Wildfire jumps freeway

Folks don't realize that the fire traveled uphill to the highway in a matter of seconds with extremely high winds. All the vehicles could do were to stop. I doubt if your car was engulfed in fire that you would try to drive through.

The cell calls mentioned above were not from drivers in the direct path of the fire. They were from folks driving through the smoke before the fire crossed the highway. The highway wasn't closed down until the fire crossed the highway.

70 car pile up I-15 Cajon Pass......no where to go

Train derailment.....fire I-15 Cajon Pass.....no where to go

High voltage transmission lines down I-15 Cajon Pass...no where to go

Snow Cajon Pass.....no where to go

Heavy Fog Cajon Pass....no where to go


Northbound...... (Southbound just reverse)
Kenwood to Cleghorn (~6 miles)..........no where to go
Hwy 138 to Summit(~5 miles).........no where to go

The answer to WHY is simply that CHP couldn't get to the other side in time.. I assume you know that area and what it takes to simply turn around?

I watched it both off air, but also on several back haul microwave feeds from the various helicopters in the air, well as listening to CHP ground communications and Air Attack, and that was simply the problem. They had nobody to the north to even think about how to shut it down, and I'm sure that's how it will be defended if it comes to that. Don't forget that fire was moving at 50MPH at times. They did what they could in the time they had to do it. Listening to one irritated eye witness at the south end of the fire when it stretched over 1/2 mile behind him doesn't get even close to the full story. You had a far better recon just watching the coverage from the air.

Charging for a tow is a different story...

More:
For those who,have never seen this area, HERE is a link to one of the stations that covered it from the air. The burn area is probably close ap a mile long with the two starts on the road separated by ~1/2mile.

I hate that road...

Ron3rd wrote:
Jeff it right, you can run north or south, take your pick.

Watched the entire event.
Have traveled that road for lots of years.

This quote from the driver (Justin Woolsey) of the small pickup that was near the boat.

OC Register.
Woolsey asked a question that will surely be posed soon:
Why was traffic stopped at that place and that moment?

"If *they* didn't stop the traffic, I would have breezed on through", he said. (** are mine)

(Like the driver's cell phone video that ABC -Los Angeles Ch 7-
played repeatedly...obvious "white knuckles", but breezed thru with fine visibility.)

CHP - are *not* firefighters, but the freeways etc. are "theirs"!
Stopping all traffic *usually* only causes gridlock - while some problem (real or perceived) is resolved.

(IMO) They were very lucky on that one!...;)

BTW - there were a few drivers who went "wrong way" short distances for a better "stopped" location.

And - drivers whose drivable vehicles were towed (removed from the freeway) - were justifiably irate when the towing company wanted $400. impound fee plus towing charges to release their vehicles.

Seems he has since been a bit more "amicable" - changed his tune regarding handling of fees.

.

Jeff it right, you can run north or south, take your pick.

wa8yxm wrote:
Link was too much data (I LIKE TEXT NOT VIDEO/PHOTO) wonder why with a fire in the median the road was not closed. or was there not enough time? (Suspect time).

read up. There is no median. This is not the typical midwest highway, its a 2 lane one way road cut out of the side of a hill. You have two ways to run only

Crazy happening, that fire. And I had no idea of the ferocity of the winds on the pass. Is that due to it's alignment or ?

Hopefully a lesson to be learned although really, I don't know what it would be. I can how the traffic got locked up....and I was reading that one group actualy had to take shelter in the back of a semi. I couldn't tell if it was the tractor or trailer by the description, but it doesn't really matter. They were safe. I have looked at some of the YouTube video's..people driving thru a wildfire..and that looks to me to be the epitome of a Darwin attack, right there.


Gary Haupt

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Anyone that has NOT driving this section has no clue.

There is NO place to turn around

There are no other routes/options

Traffic...Friday afternoon....stop/go-----slow moving

One normally does NOT drive thru a wall of smoke.

Fortunately it was NOT as tragic as it could have turned into

All this is true and in addition to the wind driven fire and smoke there is construction in the area and lane numbers and widths change all over the place. The wind was not a Santa Ana it was a N/W wind. S/B traffic is close to stopped at that time of afternoon and one or two stopped vehicles will stop all three lanes and there will be grid lock. Also the CHP stopped traffic due to the smoke. And then the wind changed slightly and the fire jumped the interstate. Until last week there was north bound and south bound traffic on the S/B side of the interstate in that area.

If you ever find yourself having to avoid Cajon Pass due to traffic related issues, and you are in a family vehicle, NOT an RV, this is the route I use. From San Bernardino, head up to Crestline, down past Silverwood Lake and through Hesperia. Twice in the last year I've used this route to avoid huge traffic issues resulting from major accidents.
I would also caution RV'ers about checking ahead for windy conditions. Way too often eighteen wheelers are blown over.

When traffic stops on I5 which happens all the time with Las Vegas northbound traffic, which is basically a big freeway, you're trapped, nowhere to go. You can't back up and you CAN'T turn around or otherwise get the heck out of there. Only choice is to leave your car and get away from the fire. They've loaded up a lot of cars that were not damaged and took them to a storage lot to match them up with their owners.