Although the town of Idyllwild, several thousand people, had been evacuated, a mobile city of about 3,500 people was quickly constructed in Garner Valley. Mountain Fire city is a company town — nearly 3,300 firefighting professionals. With that many people, where do they work, eat and sleep? The company business is to contain and eventually…
Five center-of-town businesses were open Thursday following the previous evening’s evacuation and remained so throughout the evacuation. Fifteen customers graced the Red Kettle restaurant at 9:15 Thursday morning. Most appeared to be residents, but a few were fire-related personnel, including freelance fire photographer Jenny Kirchner. Fire photographer Jenny Kirchner had placed herself in the thick…
The Mountain Fire city had its own airport located at the historic Garner Ranch in Garner Valley. The helibase supported nearly 20 different helicopters, including 11 Type 1 birds. The main topic during Sunday’s briefing at the airport was the weather report because of the early morning rain and the prospect for more later that…
Residents who are customers of Idyllwild and Fern Valley water districts do not need to boil their water following the Mountain Fire. Both districts treat the water before it enters the distribution system. Further, IWD’s water comes from wells, not streams, therefore is free of ash and other debris. Fern Valley does divert some water,…
2:33 P.M. UPDATE: A promotional video about Idyllwild: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlCKH5O_T9o 8:40 A.M. UPDATE: Monday morning began with sunny skies over Idyllwild and the noise of traffic moving through town. As people began to return to homes and businesses, thoughts of gratitude were dominant besides the need to recover from the forced four-day leave of absence. Patrons…
The Incident Management Team is containing its nemesis, the Mountain Fire. As of Monday evening, July 22, the fire had burned 27,332 acres, but was 85 percent contained. Full containment was expected Wednesday, July 24. Fire officials stressed the larger size was not due to the fire spreading, rather more accurate infrared mapping established the…
Brendan Steele may have just run out of gas in last week’s John Deere Classic in Illinois. It was the Idyllwild native’s eighth consecutive week of tournament play going back to the Colonial in May, and he missed the cut by 6. He actually drove the ball very well — averaging 315 yards with 72…
Diana “De” Eskew was chosen to fill the vacant seat on the Pine Cove Water District Board of Directors. She was the only applicant to apply to fill the vacancy created with the unexpected death of President Thomas McCullough. In response to a question from Director Lou Padula, who asked if her medical billing business…
Financial issues and problems continue to dominate and to plague the Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s commission meetings. The commission unanimously authorized Chief Patrick Reitz to negotiate a financial services contract with Robert Dennis, a Rancho Cucamonga certified public accountant. The idea to seek full-service financial assistance surfaced after the district discovered its on-going double payment…
Next month the Idyllwild Fire Protection District will hold its mail-in ballot election for three seats Board of Commissioners. Four candidates — Commission President Jeannine Charles-Stigall, Rhonda Andrewson, Steve Kunkle and Nancy Layton — are vying for the three seats. The Town Crier will interview each candidate and sponsor a Candidate’s Forum in early August…
