A new High Tension Power Line is planned for Bouquet Canyon.
Canyon Residents and informed experts - including a retired Fire Chief -are concerned that this line will allow a Regional Fire to incubate.
This is not an idle concern, more than 70 fires in Angeles Crest Forest have been started by power lines in the past 5 years.
Canyon Fires are notoriously hard to control, and can quickly become regional fires.
"They've got it exactly backwards!" We interviewed a retired Fire Chief from San Diego County and himself an ex forest firefighter ( Marvin Keogh of Lancaster). He says the approved plan is the worst possible. His explanation:
A High Tension line is an incubator for firestorms because fire can not be fought while it is under the line. The fire can get out of control while it is under the line, and then break out and take the whole canyon. A Canyon Fire is notoriously hard to fight, and can easily turn into a firestorm. "Don't even think about putting a High Tension line in a canyon. The place to put it is on the ridge. That's the reason they are always put there."
Since the depression half the cabins in Angeles National Forest have burned down. Bouquet Canyon has lost only a few and these were due to local accidents. In an attempt to fight regional fires that start somewhere else, this change will greatly increase the chance of starting a regional fire here.
A Transmission Line creates a firefighter zapping zone where firefighters can not enter! When the fire breaks out of the zone, it may be raging. Since canyon firestorms are notoriously hard to put out: Maybe the firestorm will just stay here and burn down our homes, but it is much more likely that it will come over the hill and get yours also!
During the formal comment period on the Power Line study,
only 4 members of the Bouquet Canyon community commented.
We know why. Almost none of us knew of it. Two members of the community found
out about it. One from the Acton newspaper. He and 2 friends sent in emails
in opposition. The other was contacted by friends in Leona
Valley who asked her to come to their meeting and support them.
In this case she went to a meeting at Leona Valley and read the EIR
summary and based on this research had no idea the line went
through Bouquet Canyon. The Eir summary does not tell this! You have to study the maps to figure it out.
There were meetings in other communities, but none in Bouquet Canyon.
Community organizations in other communities were notified, but not in Bouquet.
The state and federal government mailed to a small number of canyon residents an information mailer that completely mis-stated the nature of the Alternative 2 route, and never told that it went through Bouquet Canyon.
The CPUC distance criteria are based on the part of the California Code that deals with city parks and kindergardens. A transmission line in a wildfire hazard zone is more like a dynamite warehouse. The result was that property owners did not receive notice.
The EIR implies that Bouquet Canyon has no residences and no businesses.