Fires came within one mile of the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference
Center this past week ““ but that was as far as they came.
Despite fears that the center would be lost, it is still
standing.
“It’s been very difficult for everyone. We were very
fortunate that we had the (evacuation) plan in place,” said
Michael Foraker, UCLA director of housing. “And we are even
further fortunate that fires never reached the conference
center.”
The UCLA Conference Center is located on about 40 acres of land
on Lake Arrowhead’s north shore. The area is still under
mandatory evacuation because of fires burning in the northeast, and
it is unknown when residents will be allowed back into the
region.
The Old Fire, which caused destruction in much of the San
Bernardino County area, where Lake Arrowhead is located, has burned
over 91,281 acres and was 72 percent contained as of Sunday
afternoon.
Already the Old Fire has destroyed 850 residences, damaged an
additional 35 residences and 10 commercial properties, but the
4,211 firefighters from local areas as well as around the country
are actively working to contain it, said Bob Narus, a fire
information officer from the Bureau of Land Management.
“The expected containment is on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.,”
he said. “Currently, the fire has died down. Two nights ago,
some areas got snow and others got rain, and the danger continues
to be greatly decreased because of lower temperatures and
humidity.”
Until the firefighters lift the mandatory evacuations, however,
residents are not permitted to return to their homes. Several
centers were set up for the estimated 70,000 people affected by the
evacuations in the San Bernardino County area.
The evacuation order has been lifted in some areas, including
the Valley of Enchantment, Cedar Pines Parks and Crest Forest, but
other areas ““ such as Lake Arrowhead ““ are still
waiting.
“We are all just looking forward to getting back to
normal,” said Jim Turner, the conference center’s
director. “We’re extremely thankful, but we’ll be
much happier once we’re back in the conference
center.”
The UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center hosts conferences for
a variety of organizations in California nine months out of the
year. During the summer, the center becomes Bruin Woods, a family
resort for UCLA alumni.
Since the evacuation last Sunday, a temporary headquarters was
set up on the UCLA campus for the conference center staff. Some of
the five or six conferences scheduled to occur this past week were
postponed, while others were simply moved to other locations around
the Los Angeles area.
The fires did not catch the center off-guard as the staff
already had made plans for emergency evacuation nearly two years
before. The original cause for the plan was the ongoing drought in
the San Bernardino region, Foraker said.
“The staff was prepared and had been looking at the
worst-case scenario of events,” Foraker said. “Once we
were aware we were in danger, we executed the plan. We evacuated
very quickly with very little alarm, and the plan worked extremely
well.”