San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
QUICK-MOVING FIRE ERUPTS IN EAST COUNTY
Blaze southeast of Alpine spreads to 1,500 acres, forcing evacuations as crews work to contain it
Firefighters working in intense heat battled an East County brush fire Saturday afternoon that quickly grew to 1,500 acres, threatening homes and forcing evacuations in Japatul Valley and Lawson Valley.
The fire was first reported shortly after 2:50 p.m. off Spirit Trail and Japatul Road in the Japatul Valley area southeast of Alpine and quickly spread. Multiple engines from the California Department of Forestry were dispatched, as were helicopters and air tankers. By 6 p.m., the fire was moving west toward Lawson Valley.
From the start, officials described the fire as having a dangerous rate of spread and threatening structures in the area. Two evacuation centers were set up at nearby schools. A spokeswoman from San Diego Gas & Electric said the fire had knocked out power for about 1,000 customers in its service territory.
Cal Fire spokesman Kendal Bortisser said several hundred firefighters were using helicopters and air tankers to make water drops while bulldozers and hand crews worked on the ground.
“I don’t have a number of firefighters for you,” he said. “I know there’s a lot and there’s a lot on the way.”
He said the fire was burning through heavy brush, some of which hasn’t burned in years.
is brushy — very dry, dry fuels,” he said. “It is just old growth vegetation. I don’t know when the last time this stuff burned was. We’re throwing everything at it. It is going to be an extreme-attack fire. It is nothing we are putting out tonight.”
Alpine Fire Chief Brian Boggeln said he understood the fire started on Carveacre Road and was moving southwest. He said firefighters from Cal Fire and unified command from the U.S. Fire Service were sending trucks and backup to the scene as it was “moving into the state responsibility area.”
Boggeln said units from all over San Diego County were fighting the fire via aircraft, helicopters, air tankers and two strike teams from Heartland Fire & Rescue.
The cause for the fire has not been announced, but a group of homeowners about a half-mile from the fire’s point of origin near Carveacre Road and Japatul Valley Road said that they believe it started when a local resident’s unused tractor, which was turned off but sitting in the sun, exploded in flames. Neighbors, who asked not to be identified, said they heard an explosion and went out and saw the tractor in flames before the fire began spreading to surrounding brush.
“I have not heard anything about the cause, but we have investigators there now and they’re working to determine the cause of the fire,” Bortisser said.
Around 3:45 p.m., sheriff’s officials began alerting residents in that area to evacuate. An evacuation center was set up at Joan Macqueen Middle School, which is located at 2001 Tavern Road in Alpine. A second site was set up at Steele Canyon High School at 12440 Campo Road.
“A shelter in place order has been issued for your area. If you live in the area and you are unable to evacuate due to the fire blocking the road you should shelter in place. If you need emergency assistance in evacuation, call 911,” sheriff’s officials said on Twitter.
“There have been quite a few (evacuations). I don’t know how many,” said sheriff ’s Lt. Mark Moreno.
Cal Fire officials said the blaze, known as the Valley fire, quickly grew from 20 acres to 500 acres. By 5 p.m., it was at 1,000 acres and an hour later was at 1,500.
Among the dozen or so evacuees at Macqueen Middle School on Saturday evening was Danielle Belliveau, who has lived for 16 years in a home off Japatul Road, where she says there is just one way in and one way out. She evacuated with her two horses, two wolf-dogs and her cat. She said it’s not her first fire but it is her first evacuation. She knew to be ready once she saw the air tanker and helicopters and when she saw flames come over the hill at the back of her 6-acre property.
“When I saw flames coming over the hill, I said, ‘OK, it’s getting pretty bad.’ Then the sheriff came out and said it’s time to evacuate.”
Belliveau said she is concerned about her neighbors, some of whom did not evacuate. She said her father is a former fire chief, so when she’s told to go, she listens. “His wrath would be worse than the fire,” she said.
Agnes Barrelet who runs Children’s Nature Retreat, a 20-acre ranch with more than 100 animals on Japatul Spur in Alpine, said she saw the fire at some point close to 3 p.m.
Barrelet said she called 911, was told firefighters had been dispatched and about 10 minutes later, she heard them arrive in the area. At about 6 p.m., she said she wasn’t as concerned be“it cause the fire was headed in a direction opposite of her retreat.
“It’s going away from us,” she said. “As long as the wind is going in the same direction, we will be OK. If it turns, we are in big trouble. Everything is OK right now, but I can’t wait for 2020 to be over. We’ve been through so much.”
Bobbi Brink, who runs Lions, Tigers and Bears, a sanctuary for large animals on Martin Way in Alpine, watched the fire from the start, and said her sister lives near where the fire began. At around 6:30 p.m., Brink said the fire looked as if it is heading toward Jamul. But she said staff was preparing for the worst.
“The volunteers and staff immediately locked up our animals in the safety lockdown bedrooms and we’re just waiting it out right now,” Brink said. “We’ll be ready to evacuate if needed.”
Alex Mclintock, 20, evacuated before 5 p.m. with his parents and brother to the Target store in Rancho San Diego and then were headed for dinner at the nearby Denny’s. Mclintock has lived with his brother and parents in Jamul, on Wisecarver Lane, his entire life, and has seen more than his share of fires in the area, but none like this one.
“I saw the fire out my window, at first it wasn’t too big, maybe like five or 10 acres at around 2:30-ish,” Mclintock recalled. “I’m thinking, ‘It’s just another fire that happens around here.’ We had a fire here a couple of weeks ago. But then my friend Joe called and said, ‘Hey, Alex, there’s a fire and it’s a mile away from your house. You better start packing.’”
Mclintock said he then joined his brother outside on the family’s deck, and saw “clouds of black smoke coming out of the sky.”
Mclintock said his brother told him, “We need to leave right now,” at around 3:30, and by 4:30 the entire family had packed up their belongings.
“There were leaves falling out of the sky, fire covered half the side of the mountain,” Mclintock said. “I could actually see the fire. My neighborhood usually doesn’t have that much activity, but everyone was leaving. Some people were talking to firemen.”
Mcclintock said that he saw people speeding down the road to get home to grab their belongings, including their animals, “sort of in a careful panic ... rushing home to get to their houses before they burned down.”
He said he was concerned about many people who have a variety of animals in the area, including horses, geese, pigs, peacocks, tortoises and dogs. He said that he saw one woman having difficulty getting her horse to go into the cart.
He said the family was planning on staying at his girlfriend’s house near Mount Helix on Saturday night and that he was concerned about his home.
“My dad thinks there’s a 1 in 3 chance our house might not be there,” he said.
A Cal Fire spokesman said that multiple aircraft, including helicopters and air tankers, were dropping water on the blaze as fire crews focused on protecting homes in the fire’s path. Firefighters had zero containment.
The blaze erupted on a blistering day when the National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning because of extreme heat and low humidity.
Temperatures at the Japatul Fire Station reached 113 degrees by late afternoon, with winds gusting up to 21 mph in the area. Relative humidity was at a bone-dry 7 percent, official said.