Thursday, August 27, 2009

Cottonwood Fire














ATTN Readers, especially FaceBook users:









NO EVACUATION ORDERS HAVE BEEN ISSUED. Please remain calm and at home, be prepared, but night time weather and wind will be in our favor.

A fire has broken out about 1 mile east of the Forest Service's Cranston Guard Station. At 9:15 p.m., the fire has burned about 600 acres and spreading northeast moderately and slower than at 6 p.m.

Although the fire is 5% contained, U.S. Forest Service public information officer for the fire, John Miller said, "We do not see a threat to Idyllwild."

Highway 74 is closed from Borco Street in Valle Vista to Mountain Center.

The Forest Service has ordered three strikes teams, air tankers, two dozers and six crews.

The Martin Mars airtanker (top photo), from Lake Elsinore, has been dispatched to help drop water. From the Forest Service operating manual, the Martin Mars operates on the philosophy of “gallons per hour”. Simply stated, this means a direct attack on the fire by dropping the largest possible amount of water or gel in the shortest possible time. It is capable of delivering up to 7,200 gallons of water, foam or gel depending on the fuel load.

Dave Fiorella, San Jacinto Ranger District fire chief, is the incident commander.

As of 7:20 p.m., the Mountain Disaster Preparedness volunteers CERT / Radio Comm are in an active standby status. They have set up a communications center at the fire station with Dorian Paul, MDP’s Communication Director, Communication Liaison. For details of MDP advice, see JP's blog.

Second photo by J.P. Crumrine taken from Idyllwild. Bottom photo by Rachel Welch taken from Hemet.

More pictures can be seen on JP's Blog, thanks to Doris Lombard.

10 comments:

  1. This is inf has been very helpfull in the last hours to me. Thank you..

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  2. Another really good source of information is www.inciweb.org. Click on "Cottonwood."

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  3. Samantha in Pine CoveAugust 27, 2009 at 9:35 PM

    I'm watching the inciweb.org also which I recieved from Twitter. I follow the San Bernardino National Forest on there and it updates you on all fires that they respond to in the forest.

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  4. Thank you for the updates! They are more helpful then you can know in relieving frayed nerves.

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  5. How far is the fire from Idyllwild now. 11:00pm.? Thank you

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  6. It's 1130p - the stars are visable so no smoke here - close by Sherman, the horse, on 243 - 500yds or so from the Shell g/s.

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  7. 12:14am - I am on Country Club Drive and I don't even smell smoke. Does anyone have an update?

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  8. No update, but a clear sky and no smell of smoke on Strong Drive, off of So. Circle.
    I did check out the "Go Box" list, and got things together near the front door just as an exercise in "what if, in the middle of the night or early morning". We always assume we would have time....

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  9. your information source for then Southern California Mountains including Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, ...

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