Andrea Bond lost her Deerfoot Lane home to the Cranston Fire sometime Wednesday night, July 25. “It all happened pretty fast, but I remember having a normal morning. I went outside close to noon and saw ash falling, smelled the smoke and noticed my neighbors appeared to be in a panic. I quickly started packing…
When I arrived at Banning High School Saturday afternoon July 28, it was 106 degrees in the shade. I parked and walked across sizzling asphalt toward the cafeteria area, passing a woman lying on a cot under a shade tent speaking with a Red Cross volunteer, empty water bottles strewn about on the grass around…
National Night Out is from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7, according to Idyllwild Rotarian Barbara Larsh. Riverside County Sheriff’s Hemet Station, Idyllwild Fire, U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire are participating. It will be located on Park Lane between The Fort and Idypark. Idyllwild Rotary will be on hand with hot dogs and…
Effective Wednesday, Aug. 1, Shawn C. Newman will serve as the Cal Fire Riverside Unit and Riverside County Fire Department fire chief. Newman began his career with Cal Fire in 1989, as a seasonal firefighter in the San Bernardino Unit and In 1994, promoted to Firefighter II in the Riverside Unit, working in West Riverside….
Anza Electric Cooperative customers, who include Garner Valley residents, will have their power restored to all areas sometime Monday, Aug. 6, according to AEC. The cooperative said it has received that information from Southern California Edison.
The Cranston Fire that began threatening Idyllwild a week ago today remains at 13, 139 acres and is now 89 percent contained. 889 personnel remain on scene. The evacuation order is lifted for Idyllwild and Pine Cove north of Lower Saunders Meadow Road. Access can be made from Banning on Highway 243. Access to Garner…
Wednesday, July 25, the third of four consecutive days of heat warning, started with blue skies, hardly any clouds, but hot. No one had any idea how hot the day and days that followed would get.
On Friday, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin announced that Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula, was charged with 15 felony counts related to nine separate fires, of which the largest was the Cranston Fire. The nine arson fires were all set the same day, July 25, and were in the Idyllwild, Anza and Sage…
The fire’s footprint remains about the same 13,140 acres, but containment continues to improve. At a meeting of community residents, which more than hundred attended, nearly filling the Idyllwild School gymnasium, Incident Management Team Commander Jerry McGowan reported that containment had improved to 82 percent by Monday evening. The next concern is rain and thunderstorms…
The Cranston Fire burned up to and across both Highways 74 and 243. Currently Hwy 243 from Idyllwild to Mountain Center is closed to through traffic. The only access to Idyllwild is Hwy 2443 from Banning. The damage to Hwy 74 is more extensive. According to Terri Kasinga, Chief, Public and Media Affairs for Caltrans…
