Fire Forces Evacuation of Two Towns

A tenacious wildfire prompted the evacuation of the San Jacinto Mountain communities of Idyllwild and neighboring Pine Cove on Monday afternoon, with thousands of residents urged to take flight, and some, who refused to abandon their homes, watching nervously as smoke obliterated the afternoon sun.

The blaze, which started Saturday, frustrated 1,000 firefighters as it slowly crept up steep, inaccessible canyons filled with heavy brush that had not burned for 40 years.

By Monday night, with dropping temperatures and higher humidity, the fire had quieted after coming to within about a quarter-mile of Pine Cove on one front and within a mile of Idyllwild on another.

No structures were reported lost, but “the fire is still posing a major threat to these communities,” said Dick McCombs, a U.S. Forest Service division chief at the scene.

The quieter nighttime flames created “a false sense of security,” McCombs said. “[Today] will still be hot and dry, and even though we are going to work on our perimeter control overnight, it still won’t be contained.”

By nightfall Monday, the fire had consumed more than 8,000 acres, and despite higher estimates during the day, was only about 20% contained, McCombs said.

He said 400 hand crews would work the fire lines overnight and more than 55 fire engines were positioned around the western edge of the communities to provide protection for the homes closest to the flames.

Officials first ordered the evacuation of Pine Cove, just north of Idyllwild along California 243, at midafternoon. Within minutes, the order was expanded to include Idyllwild, which already looked like a ghost town. Tourists had been turned away at mountain highway roadblocks, and most local businesses had closed their doors.

The communitywide evacuation came a day after several hundred people on the western fringes of the two towns, which have a combined year-round population of about 3,500, were first told to leave.

At nightfall Monday, deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department were walking door to door, warning lingering residents to evacuate.

Some residents refused to go, however.

Al Adams, 80, was among those holding his ground.

“My wife is buried here, and I have nothing else in the world but my trailer,” he said. “Where the hell else would I go?”

“We cannot force people to leave,” said one deputy. “All we can do is warn them and then go to the next house.”

David and Cathie Davis packed up their most precious belongings Sunday, but stayed with their home Monday, their two remaining vehicles packed to the brim. Large buckets of water were situated on their roof, ready to douse sparks they feared would land on the house.

“We’ve been in this house less than a year, and we don’t want to lose it,” Cathie Davis said.

Twenty miles south of Idyllwild, another blaze flared up Monday afternoon and by early Monday evening had burned more than 500 acres. Another small fire in Temecula was almost completely contained by Monday afternoon.

Two fires also were burning Monday in the Angeles National Forest, but no evacuations ordered. One fire, about 10 miles north of Azusa, was 50% contained Monday afternoon, and the other was almost completely contained. In total, the five Southland fires had burned almost 11,000 acres by Monday night, with no structures damaged yet and no injuries to residents. More than 2,500 firefighters battled the five blazes.

Most critical by far was the one near Idyllwild.

At midday Monday, the sky was mostly blue and most of the fire’s smoke was wafting toward the west, over the Hemet Valley. But within an hour, the north fork of the fire erupted violently, and the flames marched up the mountainside despite a parade of water-dropping helicopters and fire-retardant-dropping air tankers.

Dozens of canyons had smaller fires that were all but inaccessible to firefighters, and the flames were targeted with water and fire-retardant drops.

Before the evacuation notice, some business people in the quaint mountain tourist towns appeared calm and reassuring.

“I’ve been getting calls from friends and family from Montana, Florida, everywhere, making sure we hadn’t burned to the ground,” said Denise Day, who with her husband, Colin, owns the Woodland Park Manor vacation cabins. None of her guests had left, and only one guest had canceled his July 4 reservations.

But Donovan White, owner of the Idyllwild Inn, expressed a wary concern. “People are calling to see if we’re still here, and I’m telling them that this July 4 weekend, there will either be no Idyllwild or no fire.”

Many day visitors were not able to make the trip here Sunday and Monday because of the roadblocks.

“This is going to hurt us a little bit,” said Joyce Gibson at Granny’s Pies. “This is one of our busiest weeks of the year.”

Joseph Brown, who owns the Abbey, a religious artifacts and icons store, said he was saying his prayers--channeling them through St. Agnes, a martyr burned to death on hot coals.

“We are a very defensive and protective community, and we won’t let anything happen to it,” he said. “But that won’t stop us from praying to our favorite saints and deities.”

During the next few days, firefighters probably will get a respite from the sweltering weather. There will be a gradual cooling trend during the next few days, said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. By July 4, temperatures should return to normal.

The high Monday in Los Angeles was 94. Temperatures in the inland valleys hovered above 100, with highs of 101 in Burbank and 104 in San Bernardino.

* FIRE DANGERS

Consumers should take a home inventory. D3