Capt. Scot Collins, Hemet Station commander of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, was prepared from experience for policing the mountain communities during the Mountain Fire that began Monday, July 15, in Mountain Center. That experience and the plans the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce formulated helped direct evacuation, kept the community residences and businesses safe from…

“Whoa! That must have been the Big One! I’ve been tossed 10 feet across the room and can see a mess and broken windows all around me. Good, things have stopped shaking now and I can get up and walk.

A four-man Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit (RMRU) team headed by locals Lee Arnson and Chad Marler fought their way down steep terrain and rugged brush to rescue a first-time deer hunter who had become stranded in the Rouse Ridge area near Anza on Saturday, Oct. 1. “We got the call out around 9 p.m.,” said…