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Heroic Firefighters Save California Ski Resort Structure
By Matt Lorelli,
3 days ago
Cal Fire San Bernardino is being celebrated by Snow Valley skiers after a video was published of their heroic actions on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Watch below as firefighters run towards the flames of the Line Fire and douse a Ski Patrol structure at the top of the Snow Valley Express.
Video: Firefighters Save Snow Valley, California Ski Patrol Building
Snow Valley Line Fire, September 26, 2024 (0:30)
According to the post by Cal Fire San Bernardino, the firefighters in the video above "knew" that the long-burning 'Line Fire' was likely to flare up due to strong winds and dry weather.
The Line Fire has been burning since September 5th, 2024 and has affected a whopping 39,299 acres as of September 27, 2024. The fire has continually threatened Big Bear Mountain Resort's (BBMR) three ski resorts— Bear Mountain, Snow Valley, and Snow Summit, but has yet to damage any ski resort infrastructure thanks to the tireless work of Cal Fire.
BBMR had paused summer operations due to the Line Fire for weeks on end, but mountain bikers are celebrating as Snow Summit's renowned bike park is re-opening this weekend, September 28-29, 2024. The opening comes with a strict warning, however: "Due to the USFS Line Fire Forest Closure, all guests must remain on Snow Summit Permit area and trails. Please obey all posted warnings and closures," BBMR wrote in a press release.
The Line Fire as seen from a satellite on September 9, 2024.
Photo&colon Gallo Images&solOrbital Horizon&solCopernicus Sentinel Data 2024 via Getty Images
The Line Fire is still burning, and while there's plenty of work to be done, BBMR notes that the immediate danger to their resorts has diminished, and that air quality has improved. That's certainly worth celebrating with a weekend of downhill mountain biking, in our opinion.
The summer of 2024 has been tense for skiers in California and Nevada. Wildfires have come within mere feet of places like Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe , Sky Tavern , and Mt. Baldy . Damage has mostly been avoided, but Mountain High made national headlines when the Bridge Fire destroyed a defunct chairlift and multiple ski patrol structures on the mountain. The footage of flames engulfing a chairlift on a webcam is still shocking to watch.
The Davis Fire burned just a few hundreds yards away from Sky Tavern's (Nevada) boundary line earlier this month.
Photo&colon Sky Tavern
Some wildfires are unavoidable. Lightning strikes, accidents, and other unknown origins will cause their fare share of wildfires in a given year. With that said, many of California's wildfires this year were ignited by human ignorance, carelessness, and even malintent.
Please remember to respect burn bans, wildfire warnings, and other guidelines meant to protect you and others. As our dear friend Smokey Bear says, "Only you can prevent wildfires."
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they would not have had to heroically saved the ski structure if they had not let the fire get out of control when it 1st started 1 block away from the highland fire dept. across the street.. we saw it starting and there was no wind iaaues.. yet it took a couple hours for the 1st helicopter to arrive.. and it took several more hours for other fire units to arrive.. would have been nice to have a plane come in and make a massive drop to end the fire.. you know, something like the 747.. which calif stopped using in 2021-2022.. stupid..
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