PALOMAR MOUNTAIN'S LAST STAND

Fire officials this morning were talking about the importance of shifting major resources to try to keep the fire from wiping out the entire community of Palomar Mountain.

Of course, this may be a case of the cavalry arriving just in time to bury to the settlers, but this remains to be seen.

We know that the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept. is making a last stand on the mountain. Fire Chief George Lucia, who has a home on the Crestline, Birch Hill area, was released to lead his volunteers in trying to keep the blaze from taking down all of the houses in the heavily forested part of the mountain. I have a home not far from Lucia's place.

A forest is an extremely difficult thing to defend against fire.

I wish them luck.

This is the most recent posting from CalFire: "The Poomacha Fire is 25,000 acres and 0% contained. 659 firefighters assigned to
this fire. Cost to fight this fire is $350,000. Fire increased in size
due to extreme fire behavior, lack of resources and high winds. Some
resources are beginning to arrive, but no significant perimeter control
has been initiated due to structure protection priorities."