Big Bear Blaze Engulfed in Haze 3/26/2004 6:13:57 AM
Local author comments on the Big Bear Fire. Many of you heard the news that a prescribed burn scheduled for this week burned out of control yesterday, threatening the local ski resorts and mountain communities of Moonridge and Sugarloaf.
My family members are all in fire fighting careers-including CDF. When I saw the billows of smoke around 2:30pm I knew the fire was out of control. It is hard to stay calm when you know how close it is...and because when I worked with the Bear Valley Emergency Services back in the early 1990's.
My pal was the fire chief and his commentary on just how fast a fire would move through the valley was disconcerting, to say the least. In the end, I wrote the emergency annex regarding animal control for the City of Big Bear Lake. At that time, I was at the forefront of the movement that is now a national effort for animal disaster preparedness.
I live across the lake near the forest where the 2003 Old Fire and 1999 Willow Fire got fairly close. Most of us living in the area know the danger. A fire break is necessary, but also new approaches to forestry management are critical.
What is ironic is that this fire outbreak occurred exactly six months from the Old Fire outbreak. Happy Anniversary? NOT! It is better than having a large fire during the summer. The difficulty is that the weather has been unseasonably warm already. Not a good omen.
A couple of years ago I interviewed local agencies regarding an article I wrote for a regional magazine on the trees. I didn't like what I heard and I didn't quote the confidential admission as it was not relevant to the piece. Now, several years later I know how bad the situation was and have seen it first hand.
Last year naturalist Rob Whipple and I ventured out into the Santa Ana Canyon (where they are burning) and I could see the nightmare for myself. Normally, there are cycles of fire, bug infestation, etc., that naturally control the forest. As man has encroached these patterns have been altered. Thick underbrush exists under the trees, heavy timber loads (too many trees per acre) also make things difficult.
So, here we are in the same draught conditions, hoping things change and thankful we have firefighting professionals working hard to prevent tragedy.
