Crime & Safety

Burned Slopes Next to 60 Slipping

No Burned Area Emergency Response team has been assigned to the 1,026-acre Gilman Fire burned area, Cal Fire-Riverside County Chief John R. Hawkins said Monday.

Gravity is working on recently-denuded slopes next to the 60 Freeway in the Badlands, where the Gilman Fire scorched an estimated 1,026 acres on Aug. 6-7.

The grass and other vegetation that helped stabilize steep slopes and hold surface soil in place is now gone, and segments of a hillside next to the 60 have begun slipping in recent days.

"That's mechanical erosion and it's unavoidable in situations like this," Cal Fire-Riverside County Chief John R. Hawkins said Monday afternoon. "Once the vegetation burns off, that stabilizing structure is missing and surface soils start to move."

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No Burned Area Emergency Response Team has been assigned to the Gilman Fire burned area, which covers 419 acres maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and 607 acres of private land, according to Cal Fire.

It is unlikely a BAER team will be called in because the damage caused by the fire and infrastructure at risk does not meet the criteria, Hawkins said Monday in a phone interview.

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If slope stabilization efforts become necessary, that will be the responsibility of Caltrans, Hawkins said.

The hillside that is slipping appears to be private land up to the state right-of-way, according to a map of the burned area released last week by Cal Fire. A pdf of the map is attached to this report.

"If it is private land we need the cooperation of the landowner," Shelli Lombardo of Caltrans District 8 said Monday. "If it's public land, like BLM, it's not an issue.

"If the slope is slipping we'll get in there and shore it up," Lombardo said in a phone interview. "But we'll need to determine if the land is private or public."

The Gilman Fire was reported just after 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, east of Gilman Springs Road and south of the 60 Freeway.

At one point on Aug. 6, as many as 50 motorists were temporarily stranded on the 60 by smoke and ash. California Highway Patrol officers escorted the motorists out of danger.

The fire was declared 100 percent contained by 6 p.m. Aug. 7, and it was declared 100 percent controlled at midnight Aug. 7, according to Cal Fire.

A Cal Fire crew captain and three inmate firefighters from Oak Glen who sustained minor injuries on Aug. 6 have returned to work.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday.

The post-fire situation is a concern, Hawkins said last week.

"It's all watershed," Hawkins said Aug. 9, standing next to the eastbound 60 before he went into the burned area. "The dirt all runs downhill if it rains, if we have a heavy rain.

"Could be a summer thunderstorm," Hawkins said. "It could wait until wintertime, but there's always the fear of soil transport downhill during a heavy rainstorm. That's causes, if nothing else, erosion problems down below where it can block roads."


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