Old News

NOTE: This is a blogpost from 2006, and doesn't have any bearing on any current news events.

At 6:00 pm, this was the view of the eastern San Bernardino mountains, as seen from the corner of Mountain View and San Bernardino Avenues in Redlands.

I was at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa when I first noticed the smoke, shortly after 3:00 pm today. At that time,  the fire appeared to be mainly in the eastern Mill Creek area (northeast of Mentone).  However, by the time this photo was taken, it appears to have spread upward into the foothills to the northeast towards the San Bernardino National Forest. 
(click on photos to view them larger)

Planes and helicopters dropping fire retardant, were still seen working right up until dark.

As of 10:00 tonight,  KFI Radio, AM-640, is reporting mandatory evacuation for residents of the Mountain Home area, and voluntary evacuation for those in the Angelus Oaks area.  (click on photo to view larger)

KCAL, Channel 9 News is reporting one home lost and over 2,000 acres have burned. They are also reporting that Highway 38 is closed to traffic, starting at Bryant Street (which connects to Highway 38 from Yucaipa).

Note to those outside the Inland Empire area: TV (and, to a lesser extent) radio news coverage of our area is limited to an occasional mention on the local stations (which are based in Los Angeles). There are a couple of local music radio stations, but these I think may be automated - they tend to not provide local news updates - in the evenings, especially. Of course, we do have some good local newspapers, however (of course), the news reporting is of what happened Yesterday, not what is happening Today!

Note to fellow Inland Empire residents: Although I don't consider this to be a "News Blog," because we live in an area of "news limbo,"  I will try to share what information I have available from direct personal observation or what actual news coverage I hear (firsthand) on developing events in our area. If you have a blog on the Inland Empire, I urge you to do the same. This situation has long frustrated me - especially during our "wildfire seasons." Or our subsequent "mudslide seasons." If you're at work, by the time you know your neighborhood is threatened, it can be too late to try to evacuate pets or belongings. If we band together as a community (reporting what we KNOW to be true or have heard from a reliable news source - not speculation or rumor, please!) -  perhaps we can help prevent a reoccurence of such past tragic losses, as lost pets, photos, and other  valuable items that can't be replaced.

See first comment below - in which Robert gave some helpful tips, including the official news link at www.inciweb.org/incidient/466/ - which is really where we should be getting our news on the wildfire, rather than everyone giving conflicting reports.  This was originally published 8/29/30 and all references to the date, are for August 29th.

Hope everyone is safe tonight.

Comments

[Robert]

InciWeb is a good resource for keeping track of major fires around the country, including the ones in our local national forests. The Emerald Fire page is here:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/466/

You can even subscribe to an RSS feed to keep up to date on the latest news releases.

If you happen to use Google Earth, you can even subscribe to an InciWeb KML feed and view the fire overlaid on a local map! :)

[tinker]

Thanks - I've bookmarked that now :)