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Golden eagle nest saved in El Monte Valley;
Fire reignites worries about PowerLink lines
East County News Service
August 22, 2010 (Lakeside) – Due to improved mapping technologies, the U.S. Forest Service has revised the estimate on size of the Monte Fire to 1,047 acres (down from official estimates as high as 3,000 acres yesterday).
“We’re still holding at 10% containment and we do expect that to drastically increase today,” Brian Harris, U.S. Forest Service spokesman, told East County Magazine at 8:30 a.m. today. “We feel good about holding the space that it is in.”
View a video filmed and narrated by resident William Ortiz showing aerial firefighting attacks yesterday where SDG&E plans to build towers for Sunrise Powerlink. The project would preclude aerial drops within 1,000 feet of the lines. Firefighters saved homes in El Monte Valley by making water drops from the El Capitan Reservoir. "All these airplanes and helicopters that you've seen here would not have been able to attack this fire, at all," Ortiz said. "This Sunrise Powerlink will create a huge hazard not only for lives, for for the Forest. That's part of Cleveland National Forest that's burning out there."
"Three homes at the location where the fire started were bordering the fire directly and all were saved," area resident Candy Jenks told ECM today. "The residents fought fire for 20 min before the first fire trucks showed up. The air assault on the fire saved the day. This fire was almost identical to the one 15 yrs ago where it burned the back country for 10 days before it was put out, she said, referring to the El Monte Fire in1995. "Both started near same location, roared straight up and east with the afternoon winds."
Approximately 500 firefighters are battling the blaze this morning, including U.S. Forest Service and Cal-Fire units from neighboring areas within California as well as local agencies. No structures have burned and none are threatened currently, Harris confirmed.
Asked if a golden eagle nest in El Monte Valley survived the blaze, he offered good news. “They sure did,” Harris disclosed, adding that if the eagles were present they presumably fled the area, but are expected to return. No eaglets were in the nest, since August is past the nesting season for eagles, who return to the same nest year after year.
Uknown, however, is the fate of a pair of bald eagles spotted soaring over nearby San Vicente Reservoir recently. View a video of the bald eagles taken by Ortiz, who at the time speculated that the bald eagles could be nesting on El Capitan (El Cajon Mountain), which was in flames yesterday.
“One thing unique about this fire is that it was not wind-driven,” Harris said. “So much of San Diego County has burned that we a lot of light, flashy fuels, so it’s common to have fires that burn up to 2,000 acres in a short time.” The fire is burning towards the northeast.
Asked about cause, he replied, “I don’t think anything has been ruled out yet,” but confirmed that there were no lightning strikes in the area, thus the cause was not natural.
Cal-Fire's Roxanne Provaznik estimated total firefighting costs for the Monte Fire will be $350,000.
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