Oak Glen Fire has potential to burn a lot of chaparral

OAK GLEN -- UC Riverside professor Richard Minnich said the Oak Glen Fire is in position to consume massive amounts vegetation.

"It's about the oldest chaparral in the mainland of Southern California," said Minnich, an earth sciences professor who specializes in fire ecology.

"It's all very old. You've got a bomb ready to go off," he added.

In Minnich's view, the burn potential isn't necessarily a bad thing. He said that if the fire jumps Oak Glen Road and spreads toward open country, firefighters should watch the fire, allowing the flames to consume the decades-old brush now.

The alternative, Minnich said, is simply to wait for the brush to burn at a later time when conditions might be worse.

"This is the time now, you've got a window of about three weeks before the Santa Ana's hit," Minnich said.

Monday, the flames did reach Oak Glen Road near Riley's Farm but the fire did not reach the pavement. Firefighters employed a backfire and water drops in that area in their efforts to keep the fire at bay.

Firefighters' attack has also included air support from high capacity tankers, The prop-driven Martin Mars waterbomber, as well as DC-10 and 747 jet tankers have been part of the fire attack.

The fire, which started Sunday afternoon south of Oak Glen and Potato Canyon roads, has charred about 1,000 acres.

-andrew.edwards@inlandnewspapers.com
-stacia.glenn@inlandnewspapers.com
"It's looking better, it's not putting up as much smoke," Calfire spokesman Bill Peters said.

"Our goal is to do as much damage to the fire as we can before that 2 pm. window," Peters added. "We want to hit it as hard as we can."