Update from LAE 10/24:

6PM: Quite the day...
 What started as a ‘short’ tour to 
visit homes of friends and clients with 
pets turned into quite a trip.  I drove 
past every home I knew of up here and 
each was fine with one exception which, 
I am sorry to say, was a complete loss 
and was probably one of the very first 
to be taken.

I believe the mountain to be in great 
shape and in great hands.  As I started 
out this morning I was cornered by a 
Sheriff’s vehicle as I started to drive 
out of the LAE parking lot where I was 
keeping it.  Fortunately I had called 
Sheriff Dispatch to warn of my 
excursion before starting out.

I drove some of North Bay, all of 
Matterhorn, most of Grass Valley, 189 
from the Shell Station up through Twin 
Peaks and past the Sheriff Station for 
a couple blocks.  I drove up Pioneer 
and portions of Grizzly and I went up 
to the end of Pyramid.  I also drove 
189 from the Shell Station down to 
Daley Canyon and down to Blue Jay, from 
there I went to the Village by way of 
Cottage Grove and Rainbow.  I continued 
around to Kuffle Canyon and drove up 
and into the Villas.  Finally back down 
Kuffle and across Shennendoah (sp?) and 
back out to 189, past the mini-
Jensen’s, across the dam, and back to 
LAE. Everything was in pristine 
condition.  No homes in these areas 
were damaged in any way by fire and 
there was no evidence of looting at any 
point.

I also traveled along most of 
Brentwood, Sonoma, and some of the 
smaller streets there.  Many of these 
homes were lost but fortunately not all.

Most homes outside of the burn areas 
had power and residents reported having 
power with minimal outages over the 
past few days.  The areas bordering the 
golf course on both sides have not had 
power for several days.


Looters?
 I just wanted to say that during my 
excursions today I saw no evidence of 
looters.  The streets are tightly 
controlled and 9 vehicles out of 10 are 
official.  Most of the rest were 
passenger cars or pickups and were 
visibly empty of “loot”.

I tended to drive slow along all the 
roads keeping an eye on each house as 
best I could - none of them had open 
doors, broken windows, or looked 
anything other than how they were left 
by their owners.

Also:
I drove from the Shell Station at 5-
Points up past the County facility in 
Twin Peaks and farther toward Crestline 
by about two blocks.  At 2PM, looking 
as hard as I could toward the fire area 
through homes and trees and up streets, 
I could see no damage to any home or 
business.  That whole area was fine and 
I do not believe it has changed since I 
drove through.


As I drove Grass Valley from Peninsula 
to Five Points, I saw no damage to any 
home from these fires on that side of 
the golf course and I do not believe 
that has changed since 2PM.  There is 
no power along that side and up and 
over the ridge above it toward Lake 
Arrowhead so people will have stinky 
refrigerators but more importantly, 
there is no fire damage.

I had the fortunate experience to see my home standing intact today after
being told last night, by a very credible source, that there was a strong
possibility that it had burned to the ground. I feel so humbled to have had
the opportunity to see first hand that our life was not in the shambles that
we had thought it was last night, and I believe that I owe it to the
community to share with you as much as I can, in the hope that I can bring
some peace of mind to as many families as I can.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I first turned onto Live Oak off the
330 earlier today, but it certainly wasn't what I was seeing. Of course
there were a few structures below my line of sight both on the east and west
downslopes of Live Oak that were emitting smoke, and were probably having
some problems, but as I progressed north I couldn't help but to be amazed
that almost every house I could see while driving up Live Oak was intact,
thanks in no small part by the many hard-working firefighters I came across.
I didn't notice a single house damaged by fire despite my worst fears,
especially after hearing the scanners and reading the many comments on
various web sites reporting on the fires in RS.

When I turned east onto Valley Oak, my hopes were raised when I couldn't see
any burned brush nor smoke in the area. Sure enough, I didn't see any signs
of fire enchroachment on any house on Valley Oak. I quickly surveyed the
surrounding area, and from what I saw, it appeared as though both Summit Dr.
and many parts of Allview appeared to have excaped the fire's wrath. I then
returned to Live Oak and proceeded North, and turned left onto Willow drive.
I saw a motorcycle that was standing upright in front of a severly damaged
house. I couldn't see any other structures on Willow that had damage and I
didn't go all the way around the loop to Poplar St. because of a tree that
was across the road.

Driving towards town on the 18, I saw a cluster of homes on the left that I
had previously seen on TV (not sure exactly what street they were on but it
could have been Valley Ridge dr) that were severely damaged. Other than
those houses, it appeared as though almost every structure visable from the
18 was intact including the Village market and The Covey building. I had
expected the Firehouse and Highway Patrol buildings to be gone based on what
I was hearing and reading on the internet, but they appeared to be intact.

I Turned off the 18 on Wagon Wheel Dr. and returned to the 18 on Deep Creek
Dr. Again, from my line of sight, I didn't notice any homes that appeared to
have been burned, but did see lots of smoldering smoke in the downslopes and
there could have been some structures in trouble down there.

Proceeding into town, it looked like everything was intact and I didn't come
across one business structure, during my entire travels, that appeared to
have experienced any fire damage. I made a loop around the 76 gas station
and passed the firehouse, taking Hunsaker Way to Hundsker Dr and then back
to the 330. again, I didn't notice any damaged structures and no smoke.

The most severly damaged area I noticed was Fredalba, which got a lot of
attention on the scanner within the past 24 hours . While I had expected
severe destruction throughout the entire area, I was surprised that the
damage I saw was limited to about half a dozen homes in a clustered area. I
also saw lots of electrical wires across the road and there were lots of
firemen in the area.

I traveled Old City Creek Dr, north of the 330, from the 330 to the 18. I
saw some power poles down and lots of smoking brush. From my viewpoint, I
didn't observe any severely damaged homes. This area was also getting
attention from a lot of fire fighters.

To summarize my observations, I saw an awful lot to be positive about and
the good far outweighed the bad. Don't get me wrong, it's no walk in the
park up there and there's plenty of destruction to go around for everybody
to worry about, and some folks have experienced a real tragedy. But I was
very optimistic that a lot of families are going to be as surprised as I
was, when they finally get to see their property. Of course my comments
above are my personal observations only and not intended to be a statement
of fact about the condition of any particular property or structure
mentioned in this post.

And finally, a word about the firefighters I came across, some who I got to
spend a few minutes with. These guys and girls are real hardliners when it
comes to protecting our properties. They are commited individuals who put in
long hours and endure extreme conditions so that we may enjoy our homes. I
can't say enough about the many firefighters I saw climbing up and down
steep slopes, just to get at a smoldering pile of brush or debris. Some I
talked to came from far away places just to help out.

from fire officials - Running Springs status:

1972 Poplar ok as of 5pm this evening
65 Park ok
30449 Live Oak ok
30854 Live Oak unknown (sorry)
Panorama Drive from the 18 to Sunset ok
Village Market ok
CHP Office ok

From what he told me all of luring 
pines upper and lower is ok through 
town. the area of wilderness and over 
18 on rim of the world dr and easy has 
burned

31621 Hilltop ok
31615 Pleasant ok

Most of Upper Rowco is ok (no specifics)
Nob Hill lost 4 in the upper part (no specifics)



 More info from another post in the chat:

They said this was of 
5:00 PM this evening they knew the following. 

Village Market - Okay 
Glen Oak Dr - Okay 
Mountain Oak - Okay 
All View - Okay 
Spring Oak Dr - Okay 
Wild Oak Dr - Okay 
Nob Hill Dr - Okay (NOTE: According to FFs 4 lost on top of Nob Hill)
Valley Ridge was hit from 31393 ---- 31340 
Wagon Wheel Dr - some where lost 
Fern Dr. - Okay 
Nordic Dr - Okay 
Summit - Okay 
Running Springs Village - Okay 
Deep Creek Dr - was hit 
Encina Way - hit hard 
Chicago Dr - Close to Deep Creek was hit 
Whispering Pines Dr - was hit (they didn't say how much) 
Inspiration Dr to Sunset was okay (didn't say anything about the west 
side of Sunset) 
Panoramo Dr from Hwy 18 to Sunset was okay (didn't say anthing about 
the west side of Sunset) 
Wilderness  from 2151 all the way to the end was fine 

 

Slide Fire 
Location:  Green Valley Lake, near Running Springs 
Acres Burned: 10,800 
Containment: 0 %     
Direction of Fire: Southwest 
Fire Started: 10/22/07 (Mon) 8:02 AM 
Cause: Under Investigation  
Structures Threatened:       10,000 
Structures Destroyed: ** Est. 200+ 
Resources: Hand Crews: 11 Engines: 94   
  Helicopters:   0 *(shared) Water Tenders: 29   
  Air Tankers:  0 *(shared) Dozers: 2   
Total personnel assigned to Slide fire:      706     

Grass Valley Fire Location:  Lake Arrowhead and Twin Peaks area   
Acres Burned: 1,100 
Containment: 40 %     
Direction of Fire: Southwest 
Fire Started: 10/22/07 (Mon) 5:08 AM 
Cause: Under Investigation 
Structures Threatened:            6,000  
Structures Destroyed: ** Est. 100+  
Resources: Hand Crews: 28 Engines:  52   
  Helicopters: 10 *both fires Water Tenders: 6   
  Air Tankers:  4 *both fires Dozers: 1   
Total personnel assigned to Grass Valley fire: 818   

10.8K acres
16% containment
200 homes lost
3 out buildings
10K homes still threatened
Moderate fire activity

Grass Fire Update - Inciweb 4pm update - Size 1,000 acres  
Percent Contained 30%  
Fuels Involved Timber (grass understory)
 
Fire Behavior Over night, light 
interior burning was observed with 
minimal movement.
 
Significant Events Resources will be 
shared across the Slide and Grass 
Valley fires.
 

Outlook

Planned Actions Crews will work on 
accurate perimeter mapping,improving 
line, and assess damage to structures.
 
Projected Movement With winds 
decreasing expect little movement, 
still concern regarding the current 
wind shift and reversal of the fire.

 
Growth Potential Extreme
 
Terrain Difficulty Medium
 
Remarks At least 100 structures have 
been lost and 6000 homes remain 
threatened.

Mandatory Evaucations for all areas 
from Crestline to Snow Valley remain in 
effect. 

Voluntary Evacuations--Cedar Pines Park 
and Valley of Enchantment.

Slide Fire update as of 3:30 p.m.
http://inciweb.org/incident/1005/

Size 10,152 acres  
Fuels Involved Timber (grass understory)
 
Fire Behavior Moderate intensity fire 
behavior was observed. Fire is mainly 
spreading thru spotting, group torching 
and short crown runs.
 
Planned Actions Firefighter and public 
safety, structure protection and 
perimeter control. Continue structure 
protection and perimeter control at Hwy 
18 and Green Valley.
 
Growth Potential Extreme
 
Terrain Difficulty High
 
Containment Target When critical 
resource needs can be met and weather 
conditions moderate.
 
Remarks Mandatory Evacuations for all 
areas from Crestline to Snow Valley. 
Voluntary evacuations for Highland from 
North of Highland Avenue, east of Hwy 
330 and west of Weaver.

An estimated 200+ homes have been 
burned. 

A total of 10,000 homes threatened for 
the Grass and Slide fire areas.

Current Wind Conditions 20 G 35 mph SW  
Current Temperature 68 degrees  

about homes near Grass Vally Golf Course that 
would have been affected on Day 1 of 
the fire.  Below is the transcript:

vickibluejay: Virgil, and all , up 
north bay to Birchwood near Phil's , 
Pioneer
and Old Toll to Peninsula - all is 
fine!!

vickibluejay: Tunnel Ct is fine, Golf 
Course at Tunnel is fine

vickibluejay: Looking from golf course 
across the lake, I see several houses 
burned and gone

vickibluejay: At the corner of Oakmont 
and Golf Course, heavy damages to the left
up trinity.  House on the corner 26778 
is standing, no damage.  All of the houses
going up toward grass valley on golf 
are standing

vickibluejay: 838 golf course is standing

vickibluejay: All of the houses now up 
to grass valley are fine

vickibluejay: Looking across grass 
valley toward Trinity is the hill that got hit.

Rhine,and that area ok Can't get down trinity

vickibluejay: Sandalwood from grass 
valley ans Sandalwood ct - no damage - Peebles
house fine

vickibluejay: Sandalwood fireman 
stationed here at the corner of 
teakwood - this
seems to be the perimeter

vickibluejay: right virgil

vickibluejay: no fire near Ahead villas

vickibluejay: oakwood and brentwood a 
lot of damage, one house standing, FEMA truck
and sheriff here

vickibluejay: Brentwood from oakmont 
towards riveria and fairway seems to be untouched
- can't see any burned trees on that 
side of the golf course.  The opposite
side is fine

vickibluejay: Fernando's house is fine

vickibluejay: Golf course by the tennis 
courts, club house is fine

vickibluejay: Cottonwood just drove 
down - fine

vickibluejay: Alpine Christian camp untouched

vickibluejay: Chris's house is fine, 
gary is taking a picture, corner of brentwood
and fairway

vickibluejay: you don't know how good 
it feels to be helpful

vickibluejay: They are only letting us 
drive the perimeter, and what we can see
from the car

vickibluejay: a sheriff's volunteer 
said the hasterts, knarr homes are ok on
agusta, other than that I don't know-
will try to get over there

vickibluejay: We're on Riveria, all 
homes are in tact, Perks dads house, all
fine, all homes on BelAir are fine

vickibluejay: country club estates to 
right on sutter all homes untouched

vickibluejay: Del Norte and sutter 
745,755,785,775in tact

vickibluejay: 785 gone

vickibluejay: 2 homes after 785 gone on 
the same side of the street

vickibluejay: 800, 804, 821the Johnsons ok

vickibluejay: 835, looks ok 837 damaged 
over the garage heavy damage other side
of the house ok

vickibluejay: top of del norte cant' 
see numbers many homes lost

vickibluejay: crews working spot fires 
up on del norte - so sorry

vickibluejay: Yolo-Modoc 26615,ok

vickibluejay: 770 madeira, a new home 
under constr. all look ok

vickibluejay: corner of madeira and 
merced ok.  815,808,825,831 all ok

vickibluejay: a few others at the top 
cars burned lines down on the right side of
street, 851 and homes to the left and 
right gone, 844 in

vickibluejay: 831,825 Madeira ok

vickibluejay: 775, merced , ok

vickibluejay: 2665, appears ok, slight 
damage, home next to it is gone

vickibluejay: Marin and Merced 26700 in tact

vickibluejay: Merced 3 houses gone - 
26719 and nearby homes are gone and 
26723 not
here

vickibluejay: the fireman are spray 
painting yellow addresses in front of the homes

that are lost, the gas co is here.

vickibluejay: 26774 Merced in tact

vickibluejay: I'm so sorry to have to 
report this - Bless you all

vickibluejay: 988 trinity - lost and 
all around it

vickibluejay: there is lots still here 
in this area

vickibluejay: 813 Brentwood ok and the 
home below it ok

vickibluejay: 759 brentwood 749, ok

vickibluejay: 764 brentwood gone

vickibluejay: 760,ok

vickibluejay: 739 brentwood, ok

vickibluejay: 756, lost

vickibluejay: 729 ok, house across the 
street gone, 748, also lost

vickibluejay: 723 lost brentwood, 717 
ok736, 732ok

vickibluejay: 699 ok 679 ok and 
Brentwood ct all looks ok

vickibluejay: 663,in tact,653, 648, 
643,636, 631 all ok

vickibluejay: 621,609,brentwood, 588, 
585,581,580, all from here look ok - from
riveria are all ok

Took a drive (at about 11:30 am) over 
to Twin Peaks to check on specific 
addresses for three friends.  I know 
you are not publishing street 
addresses, but perhaps you can 
generalize from this report.

From North Road we drove north on 
Grandview to the Grandview School and 
did not notice any damage.  We turned 
right onto Walnut Hills and followed it 
all the way until it turns into 
Spyglass and continued along Spyglass 
until it comes out onto Fairway.  Along 
that whole route we only saw two burned 
homes.  The home at 26150 Walnut Hills 
was badly damaged and the home next 
door to it (on the same side of the 
street but with a lower street number) 
was burned to the ground.

From Spyglass and Fairway we turned 
right (east?) onto Fairway.  The homes 
along this part of Fairway (and farther 
west, between Spyglass and Grandview 
elementary, which we traversed on our 
way home), looked fine, but the fire 
appeared to have burned the forest 
right up to the backyards of the homes 
along the north side of this stretch of 
Fairway.

From Fairway we turned north onto 
Brentwood, then north onto Sonoma, 
entering the Country Club View Estates.
The houses on the corner of Brentwood 
and Sonoma look ok, but forest on the 
left (west) side of Sonoma has burned.  
We continued north on Sonoma, crossing 
Sutter.  The houses on east side of 
Sonoma look ok, on both the north and 
south sides of this part of Sutter (at 
its southern intersection with 
Sonoma).  We crossed Placer, and things 
still looked ok.  There continued to be 
charred trees on the west side of 
Sonoma but the houses (which are on the 
east side) seem ok.

We crossed the intersection with the 
northern end of Sutter.  One house on 
the left (west) looks gone, just north 
of the northern intersection of Sutter 
and Sonoma and across the street from 
715 Sonoma.  The houses on the right 
(east) side of Sonoma look ok, 
including 715, 725, and 735 Sonoma.  
The next house on the left also looks 
ok.  In fact, everything looks ok for a 
while.  755 Sonoma is ok as is the 
house across from it on the left.

We crossed Amador (on the left), 
staying on Sonoma, and things continued 
to look ok.  A couple of people 
appeared to be back at home already.  
The most heavily damaged area that we 
saw began just north of 875 Sonoma 
(which was still standing).  The homes 
at 899, 905, 915, 935, 945, and 955 
Sonoma all burned to the ground.  These 
are all on the east side of the 
street.  The next house to the north 
appeared to be ok (I didn't get its 
number), but another structure to the 
north (perhaps just a parking deck or 
garage?) was burned.   Powerlines were 
down across the road, but the fire crew 
that was there said it was ok to drive 
across them.

We crossed Amador again, farther 
north.  It looked like several houses 
were gone on this part of Amador, to 
the east of Black Oaks Drive (Sonoma 
turned into Black Oaks).

We crossed Windward, staying on Black 
Oaks Drive.  Some charred trees here, 
but the houses seem ok

We crossed Black Oaks Court on the left 
(west) side of Black Oaks Drive and did 
not notice any damaged homes, although 
we did not drive into the court.  The 
four houses at the north end of Black 
Oaks drive (two on each side of the 
street, 1025, 1031, 1034 and one other) 
looked undamaged.

We passed quite a few fire men and law 
enforcement officers, but no one 
stopped us or asked what we were 
doing.  Grandview and Brentwood both 
had "road closed" signage at their 
north ends, but there didn't seem to be 
anyone enforcing this.

Deep creek dr.
Secret dr. and Encina way
Chicago
Old city creek toward hwy 330 and up
Knol view 1 or 2
Nob Hill  ct - one home
Fredalba rd by the catholic church - both sides
Circle view and valley view
Valley view and wilderness
Camp Helendade - some structures
Easy dr

UPDATE: 10/23 1531hrs 

-Winds are violent at this time 

- Fire butting up to homes on canyon, 
so far the firefighters with air 
support have kept it from taking any homes 

- Green Valley Lake Market, Post 
Office, Lake Inn are fine at this time 

- Many homes lost around fox lumber, 
going south all the way to the entrance 
of the valley 

- Many homes lost around the ski hill, 
entire hill is on fire at this time 

-Many homes lost on the out on the 
outer ends of Loma Alta Lane, Juniper 
Lane, Piedras Grande, Holcomb Creek 
Drive on the West side of town. 

-Centers of the town, residences remain 
untouched mostly on the west to north 
west of lake remain untouched 

- Many homes lost (as I said before) 
all along Angeles Drive, Ridgeway 
Drive, Robin Drive, Falling Leaf Drive, 
Meadow Lane, Cedar Oak Lane, Cedar 
Pines Lane and surrounding areas. Some 
homes still in these areas, however as 
I understand most are gone. 

-Power lines are down all over, and it 
sounds like there might be come water 
issues up there as well. 

- Fire has burned all around the back 
of the ski hill towards camp cedar 
crest, fire streches on both sides of 
Green Valley Lake road from Crab flats 
to the back gate of Calvary Chapel. 
(excluding the calvary chapel area, on 
the same side as the camp) 

-They are trying to stop the fire from 
reaches Camp Cedar Crest and there are 
concerns if is gets away it will go 
straight into Arrowbear 

-Fire is burning in the entire Deep 
creek drainage and it is assumed that 
all of Crab Flats has burned.

3:02pm FROM GREEN VALLEY LAKE: 

Ok I have some information from someone 
in town. There are now fire 
crews in town, they are fighting a 
pretty difficult battle up there as 
we speak, they have one chopper helping now. 

-Fox lumber is gone, along with the 
green valley lake real estate 
office. 

- Lots of houses lost/damaged on the 
East/North side of town, Angeles 
Dr, Ridgeway, Robin Dr etc. 

- Everything in the heart of town 
(housing areas) appears to have 
faired well, and untouched with a few 
houses lost here and there. (no 
specific locations right now) 

- Firefight is happening right now to 
try to save homes on Canyon Dr. 

- Many houses lost just as you drive 
into town on the right side of 
the road 

MEDIA ALERT

CHABAD RUNNING SPRINGS CAMPUS OPEN TO AID FIREFIGHTERS

LOS ANGELES, CA, October 23 -- Chabad 
of California has opened its 70-acre 
campus in Running Springs to all 
firefighters and relief personnel 
working to combat area wildfires.

Food and shelter are available free of 
charge to all authorized firefighters 
and relief workers.  

Located at the former CEDU School 
campus, the grounds will be open around 
the clock.

Address:

3500 Seymour Road

Running Springs, CA 92382

Contacts:

Rabbi Yosef Brod (Running Springs)

Main Line:  (909) 867-7242

Cell #1:  (909) 910-0465

Cell #2:  (323) 493-7999

Rabbi Chaim Cunin (Los Angeles)

Cell:  (310) 628-0900

Incident:  0643 
Type: Report of Fire 
Location: OLD CITY CREEK RD JNO SR330
Zoom Map: 548 2E 
9:32AM 1039 SBCC 
9:28AM ACTIVE FIRE, 1 STRUCTURE THREATENED 
RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS 
9:32AM CHP Unit On Scene 

 5:36AM	5-I111 ** 330 2 BLOCKS 
JWO LIVE OAK IS WHERE FIRE JUMPED THE 
330, ALL IS BLOCKED BY FIRE
5:36AM	5-I111 AT LIVE OAK AT 330, VEHS 
THERE WILL BE TURNING THEM AROUND
5:23AM	PER 5-IS10 DO NOT USE 330, FIRE 
CROSSING LIVE OAK, USE 18 AT WATERMAN

11:49PM PER 101-10 FIRE HAS JUMPED SR18 
AT RIM WORLD TO CITY CREEK^ 
10:15PM S2 ADV ED THEY ONLY HAVE A FEW 
MORE VEHS TO MOVE OUT OF THE LOT 
10:03PM FIRE IS ALL ALONG THE NORTH 
SIDE OF THE ARROWHEAD CHP OFFICE AND 
FIRE STN 51 - THEY ARE HOLDING IT FOR NOW 
{thank you for the email}

10:02PM THE FLAMES ARE NDSOW VISIBLE FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL