Line Fire grows to 27,974 acres – Running Springs, Arrowbear under mandatory evacuation

By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer

A small wildfire in the hills above the city of Highland, first reported at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, had grown to 7,200 acres with no containment by Saturday afternoon, Sept. 7. The blaze, which had its start in the vicinity of Baseline Road and Aplin Street, was dubbed the Line Fire by arriving firefighters.

The fire continued to grow, reaching 17,459 acres by Sunday morning.

A U. S. Forest Service spokesman told the Alpine Mountaineer on Saturday that approximately 500 personnel had been assigned to the fire and that more will probably be needed. Current resources include engine companies and crews from Cal Fire, San Bernardino County Fire, Highland Fire Department and Pilot Rock Conservation Camp inmate crews. Additional resources include multiple fixed-wing aircraft as well as night-flying helicopters, which were added on Friday night.

Though the cause of the blaze is still under investigation, initial reports from socalmountains.com indicated that several Highland neighbors heard an explosion and saw fireworks near the start site on Thursday.

Street closures were ordered on Friday for the East Highland area including the neighborhoods east of Church Street north of Highland Avenue and a neighborhood east of Weaver Street and north of Greenspot Road to the historic Santa Ana River Iron Bridge. Baseline Road, which is closed from Fairwood to Brockwood, is being used as a staging area and incident command post and is closed to the public.

Complicating firefighters’ efforts late on Saturday evening was a phenomenon called pyrocumulonimbus, in which an extremely hot burning fire creates its own weather system by creating clouds that can reach heights of 50,000 feet and generate rain and lightning. With this going on, it was not safe or even possible for firefighting aircraft to intervene.  As a consequence, the blaze spread further across the hilly terrain, growing in size to over 17,000 acres.

Heavy clouds of smoke and ashes were drifting westward into Lake Arrowhead, Crestline and other mountain communities midmorning on Saturday. The Forest Service advised residents to have a working filter on their air conditioner or to leave the area, if necessary, to avoid lung injury.

Running Springs and Arrowbear were first issued an evacuation warning, followed by a mandatory evacuation order issued on Saturday afternoon. That resulted in a mass exodus of slow-moving vehicles heading southbound on Highway 18, which is now closed to all northbound traffic, beginning at Kuffel Canyon Road. Noting that there is an immediate threat to life, Cal Fire said this is an order by law enforcement to leave immediately.

Because the fire had jumped Highway 330, that highway was closed in both directions by Caltrans.

A Caltrans news release on Saturday evening stated, “We are allowing people out of the area for evacuations but not in. This is to get more fire crews into the area.”

At 10 p.m. on Saturday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department issued an evacuation warning for the communities of Cedar Glen, Lake Arrowhead, Twin Peaks and Crestline. That warning remained in place on Sunday. On Tuesday, Green Valley Lake was issued an evacuation order.

According to a Cal Fire update on Monday morning, no structures had been destroyed although more than 35,000 were threatened. There had been three firefighter injuries. And by Monday morning, the fire had grown to over 20,000 acres with 1,708 personnel assigned to it. 

While the drift smoke and ashes seemed less intense on Sunday morning, it increased late in the afternoon with the return of heavy thunder and lightning accompanied by rain. As of Sunday evening, there was no sign of containment of this stubborn blaze. However, by Monday morning the stubborn blaze was declared 3 percent contained.

On Tuesday morning, containment had reached 5 percent with the fire having claimed 27,974 acres.

Dr. Paul Sevillano, the superintendent of the Rim of the World Unified School District, had issued a statement on Sunday that there would be no school on Monday, Sept. 9. Then, on Monday, he amended that statement to no school through Friday, Sept. 13 “or until further notice.”

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County in response to the Line Fire, securing federal assistance for response to the fire.

In addition, the governor and OES have activated the National Guard, who will be staged at the armory in Ontario. The Guard will be used in areas that have been evacuated for additional security.