By Billie Jo Jannen
The Alpine Sun

     DULZURA — The 4,100-acre border fire, Santa Ana driven and brought under control Oct. 10, brings the total number of border fires to 50 incidents and 4,910 acres for this year, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials.
     Border fires are fires that are considered to be related to illegal immigrant activities in the U.S., or that start in Mexico and jump the border into California.
     The total number of border fires on lands under the purview of CDF, of as of Sept. 30, was 48, according to Roxanne Provaznik of CDF.
     Border Fire 49, which started just east of Barrett Smith Road at around 4 a.m., Oct. 5, was in the process of being contained at about 50 acres when the beginnings of Border Fire 50, igniting south of the border about three miles east of Tecate Port of Entry, was generating concern among CDF and USFS officials.
     Resources were sent south of the border under an international treaty forged by the Border Agency Fire Council, formed in 1995 by U.S. and Mexican officials concerned about the high number of fires in the border region adjacent to San Diego County. 
     Officials reported that a number of homes were saved by U.S, firefighters on the edge of Tecate B.C.
By evening, BF 50 was reported at 1,640 acres in the U.S. and up to 800 acres in Mexico.
     Evacuations from Marron Valley and Dulzura neighborhoods were begun the following day, as fuel and erratic winds foiled firefighters and blew the size of the fire up to 4,000 acres.
     That evening, as some evacuees were filtering back into their homes, yet another fire ignited, this time on federal lands just west of Morena Village in Campo. 
     The Skye Fire prompted closure of Bear Valley Road, Corral Canyon, Morena Stokes Road, Bear Valley and Corral Canyon OHV area, according to Provaznik.
     By the evening of Oct. 8, BF 50 was declared contained and the Skye fire was 60 percent contained at 170 acres.
The final cost of BF 50 totaled $2.909 million, said Battalion Chief Tom Gardiner of CDF. Final acreage is at 4,100.
The causes of BF 49 and of the Skye Fire are still under investigation, Gardiner said. That of BF 50, is believed to be a structure fire that escaped into brush, but is also still under investigation.
     The Skye Fire stood at 240 acres, as of Wednesday afternoon and had still not been declared under control. Gardiner said the cost of fighting that fire stands at $1.712 million.
     Public concerns about border fires escalated in the early nineties, as the number of incidents spiked — along with the threat to local residents. The commencement of Operation Gatekeeper had driven illegal border traffic out of urban areas near the coast and into the brush-choked mountains of East County.
     Illegals started making campfires to cook or ward off the nighttime chill and then leave them burning when they moved on. Some fires were set deliberately to hold official attention while drugs or people were brought over elsewhere and firefighters who responded to some of these reported being impeded and even attacked by rockthrowers south of the border. 
     In 1996, CDF reported a cost of $5.75 million to combat San Diego County border fires.
Border fires continue to make up a relatively large share of the county’s wildland fires, but the BAFC has made impressive inroads against the more spectacular numbers of the early nineties. Featured largely are education/outreach efforts in Mexico and the forging of an historic international mutual aid agreement that allows U.S. firefighters to go into Mexico and help fight fires before they jump the border. USFS and CDF have also maintained stepped-up efforts to detect and squelch fires as swifty as they can get aircraft and engines to the scene.
The treaty was publicly celebrated with the first international controlled burn, carried out on Oct. 15, 2003 in Bell Valley, somewhat east of Tecate.
     In 2004, the CDF total was 17 fires and 1,232 acres, Provaznik said. On USFS lands, an additional nine fires resulted from illegal alien campfires, according to a 2004 report by the BAFC.
     In 2003, 16 fires burned 46,138 acres in state areas of responsibility. Most of this was burned in the Otay Fire, which went almost unnoticed next to the other October 2003 wildfires and consumed 45,970 acres between Marron Valley and the outskirts of Chula Vista. USFS border fires totaled 18.
     In 2002, there were 16 border fires which blackened 1,676 acres of state lands, Provaznik said.
     BACF marked its first decade of existence with a June party at the El Monte CDF headquarters in El Cajon, where it holds quarterly meetings . Members include 38 firefighting and law enforcementment agencies, legislators, health care workers, natural resource managers, and elected officials from both sides of the border.
     Its accomplishments include improved radio communications, a resource guide for border areas, an annual media safety day co-hosted by the Cleveland National Forest and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, trash removal, Spanish warning signs posted in border, and distribution of flyers on both sides of the border to warn of fire and exposure danger.
     The 2005 totals include only CDF lands. USFS was not able to readily provide totals for either 2005 or 2004.

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