After Blaze, Danger of Flooding

A 61,700-acre blaze that tore through the San Bernardino County desert last week was contained Tuesday afternoon, allowing officials to turn to another looming threat: potential flooding from storms expected to drench the region in the next several days.

Fire officials announced that, aided by rainfall and high humidity, they had hemmed in the Sawtooth Complex inferno and lifted all mandatory evacuations. The blaze had destroyed 58 houses and mobile homes since lightning ignited it July 9.

The fire was blamed for at least one Pioneertown resident’s death and injuries to 17 firefighters, some of whom were hurt when they took refuge in their trucks during the blaze’s first hours as flames crackled above their heads. The fire has cost more than $16 million to fight.

The Sawtooth fire also left behind a blanket of debris and ash that fire officials fear could tumble into an area of about 1,000 residents: northern Morongo Valley, northwestern Yucca Valley, Pioneertown, Rim Rock and Pipes and Burns canyons.

Meteorologists predict a 40% to 50% chance of showers through this week resulting from a high-pressure system stronger and more moist than in previous years, said Stan Wasowski of the National Weather Service. San Bernardino County fire officials said just a quarter-inch of rain an hour could prompt flash floods in the fire-affected region, shooting debris down naked hillsides and swamping roads, although tributaries could help divert some downpour.

“There’s nothing holding the water back, and all of a sudden it could roll down the hill and start wiping out everything in its way,” said Dan Wurl, San Bernardino County’s deputy fire chief.

Similar conditions after massive 2003 wildfires resulted in a mudslide in the San Bernardino mountains’ Old Waterman Canyon area that killed 14 members of a church group at a campsite.

The scenario has spurred county officials to deluge the greater Morongo Basin area with fliers and phone messages warning of the danger, as well as to stockpile about 5,000 sandbags.

The flood threat “waits almost in hiding behind a ridge -- and it is huge,” said county Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, who recently toured his district’s blackened areas by helicopter.

Firefighters continued digging lines and dousing flames Tuesday to stem the rest of the fire. The adjoining 24,210-acre Millard blaze was 57% contained and was still threatening a pair of hunting cabins and a radio communication tower in the Snow Peak area.

The San Gorgonio Wilderness Area remained closed, and Whitewater Canyon and Mission Creek roads were open only to residents as 704 firefighters attacked the flames in areas including Hell for Sure Canyon. The cost of suppressing the fire was estimated at more than $8 million, with no injuries or property damage reported.

The fire in the “Heart Zone” -- an 800-acre swath where the Sawtooth and Millard blazes merged that is only 10% contained -- continued to chew through steep and inaccessible brush. All evacuation orders were lifted, although roads in the Heart Bar and Coons Creek areas were closed as 500 firefighters toiled in the area eight miles southeast of Big Bear Lake.

County officials, meanwhile, were figuring out how to assist homeowners and their charred communities.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County, but most state aid would be funneled through local agencies to help pay for fire suppression and repairs to damaged government buildings, utility lines and roads, said Eric Lamoureux, a state Office of Emergency Services spokesman.

There are no state programs to provide direct financial assistance to individual homeowners whose homes were destroyed or damaged, he said, and the governor, who has visited Pioneertown twice, will not decide whether to seek federal aid until the fires are fully contained.

County officials plan to begin assessing damage today to see whether the area can qualify for federal Small Business Administration loans, which require a certain threshold of uninsured damage, said Denise Benson, the county’s emergency manager.

The supervisors also directed staff to research whether fees could be waived for homeowners who wish to rebuild, a program that was offered in 2003 to Cedar Glen residents whose homes were destroyed in the blazes.