Conversations on social media have pitted those whose only source of heat during a power outage is a wood stove or fireplace against those who plead with them to bundle up until the Red Flag Warning is over. Idyllwild Fire Protection District Chief Mark LaMont has asked residents and visitors to refrain from heating with wood fires until the emergency is over.
LaMont had this to say: "We put out a statement on our website and WNKI. We urge people not to use fireplaces for heat. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but the risk of embers escaping and starting fires would be devastating..”
LaMont noted that Idyllwild Fire crews were, as of Wednesday January 8, assisting at three major fires: Palisades, Eaton and Hurst. These first two were being called the two largest January fires in California history. LaMont noticed that staffing on the Hill had been tripled during the wind event, and crews had been out all night cutting up downed trees to provide ingress and egress, essential for emergency service and potential evacuation. Daily response calls for medical and fire continue during emergencies like this. The men in the yard agreed that there had not been much time for sleep in the last 30 hours.
LaMont told of a couple of locals in their 80s who were returning from a shopping trip when they hit a 32-inch-diameter tree blocking highway 74 near McCall Park Road. Idyllwild Fire responded before other agencies could be notified, and LaMont himself took the pair home with their groceries.
Other calls for downed trees soon followed. IFPD cut up and removed trees on Fern Valley Road, Howland, Encino, Country Club and Tollgate, and at two local trailer parks, Royal Pines and Idyllwild Pines. Both of the trees in trailer parks affected multiple trailers, and the one in Royal Pines also destroyed a parked car.. Several people were trapped when their units were cut in half by the trees. The Red Cross was also there to provide for the immediate needs of the displaced.
Returning to one of his favorite themes, the importance of the mutual aid system, LaMont said “There is not a single agency that can handle it’s worst day by itself. This is why the Mutual Aid system needs to be as robust as it is in California across the nation.” LaMont added that IFPD would work with SCE to “ensure effective and efficient re-energizing” once the winds had passed.