Evacuees Go Home as Idyllwild Fire Is Fully Contained

RIVERSIDE â€”  With the wildfire that had threatened to overrun their communities fully contained, authorities allowed residents of Idyllwild and Pine Cove to return to their mountain homes Wednesday night.

But aside from local celebrations, today will be a quiet Fourth of July holiday. Authorities said the highways leading up to the San Jacinto Mountain communities will remain closed to nonresidents until further notice.

Except for people who can show proof of residence, the only others who will be allowed to drive up California 243 to Idyllwild and Pine Cove will be vendors bringing supplies to local businesses between 6 a.m. and noon daily, said Donna Sager, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Assessments will be made daily to determine when the public can return to the area, popular for its hiking trails and quaint shops of homemade arts and crafts.

The notice that residents could return home starting at 8 p.m. was issued Wednesday afternoon, two days after the evacuation of the communities was ordered as a 10,000-acre fire flared dangerously close to the mile-high towns.

Several hundred of the area’s estimated 5,000 residents refused to evacuate and, on behalf of their neighbors, painted homemade thank-you signs on Wednesday, thanking firefighters for saving their villages.

As firetrucks streamed down one street, children applauded and gave the thumbs-up to the firefighters, who acknowledged with loud honks and short siren whoops.

Many of the 2,000 firefighters who battled the fire will begin to be released from duty today--but others may remain for weeks to mop up and extinguish stubborn hot spots within the contained fire zone, Sager said.

“We’re really going to hammer the cleanup on this fire because the residential area is so close to the fire,� she said. “The last hot spots are in the area closest to the residences, and we want to make 100% sure all the fires are out.�

Sager said much of the fire equipment will be escorted out of town by the California Highway Patrol, to minimize the hazard of meeting oncoming traffic along the narrow and winding two-lane mountain highways.

Officials estimated the cost of fighting the fire at $7 million. The greatest single cost was for battling the fire from the air--including the dropping of 550,000 gallons of fire retardant from aircraft that made 400 separate drops, Sager said.

The fire began Saturday, in the western foothills below Idyllwild, when a target shooter’s bullet ricocheted against a rock and sparked, investigators said.

The fire burned tenaciously up steep canyons, frustrating firefighters who had no easy access to fight it. On Wednesday, the slopes just below the western edge of the community stood barren, except for the blackened trunks of pine trees that were green just days ago.

Since Monday, the two communities have been virtual ghost towns given over to fire equipment and law enforcement, including a dozen Riverside County sheriff’s deputies on the lookout for looters.

Department spokesman Det. Jess Gutierrez said there were no known burglaries while the residents were gone.