Running Springs residents return home after Line Fire evacuation orders downgraded
Evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings in some areas impacted by the Line Fire, including Running Springs.
“I’m glad to be home. It was a long week,” said Angela Jobe, a Big Bear resident.
For many residents who had to evacuate from Big Bear Lake — life today feels like it’s settling back to normal.
“I was talking to my sister too, and my sister was worried about it, and I noticed she was sending me messages and then she stopped sending me messages,” said Alex Portillo, a resident who evacuated Big Bear.
Get Live Updates on the Line Fire Here
“We got back late Saturday, so we go into town until Sunday yesterday. And it was really a ghost town for a Sunday,” Jobe said.
But elsewhere on the mountain — there are plenty of reminders of the threat the line fire still poses
In Running Springs — workers repairing utility lines in front of a house destroyed by the fire. Along Highway 18, between Arrow Bear and Big Bear, dozer crews cleared 70 to 100-foot-wide lines of brush to slow the fire’s spread should it reach this point.
Fire officials say the threat of the fire is still real.
“You know, kind of don't be lulled into a sense of security with the downgrade from order to warning. You know, there's still active fire burning below the community here and they want them to know that," said CAL FIRE spokesperson Jay Tracy.
On Monday, more people headed back into mountain communities where evacuation orders have been downgraded.
“So any time there's any sort of a warning or an order, we would prefer people to leave in, in the instances where they've been issued an evacuation warning. That just makes things a little cleaner for us. There's less people here that we have to be concerned with if it should go to an evacuation order,” Tracy said.
But for the folks who are headed back into town...
“Just as people come back, we just, you know, just just go a little slower on the roads. Make sure your home is safe to get back into and just stay in tune and stay in touch with what's going on in your community,” Tracy said.
A community meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. in Running Springs. It was originally set to be livestreamed, however, that was not possible due to connectivity issues. It will posted after it ends on CAL FIRE BDU's Facebook page.
