Cranston Fire in San Jacintos

[Wildhorse]

The local emergency notification left out Pine Cove, which surprised me. I would think the whole area is in danger and that the smoke itself would be very dangerous. The big fuel load on the mountain is the houses. One they start burning, the whole mountain range is in danger.

[cynthia23]

The one I saw online, which was the official one, definitely included Pine Cove. I certainly would get the heck out regardless.

[Wildhorse]

I agree. The people on the mountain may be confused by the conflicting info from official sources. Pine Cove was explicitly excluded by the emergency alert sent out to residents.

To me, the smoke would be sufficient notice. I would not count on clear and timely notice from the authorities.

What is happening now is chaos.

[cynthia23]

The evacuation order I saw was from the official twitter account of San Bernadino National Forest and definitely included Pine Cove.

Also on twitter, some saying the fire is at 2400 acres. Another meteorological report stating the fire cloud is generating its own lightning

[zippetydude]

Now at 3000 acres. Earlier the smoke was mingling with the monsoon clouds and I had wondered if there was a fire or if it was just a trick of the light. Then I saw this post.

I imagine the whole Pine Cove omission was an accidental oversight due to the haste and obvious need to expedite information. Winds and the direction of fire spread are capricious by nature and firefighters are all too aware of this, so I doubt that it was intentionally left out.

The plume is now obvious here to the west and the jets flying overhead to reload are frequent, so this fire unfortunately has the potential to do a great deal of damage. It's already spread from 1200 acres a couple of hours ago to 3000 acres, so the tinder dry brush and trees are highly vulnerable.

Inciweb does a good job of keeping maps and updates available:

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6032/

z

[Wildhorse]

Cynthia, I saw the same thing you saw and also saw the actual text alert sent to residents,including a message that excluded Pine Cove and a message confirming that Pine Cove was excluded. I don't know the reason for the discrepancy. I thought it must be wrong.

Twitter sources are reporting lightning caused by the fire storm. I have not seen that confirmed in official news sources.

[cynthia23]

There was a report on TV that the accused arsonist drove up Highway 74 allegedly throwing flares out the window, and that's why there are multiple points of origin along 74, most of which (fortunately) did not spread further. Also why he was quickly caught--another motorist supposedly saw him throwing out the flares, followed him, and reported it to police, who quickly located and arrested him.

Temp in valley has dropped several degrees because sun is behind the smoke, and the sun has turned a bizarre orange color.

[Wildhorse]

One of news sources also reporte that police found fire accelerant in his car.

I imagine the orange sun has a terrifying beauty. The color in my heart is quite blue.

[some guy]

From the TV footage, it seemed the head of the fire was mostly moving to the east of South Ridge, so Pine Cove was probably less of a concern.

[Wildhorse]

More confusion. CNN reports evacuations canceled for Fern Valley and Pine Cove. That makes some sense based someguy's observation. Inciweb says Pine Cove still at risk. USFS only mentions Idyllwild evac now.