Beautiful view from Boucher Camera Station. That white tower below is the fire lookout tower that is manned with trained volunteers from May through November. After hearing of some of the challenges with the LA fires, people have been asking questions.
How prepared Palomar is for a fire? Are the water tanks full? How much water do we have available? Is our CalFire Station at the top of the mountain fully staffed? Are the fire lookouts manned? What about fuel for our fire department?
Good news!!!! I did some homework, made some calls, did some pop-bys and think you’ll be pleased with the the answers.
Mountain neighbor, Mike Pique and I had calls with the Forestry Station in Ramona, CalFire in San Diego that manages the fire lookouts and stopped in at our Cal Fire Station at the top of the mountain.
MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT – Captain Dean was very generous with his time and so knowledgeable. He and his entire crew had been at the station since fire LA fires started. Ten days without going home as of our visit on Monday, January 13th. They would have liked to go help in LA but needed to stay here with the strong winds we were experiencing.
WATER AVAILABILITY – The Observatory replied today: “We have a 1,000,000-gallon water tank on the observatory property that is full or close to full. Per procedure, we will start filling it to capacity if a fire approaches.”
The Christian Conference Center has two tanks that are full for a total of 195,000 gallons of water.
Tonight I stopped by the General Store and in addition to a pond that has been used in the past for drawing water, they have several full tanks of 80,000 gallons of water and they have it in every size for you!
Mike and I stopped at the County Road Station, their 10,000 gallon tank was completely full. Captain Dean at our Cal Fire Station also assured us that there is at least another 100,000 gallons of water in private tanks along the south rim. It addition, ponds at the top of the mountain are used to draw from during times of fire.
FUEL – The Country Road Station is also a fuel station for Cal Fire and Law Enforcement. A generator runs 24/7 and is checked monthly. We got a call-back from maintenance and they said the decades-old generator is to be replaced soon with an automatic on/off switch.
FIRE LOOKOUT CAMERAS – One call I made was to see if we could get our two Fire Lookouts opened again. They are manned by trained volunteers to ‘watch for smokes’ and a very fun place to visit when open. They close in November and open May 1st each year. Then actually shutter the windows and winterize and so it’s quite a project. So, the very good news is; Palomar has four locations with fire lookout cameras! There are four 4 cameras at each location for a total of 16 cameras looking all over the mountain and out across the county ‘watching for smokes’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Click for a link to the cameras. The four Palomar locations can be found in the middle column: Birch Hill, Boucher Lookout, High Point and Observatory.
More info to come! Have a wonderful weekend!
Bonnie Phelps, Realtor on beautiful Palomar Mountain since the beginning of the Century
760-533-1742
Palomar Mountain News 
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