Article Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 6:01:48 PM PST
Lake Arrowhead fire rages on
By Evan LaGasse and David Schwartz
Staff Writers
LAKE ARROWHEAD -- Walls of flames fueled by thousands of tinder-dry and diseased trees ripped out-of-control through San Bernardino Mountains resort communities Wednesday destroying dozens of homes and forcing evacuations of thousands of more residents.
Turned into eerie ghost towns lurking apprehensively under a pall of smoke, the alpine towns waited helplessly Wednesday in the path of the seemingly unstoppable Old Fire.
On its quest for fuel and pushed by ocean-borne southwesterly wind gusts up to 25 mph, the 200-foot tall wall of fire advanced into Lake Arrowhead, the resort town's 9,000 full-time residents evacuated and only weary firefighters arrayed against the flames.
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Predictions of a 40 percent chance of rain by Friday were cited as a cause for some hope.
Overnight, the wildfire jumped Cajon Pass and moved toward Summit Valley and Hesperia on one front, while its back end continued to devastate the mountains, hovering dangerously close to Running Springs and Green Valley Lake after making its way up Highway 18.
Firefighters on both fronts were forced to watch trees and brush go up in flames, resorting only to saving structures as the fire burned out of control.
``We have a defensive strategy because there's no way we can fight 15 miles of flame,'' said U.S. Forest Service Division Supervisor Marty Hamel as he waited for the fire to arrive at the corner of Highway 138 and Summit Valley road in an unincorporated area near Hesperia.
Bulldozers took out large areas of vegetation at the site in an attempt to create a buffer between the fire and a local gas station while other firefighters waited to employ their full arsenal of hoses and foam to push the fire past the station's pumps, propane tanks and trucks.
By early afternoon, homes were burning in the mountain community of Cedarpines Park.
http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~24823~1731755,00.htmlNOT ONE OF THESE FIRES HAS HIT A FIRE BREAK. WHY?, BECAUSE THE ENVIRO-ANIMAL-RIGHTS-WHACOS HAVE MADE THEM ILLEGAL !!!!