuees soon.
"We'll have maps you can look at," Benson said. "We want to do this in a way that supports your dignity."
-Andrew Edwards
IRS encourages thorough documentation
People affected by Southern California wildfires are encouraged to thoroughly document property losses as they return to homes that may be damaged or destroyed, according to a news release published today by the IRS.
The tax-collecting organization will provide more information on disaster relief and casualty loss next week.
For now, residents affected by the fires should compile the following:
* Before-and-after photographs
* Good records of expenses incurred while cleaning up (Note: damaged landscaping can be included while calculating casualty loss)
* A drawn-up floor plan of furnishings in the house
* A list of valued assets, with pictures and sales receipts
Also, those affected are encouraged to consider an appraisal for applicable damaged property.
More information on disaster relief is available at www.irs.gov.
California Speedway Plans Movie Night For Evacuees
At 7 pm, Friday night, the California Speedway will hold a movie night for the families displaced by the region’s wildfires and relocated to the National Orange Show Events Center. The Speedway will bring in a mobile theater unit, a free popcorn stand and movies.
During the day, the Speedway will also bring in several interactive displays, including a NASCAR show car, a giant race car slide and an inflatable obstacle course to entertain the hundreds of children currently at the center.
--Selicia Kennedy-Ross
Evacuees briefed on fire status
Several evacuees assembled at the National Orange Show Events Center around 7 p.m. Friday to get a status report on the fires.
County administrative officer Mark Uffer told the crowd that assessment teams were working in the area to determine how many houses had been spared.
“We have teams working literally every hour of the day to get into the fire areas and find out which properties were destroyed, damaged or remain intact.
“One of the things that is very scary for teams is....they are actually being chased out by spot fires,” he said.
Uffer acknowledged at Friday’s community’s meeting that many in the crowd would be disappointed at the lack of specific information of which homes had survived.
He asked those at the meeting to remain confident in the county fire department and other county staffers. He said hopefully information would be released in the next few days with data that is 100 percent accurate.
--Andrew Edwards
Property assessment information delayed
Contrary to previous reports, county officials won't be releasing information on damaged and destroyed properties tonight at an informational briefing.
At 7 p.m., evacuees are invited to attend meetings at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino and Victorville Fairgrounds for information about the evacuated mountain areas and the progress firefighters have made.
Certain fires and hot spots in various mountain areas have endangered assessment teams, according to a press release from the county's Incident Management Team.
"Because of the ongoing fire, the county wasn't able to get any data from a lot of areas and wasn't able to verify information from other areas," said county spokesman David Wert by phone. "We probably won't be able to do it until the fires are completely under control. It's a matter of safety to the crews doing the assessments."
Properties initially recorded as undamaged by assessment crews could be damaged by the time crews start assessing again.
The meetings will also provide the latest information on "re-entry plans and schedules, as well as resources available to assist displaced homeowners," the release states.
Evacuees can also get information by calling 211.
--Matt Wrye