Posted on 05/22/2008 8:11:29 AM PDT by EggsAckley
Firefighters are evacuating residents near a wildfire that is burning out of control this morning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire has burned about 500 acres.
Sheriff's deputies from Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties are in the process of evacuating residents living in a three-mile stretch near Mount Madonna Road, according to Chris Morgan, a fire prevention specialist. Morgan estimates there are at least 20 homes in the are being threatened by the fire.
"Our main priority is evacuations, getting people out safely," Morgan said. "Then we can start working the perimeter of the fire."
(Excerpt) Read more at santacruzsentinel.com ...
Apparently KGO news was aware that the summit road was closed and that the county doesn’t want to fix it. I don’t believe they knew that some emergency vehicles could have gone up Old San Jose road to summit to get to the fire very quickly but of course weren’t able to because of the closure. Instead they had to go down to Watsonville then drive up Eureka Canyon. Because of other road closures, nearly everyone has to funnel down to one road to get out of the mountains on the Santa Cruz side, and that makes evacuating people and moving ‘dozers and firefighting equipement up the mountain very problematic.
I mean, if the county closed it, the county could open it again, for emergency traffic. Unless it's really dangerous.
People live on it.
The county said they were worried a car might drive off it. That could happen on numerous roads around here, and in fact happens on highway 1 all the time, particularly in Big Sur and at Devil’s Slide.
Not easy having a kid in/near a danger zone....prayers up for both of you.
Looks like they got the overnight turnaround. Looking pretty good this morning. Fifty percent humidity, low wind. They’re past the 20 percent containment mark already, with a whole lot of resources on hand.
If people live on it, how can it be closed? That’s crazy. I thought you were going to say it had a washout one winter, or some other state of disrepair. Nutty!
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