• Wildfire in Hills Above Wildomar

UPDATE 2:20 P.M. 10/27/2017: 

ALL EVACUATION WARNINGS HAVE BEEN LIFTED ON THE WILDOMAR FIRE. EVACUATION ORDERS REMAIN IN PLACE.

UPDATE ROAD CLOSURES: 

Cleveland National Forest: road at the Tenaja Junction and Los Alamos near La Cuesta.

La Cresta Road Closures: Avenida La Cresta X Clinton Keith Rd., Calle Centro X Avenida La Cresta, Avenida Bonita X Avenida La Cresta, Calle De Campanero X Avenida La Cresta, Calle Bandido X Avenida La Cresta, Calle Bandido X Hombre Lane

UPDATE 10/27/17 @ 8:30 a.m.- Fire is 700 acres 15% containment. 200 residences have evacuated. No structures damaged at this time.

Former Wildomar Fire Chief Steve Beach, incident commander, at the map.

From the command center at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, Friday 7:00am.
Photo courtesy of Bridgette Moore

From the command center at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, Friday 7:00am.
Photo courtesy of Bridgette Moore

UPDATE 10/27/17 @ 12:54 a.m. - The gated community of Bear Creek is under an Evacuation WARNING. An Evacuation ORDER has been issued. The area involved is west of Grand Avenue, north of Avenida La Cresta, and south of Calle De Lobo in the La Cresta Community.  

ADDITIONAL STREETS IN THE LA CRESTA COMMUNITY INCLUDE: AVENIDA CASTILLA, VIA CABALLOS, CALLE DE SUENOS, SIERRA MARIA ROAD, VISTA FLORA ROAD, TEICH LANE, VALLE VISTA, VIA SEVILLA, PASEO DE FLORES AND PASEO CHAPARRO.

Looks like Ben Benoit was working this late into the night.

UPDATE 10/26/17 @ 8:22 p.m. - The fire remains at 350 acres and is 15% contained. This will be the last update of the night, unless any significant activity occurs. The next update will be tomorrow morning.

UPDATE 10/26/17 @ 6:50 p.m. - CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department is in unified command with Cleveland National Forest.  CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department is the official source for information for the Wildomar Fire. The fire is 350 acres and 0% contained. An EVACUATION ORDER  in place for five residences on Hixson Truck Trail above the warning area. An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued for the Lakeland Village Community area west of Grand Avenue and north of McVicar Street and south of Akley Street in the Cites of Lake Elsinore and Wildomar due to the Wildomar Fire. Avoid Grand Avenue due to traffic and emergency vehicles.

FOLLOW @CALFIRERRU ON TWITTER FOR UPDATES

If you're a user of hashtags and or Twitter, #WildomarFire is the one created for this issue.

Update as of 8:34pm

From Ben Benoit's Facebook page around 9:15pm

The command center for the fire is being moved to Storm Stadium. Dozens of fire trucks are out doing structure protection along the hill. Two night operation attack helicopters and multiple bulldozers will be working into the night. Big thanks to Chief Hawkins and all of our CalFire apparatus out there tonight.#WildomarFire

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Original Blog Post

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Around 1:00pm smoke was being noticed coming from the hills above Wildomar and the fire has since been dubbed, The Wildomar Fire.

This was an early shot of the fire. Taken just a little after 1pm From across the street from the Elks Lodge.

Take before 1:30pm from the dirt lot just north of IMM Auto Repair.

SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATED SHOTS
not all are in chronological order

From Cleveland National Forest Twitter Account. Click to follow.
This photo was time stamped at about 2:50pm.

Video of the smoke at 3:30pm from the corner near the fire station.

The same video sped up, interesting to see it in fast motion.

Link to Twitter account of Cleveland National Forrest 

As seen from across the street from Fire Station 51.

A shot from ABC's helicopter.

Live audio is at this link. Click the image.

Link to official audio, live feed.

DC10 dropping fire retardant, from the parking lot of Marna O'Brien park around 4:22pm.

Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Benoit and Councilmember Bridgette Moore using the facebook live feature to share with the people of Wildomar in real time.

As the DC10 takes a practice run.

Close up as the DC10 banks left.

A look at the smoke in real time with an additional video of the same scene sped up.
Below is a second video taken as the smoke billowed. It was sped up about 10 times.

Below is an image captured by Bridgette Moore while at Marna O'Brien park around 4:15pm.

Photo courtesy of Bridgette Moore.

The fire was very visible while driving north on the 15 freeway around 8pm. I went back over to Marna O'Brien park and the fire wasn't easy to see since the ball field lights were on. We drove over to McVicar and the fire was very easy to see from there... just not easy to get images of that were all that clear.

Even with a tripod, it wasn't easy to get a clean shot.

Below is a video of the fire at about 8pm.

Photo courtesy Ben Benoit.

Shared from Ben Benoit's facebook page.

Shared from Ben Benoit's facebook page.

As the fire looked from above Windsong Valley at 7:15am, Friday October 27th.

Resources Assigned:

    • Firefighters: 959

    • Helicopters: 5

    • Law Enforcement: Yes

    • Engine Companies: 118

    • Air Attack: Yes

    • EMD: Yes

    • Overhead Personnel: 35

    • Fire Investigator: Yes

    • American Red Cross: Yes

    • Public Information Officer: Yes

    • Displaced Persons: No

    • Specialized Equipment: Helitender

    • Utilities: No       

    • Air Tankers: 5      

    • Fire Crews: 43    

    • Water Tenders: 7

    • Bulldozers: 6

Cooperating Agencies:
    • CAL FIRE/Riverside
    • CAL FIRE/San Diego
    • Idyllwild Fire Protection District
    • March ARB
    • Morongo Fire Department
    • Murrieta Fire Protection District
    • Riverside City FD
    • Riverside County Fire Department
    • USFS 
    • USFS – Cleveland