Steven Cuevas
November 02, 2007
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Firefighters are bracing for the return of Santa Ana winds this weekend. They won't be as strong as the powerful gusts that blew brushfires across the Southland last week, but strike teams will be on standby, just in case. KPCC's Inland Empire reporter Steven Cuevas says up in the San Bernardino Mountains, there are still acres of smoldering ash ... and plenty of dry fuel.
Steven Cuevas: The scars from last week's wildfires cut deep into the mountains. Flames turned postcard perfect vistas into monochrome moonscapes. There's also plenty that didn't burn: Thousands of vulnerable mountain homes and tens of thousands of acres of dead trees and dry brush.
A lot has already been cleared. Mountain residents credit stepped up brush and tree removal with saving scores of cabins and houses – including Marty Shay's. But all around his Lake Arrowhead neighborhood, homes burned to the ground.
Marty Shay: In something like this, there is no "safe." I took 28 dead pines off my property. So did everybody else here. And they see the coloration of the trees and they say, "Oh, that's the dead trees from the bark beetles." No! Those are oak trees with the season change. But there is enough fuel here, and the housing is overpopulated, and a lot of these houses are old. Mine was built in the '60s. It's a wood house!
Cuevas: Under a crystal blue sky, with Green Valley Lake shimmering in the distance, it's easy to fall in love with this place and accept a certain level of denial. Even with the ashes of your neighbor's homes crunching under your feet.
[Sound of footsteps crunching through fire debris]
Shay: I love this place. It's like two worlds. Every day is like paradise! These people, I'm sure most of them will rebuild and do it again. And it's like they say: "Oh, those crazy Californians! The floods and the fires, and they keep on rebuilding after the disaster!" But I mean, how could you not like this?
Cuevas: Marty Shay is right. San Bernardino County anticipates a flood of new building permit applications. More than 500 mountain homes were destroyed or severely damaged last week. The estimated cost to rebuild now stands at more than $150 million.
