Big Bear News – Big Bear, CA – The Line Fire is at 43,978 acres and 94% containment with 475 fire personnel. All evacuation warnings or orders have been lifted for all communities in or around the Line Fire. Highway 330 remains closed from Highland Avenue to Highway 18 as CalTrans performs repairs to the road and guardrails.
Contingency lines around the Line Fire have been tested this last week by strong winds, but firefighters and fire management personnel have held the lines which have not been compromised. Yesterday, an interior pocket of smoke from a smoldering tree was mitigated by air resources. Line improvement and line backhaul activities will consume a great deal of firefighters’ time the next few days, along with suppression repair on roads, drainages, corridors and dozer lines.
Resource advisors are lending expertise and monitoring rehabilitation efforts around and within the perimeter of the fire. Smoke will still be visible well within the interior of the fire where difficult terrain has made access difficult. Aircraft will still be actively dropping water today, and will be available to support any new starts.
Fire danger is still very high—fire danger indices are higher now than when the Line Fire started on September 5, and any new starts will be resistant to initial attack. The public is asked to be extremely diligent, firewise, and fire aware. With the influx of thousands of extra visitors into the area for a foot race and festival and the start of modern gun hunting season, overnight patrol crews will be staffed strategically around the fire perimeter through the weekend.
A debris flow task force is being assembled that will be comprised of federal, state and county cooperators. This task force will focus primary on post-burn threats to communities during a run-off event in the coming months. Future messaging for the Line Fire will include more information about debris flow and provide information to residents about how to prepare for and protect homes and properties from potential devastation.
San Bernadino National Forest has issued closures for areas surrounding the Line Fire. For more information and to see the map use this link – https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/sbnf/?cid=FSEPRD1181411.
