Massive Mountain fire burning a few miles from Palm Springs

The massive Mountain fire remained perilously close to Palm Springs as well as the Idyllwild area, where thousands have been evacuated.

The fire has burned through at least 22,800 acres and several homes near Idyllwild. It remains only 15% contained.

Six homes have been destroyed and firefighters were preparing for another long, hot night in the San Bernardino National Forest.

Officials said one end of the blaze was a few miles from Palm Springs. The biggest concern remained Idyllwild.

Tucked away in the mountains, shaded by a blanket of pine trees, life in Idyllwild is an idyllic one, where the crush of traffic gives way to chirping birds and the threat of crime is replaced by a bobcat skulking down a residential roadway.

But residents say they know such seclusion puts them in a precarious position, to prepare for when the inevitable wildlife comes to town.

“The whole town is built around the fact we’re vulnerable to a fire,” said Joanna Bruno, 58, who has lived in Idyllwild for years. She had come to a shelter set up in the gymnasium of Hemet High School with her two 15-year-old grandchildren.

Since the fire began near “the Y,” as locals call the point where the 243 and 74 highways meet up, she’s been tracking the blaze, checking the town paper for updates and listening to an emergency radio station. “Everybody turns to that station,” she said.

When the call to leave came, her family was ready. They grabbed the packed bags on the kitchen table and left. “I got plan A, plan B and plan C, and plan B panned out,” she said. “This is normal operating procedures.”

“We forgot the toothbrushes!” she said to her grandchildren. She shifted in her seat, her neck aching. She forgot her neck pillow, too.

There were other things left behind that weren’t necessary but that she’d hate to lose. Her journals from when she was a teenager, for instance.

“If our place catches on fire, we’re going to have nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing.”

But, in another way, she was prepared. She pointed to her hot pink cap. Army veteran, it says. “I’ve got the discharge papers to go with it,” she said. In her various postings, including in Germany, she said she often had to leave behind things to which she had grown attached.

“You lose a lot of stuff, and that’s a fact of life,” she said. “The only thing that matters are these people.

She pointed to her grandchildren.

“I’m ready,” she said with a note of reservation.

“I’m not!” her granddaughter, Mauvé Blair, piped up. “I’ve got priceless electronics up there!”

Sitting on the bleachers, sipping on Pepsi, Jim and Kellee Sheahan recounted how quickly conditions shifted as they left Idyllwild. The couple left later than their neighbors.

“It went from nothing to tons of smoke, and the sky went from clear to orange,” said Kellee Sheahan, 51.

They’ve lived in Idyllwild for 20 years, and the whole time they’ve known the threat posed by wildfires and the precautions to take. Clearing your land was critical. “It only takes a couple of embers,” she said.

They also have pet carriers and a supply of food ready for their two dogs and six cats.

“If you’ve got your carriers and you’ve got your leashes -- if you’ve got it all ready to go,” she said, “you can just load them up and go.”

But not everyone is as prepared. Some have grown complacent, Jim Sheahan said. They’ll say a fire hasn’t come through in a century. And a number of homes in the area aren’t lived in year-round.

The Sheahans, both respiratory therapists, were taken by how tranquil the community was. “You get to actually hear nature,” she said.

“It’s peaceful, it’s quiet,” Kellee Sheahan said. “Nobody’s in your business, but if you need a hand, they’re right there.”

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rick.rojas@latimes.comjoseph.serna@latimes.com