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Arson twice. A gender-reveal party. A fire that took homes by ember and by neighbor. This county's record is an argument for controlling the one thing homeowners control.
The record
2003: the Old Fire. Set deliberately during the October 2003 firestorm, it burned 91,281 acres from the foothills above San Bernardino into the mountain communities: 1,003 structures by CAL FIRE's official count, six deaths, roughly $1.2 billion in damage, and Cedar Glen, beside Lake Arrowhead, stripped of 336 homes. The arsonist was convicted. The city page and Crestline's carry their chapters.
2007: the Grass Valley Fire, the one that changed the science. Driven by the same October wind event that sent its companion Slide Fire through the Running Springs and Green Valley Lake area, the Grass Valley Fire started a mile west of Lake Arrowhead and destroyed 174 homes with 25 more damaged. The post-fire federal analysis became one of the defining case studies of the ember problem: most of those homes ignited from wind-driven embers or from each other, structure to structure, not from the flame front. That finding is, nearly word for word, the reason an ember-resistant zone exists in California law. The Lake Arrowhead page holds the full story.
2016: the Blue Cut Fire. Ignited in the Cajon Pass above Devore, it forced evacuation orders covering more than 82,000 people, the entire community of Wrightwood among them, and destroyed 105 homes and over 200 outbuildings through Swarthout Canyon, Lone Pine Canyon, Lytle Creek, and the West Cajon Valley. Wrightwood's page tells it precisely: the town was emptied and ultimately defended, while the canyons below burned.
2020: the El Dorado Fire. A gender-reveal pyrotechnic in a Yucaipa park ignited 22,744 acres; a firefighter was killed and structures were lost in Oak Glen, while Forest Falls and Mountain Home Village were successfully defended. Yucaipa's page carries it.
2024: the Line Fire. Arson again, out of Highland's foothills near Baseline: 43,978 acres, more than 36,000 structures threatened, Running Springs and Arrowbear evacuated whole, and warning-level alerts across the mountain communities. Highland's page and Running Springs' carry their chapters.
Questions
The Old Fire (October 2003): 91,281 acres, 1,003 structures destroyed by CAL FIRE's official count, six deaths, and 336 homes lost in Cedar Glen alone. It was arson, and the arsonist was convicted. Twenty-one years later the Line Fire (2024), also arson, burned 43,978 acres out of Highland and forced full evacuations of Running Springs and Arrowbear.
The October 2007 Grass Valley Fire destroyed 174 homes near Lake Arrowhead, and post-fire analysis found most ignited from wind-driven embers or from house-to-house spread rather than the flame front. It's one of the case studies behind California's ember-resistant zone requirement.
The Blue Cut Fire (2016) put more than 82,000 people under evacuation orders, including the entire community of Wrightwood, and destroyed 105 homes plus over 200 outbuildings in the Cajon Pass corridor. The El Dorado Fire (2020) burned 22,744 acres after a gender-reveal pyrotechnic ignited dry grass in a Yucaipa park; one firefighter was killed and structures were lost in Oak Glen.
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