East County Wildfire & Emergency Alerts

Update 5:15 p.m.-- Forward spread has been halted at 65 acres and evacuation orders have been lifted. 

September 7, 2024 (Campo) -- Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for a brush fire burning at Church Road south of the Golden Acorn Casino near Old Hwy 80. The #ChurchFire has potential for 1,000 acres; it has burned 65 acres so far, per Cal Fire.

View an updated evacuation map here:  Genasys Protect  A temporary evacuation center is at the Golden Acorn Casino,1800 Golden Acorn Way in Campo.

By Miriam Raftery

September 2, 2024 (Dulzura) – Migrants have twice approached school buses in the Jamul-Dulzura Union School District, sparking concerns among some parents.  However Superintendent Liz Bystedt, in a letter to families, says the Sheriff’s office has spoken with several witnesses and found no crime occurred.

Based on witness statements, the Superintendent’s letter states, “It appears that while several individuals approached the bus, there never appeared to be any intent to take over the bus or harm anyone. At no point in time did anyone other than the students enter the bus, or even get close to entering a bus.”

Source: Bonitafest Melodrama

Photo:  Ella Aldridge plays the star-crossed Sadie in the 47^th annual Bonitafest Melodrama "Thin Skins and Hayseeds."

August 26, 2024 (Bonita)--South County’s 47^th annual Bonitafest Melodrama will look a lot like the first.  “Thin Skins and Hayseeds,” the popular musical-comedy produced as the first ever Melodrama in 1978, returns in September, freshened up and still rich with local history. It is the true story of the epic Sweetwater Valley Flood of 1916, sprinkled with poetic license, including a dash of “Romeo and Juliet.”

“Thin Skins and Hayseeds” runs September 25-28 at the Sweetwater Church Theater, 5305 Sweetwater Road. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and available by calling (619) 850-7126.

“The flooding of the Sweetwater and Otay Valleys in January 1916 remain the most remarkable historical events of this region,” said Bonitafest Melodrama Artistic Director Max Branscomb, a journalism professor at Southwestern College. “Weeks of epic rain caused the Sweetwater Dam to wash out and the Otay Dam to fail. Hundreds of people were killed and everything in the path of the water was destroyed.”

The flooding occurred after the city of San Diego pledged $10,000 to a purported rainmaker, Charles Hatfield, if he could end a drought. Hatfield promised to fill the Lake Morena reservoir and set up operations in Campo. Days after his efforts, heavy rains overflowed the dam at Lake Morena, causing devastation downstream throughout the Sweetwater river valley.  Coincidence, or did Hatfield truly have rainmaking secrets?  

Photo via CalFire: Border 47 fire was started by migrants, possibly seeking rescue in a remote location near the border, according to Cal Fire.  The blaze charred 50 acres. 

August 13, 2024 (San Diego) – The vast majority of California’s wildfires are caused by humans, as Cal Matters recently reported. Vehicles and lawn equipment are the most common culprits in accidental fires, while a few have natural causes from lightning. 

But along the international border, campfires lit by migrants and fires set by smugglers have sparked numerous recent blazes -- also igniting public safety concerns.

After a surge in border fires in May, Amy Reichert, chairwoman of Restore San Diego, obtained public records from CalFire from May 1 through June 1. .Reichert claimed that  of the eight fires along the border May 1-June 1, seven were tied to illegal border crossers, with one of undetermined cause, since it started in Mexico. 

ECM fact-checked that claim and found it largely accurate, with migrant fires the most likely cause of six fires, shooting the most likely cause in one fire despite a campfire nearby, and the Mexico fire of undetermined cause.

Source: San Diego County News Service

August 4, 2024 (Spring Valley) --The County’s Tuberculosis Control Program is working in close collaboration with Grossmont Union High School District to notify students, staff and volunteers potentially exposed to tuberculosis (TB) for four months during the second semester of the 2023-24 school year at Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley.

The dates of potential exposure are from Feb. 1 to June 4, 2024.   

TB is an airborne disease that is transmitted from person-to-person through inhalation of the bacteria from the air. The bacteria are spread when someone sick with TB coughs, speaks, sings or breathes. People with frequent and prolonged indoor exposure to a person who is sick with TB should get tested.  

Effective treatments are available to cure people who are sick from active TB. It is especially important for people with symptoms of active TB and those who are immunocompromised to see a medical provider to rule out active TB disease and to discuss treatment. 

By Kristen Andelman

Photo:Jay Farrington testifiedto board on priorities for the Office of School Safety, which the GUHSD board majority later voted to eliminate.

July 18, 2024 (El Cajon) -- Grossmont Union High School District has ousted its School Safety Director Jay Farrington and eliminated the entire school safety department entirely, effective June 30. 

The action is shocking and particularly troubling in a district that survived two mass shootings at Santana and Granite Hills high schools back in 2001.The Santana shooting killed 2 students and injured 13 people; five people were shot and injured at Granite Hills. School shootings are at record levels nationwide today. So far this year, there have been 107 school shootings, killing 29 people and injuring 61.

The decision was made by the GUHSD board on May 11 in a in a 3-2 vote.  Board members Chris Fite and Elva Salinas voted against the cut, while members Robert Shield, Gary Woods and Jim Kelly voted to eliminate student safety.

By Miriam Raftery

July 11, 2024 (Alpine) – The nonprofit Friends of Loveland Reservoir has been advocating for a return of sunrise-to-sunset hours at Sweetwater Reservoir.  Such access was agreed to along with an easement as part of a land-swap deal between the U.S. Forest Service and Sweetwater Water Authority (SWA) years ago, but in recent years amid tightened budgets, that agreement has not been honored.

Friends of Loveland states in an email to its supporters that it proposed for members of its large volunteer base to open and close Loveland daily from sunrise to sunset, with a new lockbox and gate key.  “ SWA agreed to open the gate every morning and would work with a volunteer group as long as USFS provided oversight. Unfortunately, the USDA Office of General Counsel did not agree,” the Friends group states in its email.

Friends of Loveland Reservoir (FLR)has sent a letter in response to the Forest Service sharply criticizing the federal agency for refusing to enforce the public’s access rights and asking for a meeting with the Forest Service, FLR, and SWA representatives.(See copy of their letter below).

FLR also urging the public to contact the following Forest Service representatives:

Update 8:55 p.m. - the fire is at 47 acres and 50% contained per Cleveland National Forest on X.

Update 7 p.m. --Old Highway 80 has reopened.

Update 4 p.m.--Boulder Oaks Campground is being evacuated as a precaution.

Update 2:12 p.m.--Eastbound I-8 exit at Kitchen Creek is closed, per CHP site. The fire is now 43 acres and 5% contained, per Cleveland National Forest.

Update 11:53 p.m.  CHP is closing down Old Highway 80 between Kitchen Creek and Buckman Springs Road.

June 30, 2024 (Lake Morena) -- The #Kitchen Fire reported 15 minutes ago has grown to 25 acres, with no containment. The fire startedon Kitchen Creek Road near Old Highway 80 in Campo's Lake Morena community.

Cal Fire is assisting Cleveland National Forest on this wildland fire. For more information on the #kitchenfire follow the Cleveland National Forest and watch for updates at https://www.eastcountymagazine.org. Air and ground resources have been dispatched.