The move is a safety precaution to prevent stomach or intestinal sickness. “Our hope is that our students can return to school soon however, the closure will continue until conditions improve,” Superintendent Christi Barrett wrote in a message to parents, students and families on the district site.īecause of the fire, the Eastern Municipal Water District recommended that residents in about 50 homes use only boiled tap water or bottled water for cooking and drinking for now. Hemet Unified School District announced late Tuesday that schools would be closed again on Wednesday, Sept. She did not elaborate on what that meant. “Out of an abundance of caution, SCE submits this report as it involves an event that may meet the significant public attention and/or media coverage reporting requirement,” states the report filed via email.Įdison spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas said the utility’s information “reflects circuit activity occurring close in time to the reported time of the fire.” Monday to the California Public Utilities Commission, almost five hours after the fire was reported. What caused the fire was under investigation.īut Southern California Edison filed a report at 8:13 p.m. Related Articlesĭirely needed rain begins to fall across portions of Bay Area, Northern California One crew replaced a charred electrical pole on Gibbel that had nearly been sawed through by the flames. The fire did subside enough Tuesday morning that utility companies sent repair crews up the hill. Those boulders, and clearance around the structures, likely saved many homes from burning. The homes in Avery Canyon sit on large lots with outcroppings of huge boulders. Quail scurried across the ash-laden ground.įor the home itself, charred wooden beams remained. What appeared to once having been an off-road vehicle similar to a dune buggy was now just a frame. On a metal pole, a cloth basketball net and metal rim survived, but the plastic backboard had melted into a grotesque shape. The molten metal trickled down the driveway like silver lava.Ītop Avery Canyon Road, a mostly unpaved stretch barely wide enough for two cars, the flames spared almost nothing.Īt one destroyed home, fire flickered late Tuesday morning in spots. At one of the mobile homes, the heat melted the rims of a car. Those homes had cars, bicycles and other property in the yards that caught fire as well. In Avery Canyon, on Gibbel Road, at least two mobile homes burned. No additional homes were reported burned since. Seven structures were destroyed Monday with several more damaged, Cal Fire said. A third victim from that car was being treated for moderate to severe burns, she said. The victims had not been identified, she said, because of the severity of their injuries. A hilltop home in that block was destroyed. Brandi Swan, a Riverside County sheriff’s spokeswoman. The two people who died on Monday perished inside a car as they tried to flee a home in the 42400 block of Avery Canyon Road, said Sgt. “And that, coupled with the drought-stricken fuels in that canyon, is what allowed that fire to rapidly expand and overcome some of the citizens.” “The fire was in alignment with the canyon, with the wind and the topography, so everything lined up for a critical rate of spread at that given time in that canyon,” said Division Chief Josh Janssen, the Fairview incident commander. The talk, Cordova said, was “If everything lined up, we were going to have major issues regardless of clearance (around homes).” There are two drainages that act as chimneys in the area, which raised concern among fire officials even before this fire started. That newest evacuation zone spreads south from Highway 74, west of Mountain Center, north of Cactus valley and toward Anza, north of Highway 371 to the forest boundary.Ĭordova said that on Monday, the fire burned uphill in Avery Canyon, too fast for firefighters to stop it before the flames reached homes, even though two air tankers and a helicopter were launched from nearby Hemet-Ryan Air Base. Tuesday, not counting evacuation orders added at 4:45 p.m. Roseen said about 3,400 residences had been evacuated as of 5 p.m. Bautista Canyon is sparsely populated, said Capt. The blaze was headed toward Cactus and Bautista canyons early Tuesday, prompting an evacuation warning for Bautista Canyon Road, south of Stetson Avenue and north of the Two Streams trailhead. As firefighters continued battling the blaze and others in the region, the state Office of Emergency Services issued an alert Tuesday evening warning of a strain on California’s energy grid with possible power outages because of the extreme heat. The fire comes amid a major heat wave sweeping Southern California. “There’s erratic winds - that combined with heat and humidity are pretty dangerous for fire behavior,” Roseen said.
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