Update: The Butler fire was 100% contained by Sept 24th!

Butler Peak Fire Incident #2

Update/recap as of 3pm Wednesday, September 19: Great progress has been made on the Butler #2 Fire and, though there are still areas burning, containment is at 86% as of last night, and total burned acreage has been held to 14,039 acres.
The voluntary evacuations for Lucerne Valley, Green Valley, Running Springs and Arrowbear were lifted as of last night. The mandatory evacuation for residents of Fawnskin does remain in place at this time.
As of this morning, there are over 2,300 personnel on scene, and those firefighting forces include 70 hand crews, 164 fire engines, 8 dozers, 28 water tenders, and 17 helicopters.
Lee Bentley of the U.S. Forest Service, stationed at Incident Command in Snow Valley, tells KBHR that those numbers will probably change later today, as fire status may allow for demobilization of some fire personnel. “This thing is looking real good,” Bentley notes, “as long as the winds stay the same.”
The wind factor does remain an issue today, as there is a High Wind Advisory for the San Bernardino Mountains through 11am Friday. The National Weather Service reports that the High Wind Advisory could mean gusts as high as 35 miles per hour in our area. At present, local humidity is at 11%, and winds at the KBHR studios in Big Bear City have already been as high as 20 miles an hour.
Due to these factors, and the fact that there are still areas that are burning on the Butler #2 Fire, which brings with it a possibility of blowing embers, there is no return date for Fawnskin residents at this time. John Miller of the U.S. Forest Service tells us that the mandatory evacuation order for Fawnskin will absolutely not be lifted today.
We have been in Fawnskin this afternoon, and the good news is that all homes remain intact. There are engine crews staged throughout neighborhoods, should conditions change. Though there is not much in the way of visible burn scarring from downtown Fawnskin, there are surrounding areas as close as a ¼ mile away that continue to smolder and burn.
Spot fires continue to burn on Arctic Circle. When we were on scene in the last hour, we did see flames just off the roadway. Helicopter water drops continue in the area, and hand crews are hard at work in the steep terrain off Highway 18. The Arctic Circle is lined with fire engines. CalTrans trucks are also there, clearing the rocks, debris, and burned vegetation that has rolled down the slope and onto 18. For this reason, and ongoing concerns for public safety, there is no estimated reopen date for Highway 18 from Running Springs to the Big Bear Dam.

As of this morning, we still have needs requests from firefighters at work on the Butler #2 Fire. Items on their wish list include eyedrops, Gold Bond foot powder, eight-hour sunscreen, chapstick and Carmex. These items can be dropped off at the Chamber of Commerce, located at 630 Bartlett Road in the Village, until 5pm. Thank you!

Update as of 9am Tuesday, September 18: The cause of the Butler #2 Fire still remains under investigation, but progress on the blaze has been substantial in the last 24 hours. As of last night, Incident Command reported that containment is now at 53%, which is a considerable effort from yesterday morning's report of just 12% containment. The revised tally in terms of burned territory is now 14,039 acres, down from 15,433.
The Butler #2 Fire remains the top priority wildland fire incident in the nation, which assures us the necessary resources, including CalFire's DC-10, to battle the blaze. The terrain difficulty has been labeled as high, as rugged terrain on the fire's south and southeast flanks, along Highways 18 and 38, have proven challenging. Fire personnel will continue line construction on the west and south perimeters of the fire today, and will continue to provide structure protection in Fawnskin, as well as Lucerne Valley, Green Valley, and the roadway along Highway 18 at Arctic Circle. Resources have been concentrated just west of Fawnskin.
Per the U.S. Forest Service, personnel on the Butler #2 Fire is now up to 2,505. This includes 68 handcrews, 250 engines from throughout California, 12 dozers, 33 water tenders, and 23 helicopters.
All homes in Fawnskin remain intact, and hand crews have been on scene, creating defensible space around residences, by removing flammable vegetation. Crews are positioned between the fire and exposed structures in order to provide protection. At this time, the only structures to have burned as a result of the Butler #2 Fire are three sheds at Camp Whittle, though the rest of the camp has been spared at this time. Hanna Flat Campground was also burned, per a report on Saturday.
There is still no estimated reopen date for Highway 18, which remains closed from just west of Boulder Bay, which includes Little Arctic Circle and the Big Bear Dam, and down to Highway 330 at Running Springs.
At this time, there is also no scheduled return date for residents of Fawnskin. Rocky Obliger, a Deputy Chief with the San Bernardino National Forest who has led the Incident Command as the leader of national Incident Management Team 1 since Monday morning, has said that return to residences would be after containment. He pointed out that the main thing is they don't want to have to re-evacuate Fawnskin after a premature return. The evacuation center that had been established at Big Bear High School has been relocated to Pine Summit Christian Camp at 700 Wren Drive in Big Bear Lake, as school is back in session today. Fawnskin residents will have access to mail delivery at the Big Bear City Post Office, from 1 to 3pm each day during the mandatory evacuation.

Butler 2 Fire scorches 14,000 acres

AP Photo / The Los Angeles Times, Ken Hively

Hikers look at smoke from the Butler 2 Fire after 5,000 people were evacuated from homes on Saturday as the wildfire tore through brush and

State of emergency declared; 5,000 evacuated

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

FAWNSKIN — The entire resort community of Green Valley Lake and the Fawnskin area near Big Bear Dam were ordered evacuated Saturday as an out-of-control wildfire tore through brush and timber in the San Bernardino National Forest.

About 5,000 people live in the two areas, according to Jim Wilkins of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

The fire, which is being called the Butler 2 Fire, was burning near the site of the first Butler Fire, an 85-acre blaze that was sparked by lightning on Sept. 1 in an area west of Big Bear Lake.

A report Saturday afternoon put the acreage burned at 18,000, but after more mapping was done, the burned acreage was reassessed at 14,000 acres, according to a statement from Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department at 10:30 p.m.

At that time, the fire was 5 percent contained and was not threatening Lucerne Valley, although a voluntary evacuation was called for a portion of the area. Structure protection was in place Saturday night for the south side of Lucerne Valley just in case, according to
Martinez.

States of emergency have been declared by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, clearing the way for state government assistance with costs related to the fire.

“Besides making the fire a top priority for all county agencies, the proclamation is the essential first step toward securing state and federal disaster assistance. Such assistance may become immediately necessary in the event of damage to residential, commercial or public property,” said county spokesman David Wert.

First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt spent much of the day at San Bernardino County Fire Department Station 111 in Lucerne Valley, where firefighters and locals were preparing for the worst.

“If history is any indicator, at night the fire runs downhill towards our valleys,” Mitzelfelt said. “So that’s what they’re preparing for.

They’ve got a strike team in place and they’re sending bulldozers up there in case it comes over the ridge.”

The fire, which was first reported around 1:30 p.m. Friday, had crept within a half-mile of some homes by Saturday evening, Wilkins said, but firefighters were able to block its southern progress toward populated areas. It was burning freely in the north and west. The fire burned several outbuildings at a campground.

Fire officials have also evacuated the Camp Whittle, Hannah Flats, Big Pine Flats and Ironwood campgrounds.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire conditions throughout much of Southern California into Sunday, and the fire was pushed by 20-mph winds through dense brush dried out by extremely low humidity.

“It’s just been running and gunning all day long, eating up ground,” Wilkins said. “It’s a very aggressive fire burning through fuels that haven’t been burned in 50 to 75 years.”

About 630 firefighters were aided Saturday by water drops from helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and a DC-10 capable of dropping 24,000 gallons at a time as they battled the blaze, which was burning in steep terrain.

The aircraft were grounded for the night at about 7:30 p.m., but hand crews were set to work through the night.

The blaze formed a column of smoke so large that its effects were being felt as far away as Las Vegas, authorities said.

Its cause was under investigation.

In San Diego County, about 400 people were ordered out of homes in Whispering Pines, a subdivision of the historic town of Julian, after a 500-acre wildfire erupted northeast of town shortly after 1:30 p.m., county sheriff’s officials said.

Winds that peaked at 15 mph caused embers to rain down ahead of the advancing flames but the winds began to ease at dusk.
By nightfall, the flames had run completely through the subdivision. An empty vacation home was destroyed, said Jan Caldwell of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

The flames were moving east toward sparsely populated desert.

“The communities are still threatened but right now the wind is pushing the fire away,” said Matt Streck of the California Department of Forestry.

Two firefighters were hospitalized with moderate injuries when the top of a burning tree fell and hit them on the head but their injuries were not considered life-threatening, Streck said.

Also on Saturday, crews were mopping up a fire that charred 2,170 acres in a remote mountainous area east of San Diego. The blaze in the Cleveland National Forest was 95 percent contained, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Audrey Hagen said.

The fire was started by an illegal campfire Wednesday afternoon and spread rapidly due to drought conditions. It remained about two miles from Pine Valley, a hamlet 40 miles east of San Diego and a few miles north of the Mexican border.
One firefighter suffered burns on the ear and hand, and another suffered heat-related injuries.