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