Fire in Mountain Center darkens Palm Springs ...

[Florian]

Panorama photo from Palm Springs taken at about 3pm Thursday afternoon. Mouse over the image to see some labels and right-click to view larger versions ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fboyd/9318035806/

-Florian

[Hikin_Jim]

Good photo, but I don't like what it shows one bit.

HJ

[cynthia23]

Went over to South Palm Canyon and was taken aback by how widespread the fire areas were. The area down by Cedar Springs/West Fork looked very active. There was a small fire working its way down the drainage next to Oswit Canyon. And of course the main north head seems to be getting bigger and further north. I even thought (but am not sure) I saw smoke starting to wisp up from the northern ridge above Tahquitz but hopefully that's just some moving smoke.

[bluerail]

Bretts right, this board has been a great source of info on this fire. I am going to be out of contact for a few days and not being able to check on here for updates will be extremely hard.

My thoughts and prayers to everyone involved, and to our beautiful mountain.

[cynthia23]

Safe travels, Bluerail.

Just checked outside--it's dark now. Whoa. Even though I'm all the way in Cathedral City, the top of West Fork looks like a freaking supernova. It's glowing bright red. The wind is blowing right now. There must be a true firestorm going on there. The fire in the drainage next to Oswit seems to be burning superhot too. There are also a line of fires going up the ridge, and a huge cloud of smoke behind the top.

[eric1234]

Does anyone know if the fire has already jumped this barrier? South Peak is in the burn zone on all the maps Im looking at.

"On the western front, fire crews cut containment lines along Hurkey Creek. Brush-clearing work was done earlier this year along South Ridge to protect Idyllwild, a fire map shows. Crews made significant progress cutting containment lines through steep terrain toward South Peak, officials said."

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside- ... nts_anchor

[halhiker]

Watching the news of this fire is frustrating because none of the reporters seems to know anything about the topography of the area. I don't think they've looked at a map and are just reporting what they are told by fire department spokesmen. It's impossible to know what's going on.

On Channel 9 news they showed an aerial shot of fire burning in big trees in what looked like the Laws area. It seemed to be that place because when they flipped around it showed the big rock on the ridge between Red Tahquitz and Tahquitz Peak. It was hard to gauge because the helicopter shot kept jumping around and never really pulled out to see where one was.

If the fire is burning in the Laws and Tahquitz Creek area above Caramba, its next move won't be toward Idyllwild but up the ridge toward Hidden Divide and then toward the Tram. From there, it's uphill to the Peak.

But who knows? The reporting is so inadequate and they should get someone (a ranger, maybe) who knows the terrain and who can describe what's going on and where.

Would it really be so hard to get a local up in the chopper with a reporter?

[Hikin_Jim]

"On the western front, fire crews cut containment lines along Hurkey Creek. Brush-clearing work was done earlier this year along South Ridge to protect Idyllwild, a fire map shows. Crews made significant progress cutting containment lines through steep terrain toward South Peak, officials said."

Does anyone know if the fire has already jumped this barrier? South Peak is in the burn zone on all the maps Im looking at.

South Peak and South Ridge are two very different things. South Peak is on the Desert Divide between Red Tahquitz and Antsell Rock.

South Ridge is the ridge that leads down from the Tahquitz Peak lookout and is quite a ways west of South Peak.

Map link

A - Antsell Rock
B - South Peak (actually Southwell, but maps generally just call it "South")
C - Red Tahquitz
D - Gray Tahquitz
E - Tahquitz Peak
F - South Ridge

South Peak is definitely in the burn zone; it shows as such on multiple maps.

The fire appears to have gotten to Red Tahquitz but not Gray Tahquitz and definitely not Tahquitz Peak and South Ridge.

HJ

[jwvang]

Here's an interactive map: http://tmappsevents.esri.com/website/wi ... index.html

[some guy]

Last night's IR:


Google map: http://goo.gl/maps/qztvJ

kml: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/805 ... ain_IR.kmz

25215 acres. Most of the action is up there east of Saddle Junction. I hope it's staying on the ground and not torching too many of those trees!