News Headlines 8/12-14/2017
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ News Headlines 8/12-14/2017 The things she carried High Desert residents recall past wildfires Trial by fire Brought together by Bluecut: Volunteers reflect a year later Rebuilding a rarity after Bluecut Fire A year after Bluecut Fire, hotel price gouging claims still under probe Two elderly hikers found dead at Amboy Crater Yorba Linda couple identified as hikers found dead near Amboy Crater Two hikers found dead near Amboy Crater Couple who went hiking in triple-digit heat found dead in the Mojave Desert Two Hikers Found Dead At Amboy Crater Saturday Firefighters work in darkness to battle wash fire in Highland Fire burns old store on Highway 173 in Hesperia San Bernardino fire 1 The things she carried Matthew Cabe, Daily Press Posted: August 12, 2017, 12:57 PM A year after the Pilot Fire, Jeanne Helsley looks over her Hesperia property. Helsley had to evacuate, and did so for the first time without the help of her husband, who died in 2012. [James Quigg, Daily Press] HESPERIA — There wasn’t much time. Evacuations had been ordered. Jeanne Helsley could see the Pilot Fire as it torched the Pinnacles — a popular hiking destination — from her home just north of the Joshua Inn, a dive bar that she said has produced “good neighbors.” “I was out in a half-hour,” Helsley recalled. She’d been through this before. After moving to Hesperia in 1979, Helsley and her husband, Eugene, were thrice evacuated during large fires. But this time was different. “Previously I had a husband. He passed away five years ago,” Helsley said. “As an individual, there were a lot of painful last-minute decisions of things I couldn’t put in the car to take with me. Things I couldn’t carry.” Eugene Helsley — an 86-year-old Army veteran who guarded German prisoners during World War II — died on the Fourth of July in 2012. He bequeathed to his wife six decades of a life together, as well as the accomplishments of a more than 30-year career in the private sector and municipal government. Jeanne Helsley left behind more than she took, including her favorite of Eugene’s multiple awards. “Something I love dearly. This is a bond to build roads on the moon. It’s not real,” she said, smiling. “That’s the hard part of leaving. You see on the walls all the awards he got. I have two boxes full in the garage.” What about the framed collection of ribbons from her years spent showing champion dogs? An elegant grandfather clock in the entryway? A horde of novels by Clive Cussler and James Patterson (Helsley is a book-a-week reader)? There was “no question.” It all stayed. Helsley walked into a sitting room near her home’s front door where a handful of art pieces hung. 2 “Every picture in this room was painted by someone I know, and I had to leave them all,” she said before pointing to a wood carving. “It’s the town square in Mannheim, Germany. One of my husband’s prisoners liked him so well, he made this wood carving for him.” In a room near the stairs, two tall hutches sat on opposite ends of the room. One was filled with glassware, the other with beer steins. “I don’t climb ladders anymore, and I couldn’t get to the beer steins up there,” Helsley said. “I just said, ‘Goodbye. I hope you’re here when I get back.’” Before she left, though, Helsley prioritized the things she eventually carried. She started atop the staircase where she pulled family photos of the wall, slipping them into a pillowcase as she descended. “When there was two of us I got a pillowcase full, and he could walk it to the car,” she said. In her husband’s absence, a grandson, Sean, helped her with two items about which Helsley was adamant — a century-old schoolhouse clock her son acquired while stationed in Germany in the 1970s and a 10-song music box she inherited from her grandmother. She twisted a dial inside the music box that started “Aus dem Norden,” a 19th-century waltz composed by Alphons Czibulka. The title translates to “From the North.” “It belonged to (my grandmother’s) brother,” Helsley said. “He was the governor of North Dakota. It sat in his office, and you put your coin in here to play music while you were waiting to see him.” A gold pocket watch rested next to the music box. It formerly belonged to her husband’s great uncle. Helsley said it was a railroad watch from when he worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That went “because that’s little.” She made sure to take the elephant figurines procured in far-off countries. “I probably have close to three dozen,” Helsley said. “I have a family of China elephants. I took them. I took all my Bibles ... and family albums.” Then there was the business of Sophie, a rescue dog wary of strangers, but Helsley’s companion the last four years. “The thought of leaving her to be burned up by the fire was something I couldn’t do,” she said. “We were able to get her into the crate.” After Helsley departed, all was silent save the recurring chimes emanating from that too-large grandfather clock. Her home, along with the memories it contains, waited. “For four days I was out of the home,” Helsley said. “I stayed with friends. As soon as the evacuated area was posted, they called me and invited me to come stay with them.” Helsley said she suspected her home would be spared, but the emotional experience of picking and choosing what might have been destroyed remained palpable. 3 “It’s a whole different perspective when you’re used to having someone help you and, all the sudden, you have to do this by yourself,” she said. http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20170812/things-she-carried High Desert residents recall past wildfires Rene Ray De La Cruz, Hesperia Star Posted: August 12, 2017, 2:02 PM VICTORVILLE — San Bernardino County has seen its fair share of fires over the years and High Desert residents have felt the impact of several of those blazes. On the one-year anniversary of the Bluecut and Pilot fires, several residents and community leaders recalled some of the largest blazes that have led to evacuations, closed traffic routes, destroyed homes and claimed lives over the last 40 years. The Old Fire Apple Valley Mayor Pro Tem Art Bishop, who served as the deputy chief of the Apple Valley Fire Protection District during the Old Fire, said he thought the “monstrous” blaze would never end. Known as the most devastating blaze to ever strike the area, the arson-ignited Old Fire started on Oct. 25, 2003 in Waterman Canyon near Highway 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Old Fire claimed the lives of six residents and destroyed 940 homes, along with 30 commercial buildings and 300 outbuildings. During the fire, billowing smoke poured over the mountains and into the High Desert as more than 4,000 firefighters battled the blaze that spread to 91,281 acres and led to the evacuation of over 70,000 residents near the areas of Crestline, Running Springs and Lake Arrowhead. “The fire moved into Apple Valley and we ended up evacuating the Marianas toward the south — we even lost homes in that area, “Bishop said. “The fire was erratic — it started near Lake Arrowhead, came down into Apple Valley, backed up toward Lucerne Valley, into Green Valley and into Fawnskin.” Bishop said strike teams from across the state, including the city of Los Angeles, helped the AVFPD battle the fire. District Chief Doug Qualls was part of the incident management team in Lake Arrowhead. Red Cross officials and an army of volunteers kept busy as mountain residents sought refuge at Hesperia Lake, the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville and several churches in the Victor Valley that set up cots, handed out supplies and served meals, the Daily Press reported. Bishop said the mass number of evacuated animals — such as dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, goats and cattle from the mountain and Marianna communities — was “mind boggling.” 4 “Just like the Old Fire, the Willow Fire in 1999 moved into Apple Valley and destroyed many homes and property,” Bishop said. “These fires that start miles away in the forest can move rapidly and right into our own backyards.” The Old Fire also traveled west and crossed over Interstate 15, where it merged with the Grand Prix Fire, which began two days earlier in the San Gabriel Mountains above Fontana. The drought, coupled with Santa Ana winds and a bark beetle infestation that killed many trees, fueled the Old Fire that finally relented in November, Bishop said. “We’ve all battled a lot of fires, but that Old Fire was probably one of the worse that I’ve ever seen personally,” Bishop said. “It was also the worse fire month that California had ever experienced.” October was dubbed the “2003 Firestorm” and “The California Fire Siege of 2003″ by many fire officials. The fires burned 750,043 acres, destroyed 3,710 homes, killed 24 people and took the life of one firefighter. The month also included the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, which killed 15, burned 2,232 homes and devoured 273,246 acres. It was the largest fire recorded in California history. Notable fires Grand Prix Fire Where: Near Fontana When: Oct. 21, 2003 Acres burned: 69,894 Buildings destroyed: 196 Deaths: 0 Cause: Accidental Willow Fire Where: Near Lake Arrowhead When: Aug.