Angeles Forest Dwellers Ignore Order to Evacuate

Some cabin dwellers in the Angeles National Forest are defying an order from park managers to evacuate immediately because of extreme fire danger, creating a tense standoff as the wildfire season approaches.

Although the vast forest is mostly open space and campgrounds, it is also home to 500 cabins, many of them owned by residents who have lived there for years.

Under the evacuation order, people in 120 of the cabins had to clear out by last Sunday because officials said the risk of a wildfire was so great that they doubted they could safely rescue the residents in case of a major blaze.

It’s the first time that forest officials have issued such a sweeping evacuation order -- a sign, they say, of an unprecedented fire danger when Santa Ana winds arrive in October.

But residents like Larry Bartlett are refusing to go.

Bartlett has lived for 24 years in a tiny 1920s-era log cabin in North Trail Canyon, about 10 minutes from Sunland. His is one of eight dwellings set amid a small creek and a yellowing hillside. Bartlett and the other residents were drawn by the isolation and nature -- even though they are just a few miles from the city.

They fear that if they leave, and a fire starts, firefighters will do little to save their homes. They argue that they would help the forest by staying where they are, keeping an eye out for smoke and flames.

“My real life is up here. None of us are going to go,” said Bartlett, who lives in the cabin with his wife and teenage daughter. “I understand there’s high fire danger, but residents have never been the cause of a fire.”

Bartlett, a 51-year-old painter who works at USC, bought the cabin for $12,000 and has a lease with the national forest for the land underneath it. He’s been busily preparing for fire season by clearing a 120-foot perimeter around his property and by placing two fire extinguishers at all four corners of the cabin. He climbs his roof daily to sweep away dried vegetation that could easily fuel a fire.

Helen Bilbruck, a neighbor about a mile away, has lived in her granite and redwood cabin for 41 years and says she would have to sleep in her truck if she evacuated. She worries that looters would come if they learned her cabin had been abandoned.

“People who live here protect the forest,” said Bilbruck, 73. “These are our homes. I’m not leaving unless they drag me out.”

Of the 120 cabins affected by the order, at least 100 have been evacuated, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Officials said they were stepping up patrols around the mountain hamlets, but have not decided if or when they would forcibly remove the holdouts. Residents could face fines of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail.

“We’re trying to educate the residents about the danger, but ultimately they are subject to citations,” said Sherry Rollman, an Angeles National Forest spokeswoman.

Forest officials said they had no choice but to clear out cabins in extreme-danger areas. The brush is the driest they have ever seen, and officials fear a fast-moving fire could sweep through the communities before the residents could get out.

“The situation on the ground today has never been seen or reported in history,” said forest Supervisor Jody Noiron at a tense meeting Wednesday with cabin owners. “This is the last resort for us.”

Southern California saw the worst brush fire season in its history last year, when 780,000 acres were burned, 3,600 homes destroyed and 26 people killed. The greatest damage was largely confined to San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

Last fall, 182,000 acres were scorched in the Cleveland National Forest and 150,000 acres were burned in the San Bernardino National Forest.

Both the Cleveland and San Bernardino forests currently have fire restrictions and partial closures, but they have remained open to residents.

A Cleveland forest official did not know how many people lived there, but said it contained 300 cabins. San Bernardino forest, with the communities of Lake Arrowhead and Idlewild, is home to roughly 70,000 residents.

Though only 10,000 acres were burned in the Angeles forest last fall, conditions now are said to be the worst. By the end of July last year, 1,373 acres had burned in the forest. By the end of July this year, 17,091 acres had burned.

“We got some summer thundershowers in August and September that the Angeles forest didn’t,” said Ruth Wenstrom, a San Bernardino National Forest spokeswoman. “Our moisture situation is looking a lot better than theirs.”

About 15 inhabitants of Millard Canyon, north of Altadena, have agreed to leave their longtime residences behind until substantial rainfall quenches the region.

“I feel bad our neighbors are being displaced,” said Alice Sarkisian Wessen, an Altadena resident who has volunteered to temporarily store Millard Canyon residents’ belongings, such as plants and bikes, during the evacuation. “They’re our eyes and ears in the forest.”

About 70 cabin owners near the Chantry Flats area have also been restricted from entering the forest. Many have pleaded with the Forest Service for brief access to their homes to collect valuables.

As of Thursday, Kim Kelley, owner of the historic Adam’s Pack Station in Chantry Flats -- which opened in the 1930s and supplies hikers, mountain bikers and surrounding cabin lodgers with everything from ice cream to lumber -- had yet to leave her forest home.

“I’d have to leave all that inventory behind,” Kelley said. “They’re taking my business away from me and depriving me of my livelihood.”

Back at North Trail Canyon, residents are planning to stay put as long as they can.

“If there’s any time of the year we’re going to be here, it’s fire season, so we can occupy and protect our property,” said Mike Malan, a plumber who works at USC with Bartlett.

The former U.S. Marine and Los Angeles County firefighter’s 1,000-square-foot cabin is outfitted with a sprinkler system set to go off at 165 degrees. The cabin is also surrounded by succulents such as pointy century plants.

But Malan said his neighbors are his main defense against fire. Together, the residents have built roads, clapboard bridges and stone walls protecting drivers from careening into the creek. They have rescued hikers and fended off mountain lions and bears.

“We can depend on each other during a fire,” Malan said.