Fire Crews Gain Ground As Line Fire Passes 38K Acres

INLAND EMPIRE, CA — Better weather continues to help crews gain ground against the Line Fire burning in the San Bernardino Mountains, but roughly 65,000 homes and buildings remained under evacuation orders or warnings Friday, according to Cal Fire.

The fire measured 38,074 acres by late Friday afternoon, up from the 37,589 reported early Thursday evening. Officials credited high moisture with helping reduce fire activity overnight and were optimistic for a similar trend playing out in the coming days.

"The fire does continue to smolder and creep in the dry vegetation, and there are occasional runs in slopes and drainages," Cal Fire said Friday. "The weekend will bring continued cooler temperatures which will help moderate fire activity and bring moisture levels up [in] the vegetation."

Fire crews have been working by ground and air to protect the communities surrounding Big Bear Lake, where the fire's northeast edge has drawn close. Officials said the plan of attack has proven effective so far and were optimistic the plan would continue to work.

"We're pushing dozer lines around that entire plateau, and all the way back to the Bear Creek drainage, and then north to the dam," said Jeremy Pierce, the Operations Section Chief for Incident Management Team 3. "Once we get to that piece that should be able to mitigate any of our problems in the Big Bear area. So, the next two or three days will be critical for that operation."

To the southwest in Highland, where investigators believe the fire was intentionally set, Pierce said the fire was considered out, allowing some communities in the foothills to return home. Progress made along the Highway 330 corridor in recent days was holding Friday, allowing some crews to redeploy to other areas of the Line Fire as others stayed behind to watch out for flareups.

"The upper piece right by City Creek Fire Station...that's the last piece of that 330 corridor," Pierce said. "We're confident that by the end of today, we've got line around that. What we're really concerned about is any type of heat or rollout that will roll down into that drainage and cause us problems. So the crews will maintain a presence up there to make sure any and all hotspots up there are taken care of."

Near Running Springs, crews worked Friday to cut out a 500-acre "island" of unburned fuel in steep terrain to prevent further spread in the area, which Pierce expected would take two or three days to complete. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department said Friday that evacuation orders would remain in place for Running Springs and Arrowbear for "approximately the next two days."

Further east toward Bear Creek, firefighters will work over the next few days to cut out a similar defense.

"Due to the weather for the next seven days, we're confident that fire behavior-wise we can keep this in its footprint with some very slow growth," Pierce said. "We're gonna take advantage of our weather, take advantage of our high humidity, and take advantage of the lack of wind, and we're gonna get our crews down in there and cut that whole piece out."

While damage inspection teams continue to examine the fire area, the confirmed tally remained at three structures damaged and one destroyed as of Friday afternoon. Cal Fire said 11,400 structures remained under evacuation orders across the fire area, with another 53,700 under evacuation warnings.

Arraignment hearing scheduled Monday for accused arsonist

Justin Wayne Halstenberg, the 34-year-old Norco man accused of intentionally setting the fire on Sept. 5 is scheduled to appear at an arraignment hearing Monday in San Bernardino County. The hearing was originally scheduled for Friday.

He is expected to enter pleas on nine felony charges filed Thursday by the district attorney's office, alleging Halstenberg set three fires in Highland. Prosecutors said the first fire was extinguished by the local fire department and the second was stomped out by a passerby before the third spiraled out of control into the Line Fire.

The charges include aggravated arson, which carries a sentencing range of 10 years to life if convicted.