Big Ass California Fire

I was talking yesterday with my parents, who live about 30 miles to the west, and it's going up some pretty rugged terrain of Mount San Jacinto and into some bark-beetle infested trees and places where it hasn't burned in about a century.

And with the winds going like they are until probably Sunday, it's going to go for a while.

As for downtown Banning/Beaumont, it does not appear those cities will be forced to evacuate because the fire is south of there and a) the winds are coming from the typical northeast and b) it would have to jump Interstate 10, and that likely will not happen.

However, there has been a lot of development south of Interstate 10 and a lot more homes built over the years. I'm reading where there is about 500 homes that are being threatened.

It appears the fire is going to the west and south. For now, from what I have read, Idyllwild is not threatened. And as it moves south, San Jacinto and Hemet might become affected, but officials have said there's a barrier to be able to stop the fire from getting there. The fire got to north San Jacinto and jumped a highway and was moving toward a landfill, and firefighters said that was good because they could put up a good defense there.

Still, it's not good, and hopefully, it won't be as bad as the Old Fire from 2002, when basically the entire mountains were on fire from Big Bear to Mailibu and Lake Arrowhead nearly was wiped out.

There's a $100,000 reward to bring in the asshole who set it. But they never caught the fucker from 2002. But these firebugs come out all the damn time at the first breath of wind.

Two papers in the I.E. are doing a pretty good job covering the fire and update their sites regularly.

www.pe.com
www.sbsun.com

 

I hope they do catch him, but, again, they never found the guy from the massive fire in 2002 despite a similar reward offer, which is now up to $400,000, including $100,000 from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.