Battlers of Silverado Fire Gain a Foothold

Firefighters partially contained an arsonist-set blaze that raged through more than 2,000 acres of rugged canyons bordering Orange and Riverside counties Thursday. But they could offer little word on when the fire will be controlled.

“It might be 24 hours before we have the upper hand,” said Thomas Horner, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in San Bernardino.

About 75% of the acreage burned so far in the Silverado fire, as it has been dubbed, is in Riverside County, Horner said. The fire, which has been moving very slowly, was 15% contained by 6 p.m. Thursday.

Only one minor injury was reported, and no homes were threatened Thursday, although fire officials said the blaze, with spectacular 40-foot-high flames visible on its eastern flank along Interstate 15 near Corona, was moving in the direction of ranches in the far eastern end of rural Temescal Valley.

As a precaution, firefighters did set backfires in the foothills near Glen Ivy Hot Springs, although the resort about 10 miles southeast of Corona was never threatened, officials said.

Another fire of suspicious origins that had broken out Wednesday near the Riverside County community of Perris burned 546 acres, along with a house, garage and a shed. It was brought under control Thursday night, fire officials said.

Forest Service investigators Thursday confirmed that the Silverado fire and a smaller, 50-acre blaze known as the Maple fire, which was brought under control Wednesday night, had both been set by the same person.

“We don’t have any knowledge of who set it, only that they were started by the same arsonist,” said Dolores Framter, a Forest Service spokeswoman in San Diego. She declined to elaborate.

A Silverado Canyon resident told fire officials

Wednesday about talking to two people who had told him about seeing two men in a dark blue Toyota pickup starting fires in the area.

Arson is also suspected in the Perris blaze, but officials would not speculate whether the fires were related.

Light winds and cooler temperatures were reported Thursday by firefighters along the Silverado fire line, conditions that helped slow the spread of the blaze, Horner said. By Thursday afternoon the fire was moving slowly in a northeasterly direction in the Temescal Valley in Riverside County.

Flames as high as 40 feet were easily visible from the fire’s eastern border near Interstate 15, about 10 miles southeast of Corona.

Ranch-style houses in the area of Temescal Valley were not threatened but backfires came within a quarter-mile of some homes, prompting residents to water down rooftops and evacuate livestock as precautions.

Continuous Shower

“Every time there’s a fire up there, it makes you nervous. You just never know if the sparks will reach our house,” said Wendy Lewis, 15, who hosed down the shakewood roof of her parents’ home on Gum Tree Lane.

While ash from the spectacular blaze poured down in a continuous shower, residents talked about a thick blanket of smoke that had hung over their valley.

“This is the closest it has ever come to our house,” said Annette Champion, who has lived in the area four year. “There have been controlled burns in the area before, but nothing like this. All day the skies just kept getting darker and darker.”

About 650 firefighters from four counties, as well as crews that had just arrived from fighting fires in Oregon and Montana, had set up three miles of lines around the Silverado fire near its southwestern end in Orange County by Thursday afternoon. “But 10 more miles are needed,” Horner said.

Could Trigger Flooding

As ground crews fought the blaze with shovels and bulldozers, six helicopters dropped water on the flames, while eight air tankers dropped fire retardant.

In Silverado Canyon, the passing of the fire threat left some of the area’s 1,200 residents fearful of what may happen when the winter rains come. Runoff from the charred slopes could trigger flooding in the canyon community, they said.

“Not only will we have water washing off these barrens slopes, but we will have mud and rocks and trees, and it will be a mess unless we get some help this fall,” said Sherry Meddick, a 13-year Silverado Canyon resident.

Meddick was refering to reseeding of the hillsides and cleaning debris from creek areas.

But an Orange County official said the canyon areas were on private property and not part of the county’s flood control system.

“It’s up to property owners to keep the channels and streams clear. We will keep the road crossings clear,” said William Gustafson, county public works maintenance superintendent.

Next week county crews will try to assess what, if any, flood threat will be posed by the destruction of valuable watershed. They will will examine hillsides for “lay of the land, magnitude of the burned area, drainage and types of soils,” Gustafson said.

“It’s not going to be good, but how bad it is, is too soon to tell.”

Meanwhile Thursday, there was optimism about the blazes in the Trinity Alps, located within the Shasta and Trinity national forests, although it still remained the state’s top trouble spot, where 60,650 acres have burned.

Four of Trinity County’s nine major fires were declared fully contained Thursday afternoon, and three others were listed as 90% or more contained.

In all, fires have burned a total of 856 square miles in Northern and Southern California, drawing the efforts of 14,000 firefighters.

Fires continued in the Mendocino National Forest north of San Francisco and in the Klamath National Forest just south of the Oregon border. But a 127,392-acre fire in the Stanislaus National Forest west of Yosemite National Park was declared 40% contained.