Officials provide update on Line Fire in Highland area

silence your cell phones leave all conversations outside additionally if you are online uh on the live chat we are encouraging questions please write your questions into the live chat and a public information office so we'll get them up to the panel I will begin with a line fire update the line fire is currently burning on the San Bernardino National Forest in the County of San Bernardino the fire is currently at 23,7 14 acres and 5% contained currently there are over 36,000 structures that are threatened encompassing several communities with zero structure damage and destroyed the following agencies are in unified command they are the United States war service calire city of Highland San berino County Fire Protection District and the San berino County Sheriffs we will begin with an operational overview by our line fire operations section chief Jeremy pece good evening so starting off on the lower section of the firewor is a division Zulu and working around this section here in the Highland area we've increased some of our perimeter control moving through this whole section we have it on a what we call a patrol status Cruiser in there monitoring for any hotpots we're making great progress in here and we've got some good perimeter continuing moving our way up into what where you see this division Alpha this is our 330 cor door here uh today fire crew worked all day in there they're prepping a firing operation to bring that fire down to that 3 330 Corridor so that we'll have continuous line all in this section moving a little bit farther up where this division Charlie is um we we've got Dozer line that started from the 18 and has come all the way down to the city creek fire station that doer line is in progress hoping to have it completed by this morning or tomorrow morning uh we've got great progress in that area as well as we come up this Corridor and get into the Running Springs area Crews have working day moing up under the structure cleaning up the line straightening it as well um very good progress as you move farther to the east there's uh we're cleaning up that line with some Dozer operations as well to make sure that there's no more further threat to that Running Springs area and uh we're having some high success there preparing for incoming weather as we move um down into that Romeo and uh uniform area on this far east side of Fire um it's some terrain there's very difficult access Cruiser uh working on some Dozer line to try to check that up but have very difficult time do fire activity around in and around the Keller Meadows area and the Keller Peak area um they're making some progress but it's just very slow tough terrain for the crews in that in that particular area and then as we come down into where it says Branch 20 on that far east side down in that 38th quarter over by the angel Ang Oaks Community over there we have fire just above that Cru put some doer line in and check that as well as some doer line along that 38 quarter up on the Ridge and we're evaluating that and right now that that fire has stayed up on the ridge just above the Angel's Oaks um and we're continuing with that line preparation as it moves to the west to keep that from that 38 coil and that being said that whole this whole Eastern side of fire is our priority right now we that in there all day long working on hotpots keeping things cooled down trying to keep it in check it's been very active today with the fire Behavior so in our our current predicted fire Behavior that's coming up we're very concerned about a Northeast push on this fire and uh it should have we're expecting it to have a very significant uh growth over the next 24 to 48 hours so that's uh the report for the line fire as of today and next up we will have an update from the San San Bernardino County Fire Protection District Fire Chief Dan MSY good afternoon California is home to definitely the best firefighters in the nation they are here on this fire whether they're wearing blue of Cal Fire County Fire City Brethren or green of the US Foresters uh they do amazing work and they're doing it in strong collaboration cooperation and we're seeing that play out in the protection of our communities on Saturday when the fire made a run up to Running Springs fedala Smiley Park we were estimating that we were going to lose houses we were sure of it and I want to thank our neighboring counties for immediately mobilizing almost 600 firefighters that we surged up into our mountains to protect those structures and to be frank I want to thank God too for the rain that came right at the nick of time that dampened down that fire allowed our firefighters to get in there and safely do the good work and protect every one of those structures I want to thank the incident management team calfire team one for the strategic planning for the operational control for the service and the support that they give to our men and women they are doing an outstanding job to allow our firefighters in this 100 plus degree weather to get in there and make a stand on this fire it's easy it's very easy to do an operational briefing on a map but the reality is the men and women that are out there working so hard it's truly amazing but the SP is still a danger yesterday I was worried about Angela soaks Mountain Home Village I was worried about Forest Falls the fire was making any Eastern project uh movement and it still has a possibility of doing that we've been challenged by the weather besides being very hot and as you know drought and the historic low temperatures or excuse me low humidity humidity um and fuel moistures these thunderstorms have been moving this fire around today the fire is moving Northeast and we're concerned with the citizens of Big Bear but just like we surge firefighters into Running Springs area to protect those homes the county of San burino fire department is prepared to do that for all our communities but we can only do it in conjunction with our strong partnership with us Forest Service in calfire and our city Brethren and I'm deeply grateful for that thank you for our next update we will have san berino county sheriff Shannon dkas thank you everyone and thank you for covering this and for all of our citizens are out there I want to reassure you that in partnership with our fire departments your law enforcement agencies are out there in force to protect your property first I'd like to address the evacuation orders evacuation order the difference between an order of course and a warning is the advisable from our fire departments in in the case of an order that fire could be imminent in your community when we talk about a warning that is the preparedness start Gathering your things and be able to get ready to leave that area should the warning turn into an order I'm briefly going to go over the areas but I'd like to focus everybody to prepare sbcounty.gov Blackline fire to get the specifics in terms of streets and exact locations for both the evacuation orders and the warnings but evacuation orders do exist in the community of Highland City Creek Twin Peaks yuk kipa and San berardino City evacuation warnings also exist in Highland Twin Peaks Green Valley Lake area and Uka for the first couple of days of this fire san berardino county used our mobile Field Force which is a group of all Hazard trained deputies to the tune of about a 100 deputies to address both what was going on on top of our local mountains and down in the city of Highland area that number has since surged to 150 and that's thanks to the mutual aid from our 10 Municipal police departments and I'd like to thank all of those folks that's Baro PD Colton PD Montclair Redlands Upland Chino Montana Ontario Rialto and San berardino PDS that increased our Surge from approximately 30 people in the mountains and 30 people down in the valley to about 70 each day and as of today that surge is now increased to 150 and of the operational period this evening we will almost be doubling those numbers with the National Guard who have been pre-placed by the governor and state OES at the National Guard Armory in Ontario and will be deploying them what I'd like to explain is our strategy and how we're going to deploy all of those personnel and why it's important for our community to know this once we've evacuated an area we'll be placing the National Guard in those areas to maintain security along with law enforcement units but we've got to free up as many of those law enforcement units as we can for that is those units are equipped with special Sirens that many of our community members have seen if they haven't please go to the dotcom I mentioned earlier and make sure you watch that it is a high low siren if for some reason the fire behavior is erratic and it's been very erratic in this fire that you will hear the deputies going through and it'll be in Spanish and English with a high low siren that is demonstrated on those sites if you hear that that means fire is emminent and you need to get out so please heed the warnings and certainly please heed the orders when they come around from your Law Enforcement Officers but I want to ensure all of our count neighbors there are friends a lot of our Personnel both fire and law enforcement have been evacuated also and they're actively working this fire please know that all the law enforcement officers in the National Guard are going to treat your homes just like we treat our own homes I can you can be rest assured that if anybody comes out attempts to loot in this County they will be arrested and they will be prosecuted and we're going to be out there in force making sure that happens including undercover units that may look like a normal person and they're even law enforcement officer and those type of resources will certainly be in play lastly I want to share a a personal message that was sent to me from our governor and that was thanking each and every person that is on this fire assigned to it both fire and law enforcement for protecting this community and after the thank you he also said even though they've dedicated a number of resources and I know they've issued a press release on those resources but he committed to me that if we need anything else they've got our back and they're going to take care of us and I can't thank the governor and state OES enough to be that collaborative piece we've been working on this together for several days and just making sure that this county is 100% ready I'd like to thank all of our First Responders on this fire and please know that all of the law enforcement officers are there with you and we will certainly do our very best to make sure that all your Ingress and egress points are taken care of as you watch our firefighters do exct what the fire chief said is move throughout this County to wherever any of us are needed thank you for our next update it's going to be California Highway Patrol Lieutenant Nicholas King good evening the California Highway Patrol we're committed to the safe and efficient movement of uh of the local residents off the safely off the mountain and to make sure that our resources are able to deploy effectively throughout the mountain communities currently we have some uh traffic uh control points in place where we're restricting all traffic um along the 18 freeway we have uh uh closure at 18 in cuffle Canyon the 330 free highway is closed from Highland Boulevard um just at the base of the mountain all the way up to Running Springs at live o and Highway 38 is closed from Bryant down in Uka all the way up to Lake Williams which is sort of on the Southeast edge of Big Bear area some routes of egress are the highway 18 that goes into lucern Valley um north of Big Bear and then Highway 138 that'll let you out by um Silverwood Lake um we're also we have units that will also be roving trying to make sure that if stragglers come out of say some of the campsites or what have you that we're going to try to get them uh directed to the quickest way off the mountain as well so we appreciate any help that you guys can anybody that's watching can give to get out of the areas as directed so that we keep our uh our firefighters in the fight with our next update we have unified Incident Commander from the San berardino national forest fire chief s Rees good afternoon everybody and and I want to start off with a thank you thank you to everybody in the room thank you to everybody behind me and thank you to all the men and women in all the emergency services that are out there in a true unified effort that word has been not thrown around but it's been used since the first Speaker got up and that really is truly the posture and the atmosphere that we want to continue on the sanino national forest as we continue through this incident so talking to all the people that are out there right now this is a community based meeting we want everybody to know that the San International Forest understands that we have one of the four Forest even though acreage wise sizewise one of the smaller forests if you go across the country has one of the largest populations of people and communities within our forest boundary when we have a fire of this size of this magnitude of this intensity I'd be misspeaking if I said our firefighting Workforce and our our Workforce as a whole was able to handle that ourselves I think that all of my partners and Cooperators not only in the room but behind me would agree to that statement and it really needs to be an all in all effort by every single Emergency Services out there and that's what you're seeing right now the S International Forest is dedicated to the people in the community that live in it surround it not only for the homeowners and the livelihoods of the economic and social impacts that are currently happening but also for the resource values that are out there and making sure that we have a beautiful National Forest um as much as possible in the Strategic planning that the very capable team members that are here as they're working through how to put this fire out we're also working future on how to make this Forest get back to where it's at obviously the immediate need is the public safety and the firefighter safety I want to reiterate everything that's already been said right now for the general public if you're given information by the sheriff's or any law enforcement officer please follow that the men and women out there doing their job can't do their job safely and effectively if they can't focus on what their specific mission is and always the mission is going to be life safety first for anybody in the area and our homeowners in the community and the S International Force absolutely supports that so please make their job as easy as they can and follow all the instructions we're going to be working continuously hard with the team that's in place and everybody else to get information out as speedily and readily as possible and then when the time is right the decisions will be made to get people back into their their homes and their businesses and everything that goes along with that there's currently a forest order in place for closure um there's also um lines available through different things uh to get information not just on the social media aspects but also the hotlines those are CH staff 247 as of right now um those information is are available staff by by our forest personnel and everybody else out there that's helping lending a helping hand I going to end and close with again uh the Sano National Forest is dedicated to the people of the communities the natural resources the cultural resources the social economic impacts of what this incident is really bringing to us and as we stand here literally in the shadow of multiple smoke columns around our Inland Empire Community not just to mention our our focused area here on the S on the forest uh we know that there is a lot going on in California Chiefs already mentioned that our focus is this incident the people that are affected by it and how to get this incident where it needs to be and get the forest and the communities back in place and resume that normalization thank you everybody and next to speak is Unified Incident Commander from calfire Incident Management team three billy C all right good evening and hello um obviously over the last 72 hours the heat wave that's been occurring here in Southern California uh we've seen multiple Wildland fires initiated obviously there's H Three Fires are currently going on just here in the U Southern California area um the one we're assigned to here the line incident with inent management team three all our cooperating agencies all our unified agencies working colle itively with one key focus in mind that's to serve and Safeguard the citizens here in san berardino county and all the infrastructure and natural resources we're working hard to mitigate this incident but obviously we're being challenged by Mother Nature the winds and the heat are creating Dynamic Fire behavior and conditions for our firefighters and our number one priority out on that line is to make sure that we take care of all those firefighters safely efficiently and effectively so moving forward over the next 36 hours we still anticipate having adverse weather conditions and challenging our perimeter control and our firefighting efforts we do have several hundred firefighters on order with additional resources coming in along with the additional resources that are inbound for Southern California for the other two incidents that are currently active just in this sh area so just to repeat this is a unified incident it's a unified front it doesn't matter what agency we're from we're working collectively with one Mission and one goal in mind thank you okay at this time we'll be answering some of the questions that youve provided Us in the live chat this is going to be for our operation section chief it's a it's two-part question what direction is the fire headed and what is in its path well I'm glad this question was asked because this is our major concern uh we have a big souths Southwest wind that's coming and over the next couple days we expect a fairly large growth in that Northeast Direction um as well as um moving up that um Santa an River drainage so both the Santa River drainage and the Bear Creek river drainage are two big concerns and we expect that fire growth to be fairly significant over the next 36 hours we have another question for operation section chief it's concerning where is our air support uh this is from a resident in the mil Creek area so it's easy to see when aircraft are up in the air or not up in the air and it's a question that we commonly get on these incidents but it's more complex than that it involves our smoke conditions um we have to have clear air to fly um over the last couple days we've had um Thunder cells that have come in through through the area and produced over 3,700 lightning strikes and 300 down strikes that has a that has hindered some of our aircraft usage as well as our helicopter usage but when we do have clear air I promise you the first thing we're doing is getting aircraft up in the air getting it to work and and working with our Ground Forces to uh help them secure whatever line we can and Safeguard our communities U we had some air support up in that Running Springs area for a short period was driven off the fire through some pretty significant Thunder cells low visibility and lightning um they they flew as long as they could sat down as soon as the Thunder cells moved they were back up in the air we'll do the same thing over the next couple days and and the general message is if we have clear air and it is a priority part of our fire we will have aircraft on that fire in on that division or in that area our next question is going to be for the sheriff are there concerns about looters in Running Springs and in Big Bear right now we'll have to see about the Big Bear area as far as whether it comes underneath a warning or an order and we're not to that point yet I know we're working closely with our fire Partners in terms of those triggers that would trigger that for the folks in the Big Bear area we have evacuated under an order a a large portion of the Running Springs area and in those cases of course we're already always concerned about looting we've only had one case of a potential B burglary or looter and those subjects have been arrested just like I said I am telling anybody right now if you have an arrest warrant or anything and you enter these areas we've had a number of arrest already one in particular was a motorcycle rider on a stolen motorcycle that entered that me and they are now in jail we are not messing around and like I said earlier your homes are our homes and we're going to be all over this I don't have an override in concern that there are looting Crews or anything like that in our area I know during our last snowstorms we also experienced a couple of times where we had opportunists com in and try to take advantage of a few things but not in large groups or anything and we will certainly deal with those folks and they will be behind bars and we have a DA that will absolutely prosecute them thank you this will conclude our live stream please continue us continue to F follow all of us on our social media platforms for the most updated information on the line fire okay so for the media here now is your chance um if you have any questions for our panel behind is it possible to just go to the map and see where you expect this to go say 12 24 36 hours so progressing some type of progression on the mount EAS for all right um so coming up the San An River dra here and moving sides of this River drainage we expect it uh let me get my bearings here by 9:00 a.m. in tomorrow morning we have projections of it's sitting right here at the intersection of San River in be Creek Dage somewhere around 9:00 a.m. um from that point we're looking at about a 4H hour progression to just about this area second 4our progression to this area third 4our progression right up in this area right on the plateau at that point it's going to slow down a little bit it's going to take about eight hours for that progression from the plateau down into the lake area and that's based upon our fire modeling um with our projected winds there's a lot of factors in there and these are our projections and this is what we're working off of but uh we'll be doing that firefight where we can but under tomorrow's conditions it's going to be an extreme Challenge for our firefighter to get ahead of this so that's where we said as I know that caller mentioned running aile it expected further because toast so we definitely have some concerns in this area as far as that fire travel up in this direction we have firefighters in here for the last two days work in this section and we've done some clean up and some firing some Dozer work some handline work ton of stuff in here some hose laser in here we've done some cooling down so we're really hoping we might have the occasional fire that pushes a little bit and we'll have resources in that whole area going to structure the fence the entire day um this section over here where this fire has moved up over here we will have some winds that affect that area we're hoping to get this fired in and cooled down which will take that Eastern progression of this running under Arro it continues why we're stopping this here this doer break here is lined up kind of nicely for us as that wind pushes up there it should keep this fire in this drainage and move it to that east side of arroe and then we'll have cruise up on that 18 cor at that point as well so we've got a great plan here and that's the progression map we've got for this but um we're feeling really good about what we've done to prepare for this wind and uh we're we're going to our was out there fighting it the entire time would be the person to ask about evacuations and whether people are comping whether have to worry about people still in their homes even though they're under evacuation order so the question is about evacuation some people remaining in their homes and then how many people actually leave so one of the things when I mentioned that the mobile Field Force they're also equipped with a piece of technology where their phones are that GIS spotting piece of equipment so when we go to someone's home we actually so number one we were there number two is the person there and it also allows us just with the push of the button are they staying are they going right now we're getting a tremendous amount of cooperation but as you can imagine there are some people that don't want to leave their homes but the great thing about that piece of technology is we can share with our firefighters those certainly who have remained and if we do have that imminent danger that I talked about that yes your home is going to burn and getting that high low siren system in there now we have m that show where those people are contained and uh we're certainly prepared for whatever this fire behavior is going to um that we're going to be dealing with in terms of the fire Behavior but the best thing anybody could do is prepare in the morning grab the things you need there are lists on the website I mentioned earlier just please grab those things get out of the way of our firefighters they'll get in there and they will do the amazing work that they do but we have to clear those streets take those warnings and take those orders seriously so that maintain safy for yourself and your family and do you anticipate evacuation orders or Warnings to go to the Big Bear area and if so how quickly might those come down I should people in Big Bear be prepared the obviously you've seen the progression so I imagine somewhere when we get in the area of that plateau and the fire slows down but yet it certainly looks like it's approaching um Big Bear we'll be working closely with fire at any of the trigger points where they say we need to put Big Bear on a warning we'll absolutely do that immediately and then when it comes to order will actually do that and then be outo door to door and trying to track who's left and who's staying there so we have that good situational awareness picture um and we're we're very blessed right now like I said a lot of State resources a lot of federal resources Congressman agular was here he was at my department Operation Center and so far even on trying to help us with all these efforts whether it's equipment coming in or when we get to the point of recovery our federal state and local resources have been nothing but amazing in terms of supporting are there resources for people with animals larger animals versus livestock stuff like that uh yeah we do have multiple evacuation shelters both for large and small and some of the evacuation shelters um including the one in Fontana is taking pets so it's my understanding that big bear is under a warning I know I talked about the tick marks but it is under a warning right now so we have already prepared that Community to make sure that they are doing their thing I know that we are also staging National Guard resources and Sheriff's Department resources up in Big Bear so if anything does change we're already in the area and we're ready to respond the micro our microphon there l roadways are shut down going towards bigar coming out of bigar how would those roadways be utilized to become evacuation be no you're absolutely right so when we're talking about the big barrier or any of our mountains when we're talking about the north side there are what we refer to on this side of the mountains the back ways we will make sure that the citizens know what ways are the clearest in order to get out of the Big Bear area should this become an order so we'll be clear about that but right now really the the major roadway that's shut down is the 330 that's great for firefighters to be able to access and obviously the original firefront was coming up and they were doing most of the fighting in that area of the 330 so right now roadways are still open that's why it's so important especially at this time when you're under a warning to get all of that equipment personal pictures and things that you cannot replace put them in your car and make arrangements to get out of the area so that we can do the work we do are you able to talk a little bit about FEMA coming down from the um state of emergency by the governor just what that actually means for FEA and sure well FEMA that comes from the the federal government in terms of those things they issue um they issue a declaration we did the emergency declaration here locally but that allows us to the federal government to help pay for a lot of the things that you're seeing here and all this mobilization of both law enforcement and fire resources we've started locally here at the state on the law Branch side about four days ago when we first started having a few of these things kick off had those conversations with them hey this is what we have this is what's going on and that's when the governor proactively stationed the National Guard out there and um as a result of that we're deliberately using them in a number of areas so we can free up those Municipal and County Law Enforcement resources what's the most important thing you need the evacu that are off theing so we mentioned the shelters if you go to that prepare SB County you'll have all the shelters that are available there still tune into that site there are a lot even calire got a site we're updating all that information all the time everybody is going to be anxious to get back into their homes we are equally as anxious to get them back into their homes but as it explained by all of our fire personnel hotpots are still popping up so you may be somewhere in the neighborhood and say well I want back in my home because I don't see these things until they do that mop up portion they mentioned cooling down it's still dangerous in those areas so we're asking for everybody's patience stay at the shelter or other arrangements you've had we're going to be very vocal about what opens and what closes and when and we'll try to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible but number one is always going to be safety for both law enforcement and Fire thank you all right that's going to conclude tonight's thank you guys for being here thank you so much is there a scheduled update next update uh we'll put that out in the morning if there's going to be another uh for that