Fire abatement in Idyllwild
A crew member from Stand Dynamics walks back to his truck after completing a morning’s worth of fire abatement on U.S. Forest Service land in Idyllwild. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
A common site throughout Idyllwild in the San Bernardino National Forest, where thousands of homes and cabins exist in the face of high fire danger. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Idyllwild Fire Chief Steve Kunkle surveys the frontyard of an Idyllwild cabin that is in need of fire abatement and may soon be cited for not complying with the town’s ordinance that threatens a lein against the property if fire hazards are not removed. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Tahquitz Peak stands over Idyllwild as Josh Whitney, owner of Pacific Slope Tree Cooperative, clears trees and brush from a home complying with the town’s fire abatement order. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Pine Cove Water District board member Louis C. Padula. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Doris Lombard, 64, of Mountain Center, demonstrates her ax-wielding technique as she chops wood that will go to needy families in the Idyllwild area this winter. Lombard is a member of the “Woodies,” a volunteer arm of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, which works to protect Idyllwild and the surrounding communities from forest fires. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Pat Boss, project manager for the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, hoses down dry brush being mulched at the Idyllwild home of Sandi Edwards, right, who is having fire abatement work done by Pacific Slope Tree Cooperative. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
