Idyllwildfire

Idyllwild Fire Report

July 16, 2013

A fire that started around 2 p.m. yesterday about five miles from Idyllwild Arts has now burnt around 9,000 acres. Relatively mild temperatures and an eastward blowing wind has enabled the arts camp to stay present on top of the mountain. Last night, from my cabin porch, the soaring glow of flames from the other side of the range peaks around Idyllwild tipped up and bobbed along the sky’s near rim. I thought of how a fire had burned to within a half-mile of the campus back in the summer of 1996. I remember walking past the edge of the campus and looking across a ravine at the spot where the fire had been brought to a halt.

On the local level, one is reminded of the dangers that fire fighters face every time one takes the road up the mountain from Banning; a large sign honoring the five firefighters who perished in the Esperanza fire of 2006, including Captain Mark Loutzenhiser of Idyllwild, hardly begins to pay sufficient tribute. If it weren’t for such people as Loutzenhiser, Idyllwild Arts would not have survived the fire of 1996 and all the work I have done with students here the past two decades would never have come to pass. My thanks go out to them, yet once again.

Here is  link to recent pictures of the current fire.

http://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2013/07/16/photos-new-monday-images-from-mountain-fire/

 

 

 

 

 

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