Extreme Fire Danger!

Right now the high desert is experiencing thunder and lightning storms. These storms have been known to start fires. I remember being up there one time when this did occur. The person who saw the fire being started was pretty frightened and excited.

This year due to the historic extreme fire danger, people need to be warned that if a fire does get started up there, run for your life!

In a recent Press-Enterprise news article entitled "Risk of forest firestorm put at historic level"

Fuel conditions in the San Bernardino National Forest are as dangerous as those that preceded the most devasting forest fire in American history, firefighters have concluded. ...... warns that fuel levels near Lake Arrowhead are approaching those of the Peshtigo firestorm that swept across Wisconsin on October 8, 1871. Varying reports say the blaze swept across 2,400 square miles and killed more than 1,200 people. "We have a terrible problem with the fuel-loading, fire threat and public safety." Louis Blumberg, deputy director for the CDF, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "It's a dire situation that could result in a significant loss of life." A century of fire suppression has left 350,000 acres of forest crowded with as many as 568 trees per acres, when about 40 trees an acre if considered healthy, the CDF document said. The Peshtigo fire region had about 640 trees per acre.

"The potential for that kind of a situation exists because you have 100-foot tall dead trees surrounded by smaller trees that can carry the flames," said Matt Mathes, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region. "Those factos combine with the fact that you have limited evacuation routes in places like Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, where a lot of people live."

I would not be surprised if the Forest Service does close the Forest. In the meantime, be careful and don't start any fires.