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Technical difficulties prevented me from blogging earlier about the Southern California fires in the high desert near the mountains, but all that should be cleared up -- we've moved to a new system.

The best way to keep track of the two still active fires, which are either a few hundred feet apart or one big 60,000-acre fire by now, depending on who you ask, is the Rim of the World incident report, a tradition that began with the Old Fire in 2003. You'll find good links and up-to-the-minute news here, as well as actual dispatches from the people fighting the fire.

The incident updates are a little less interesting now that the fire has "laid down," as they say, but it'll be useful if stirs up again -- as it might; it's plenty hot out there. When I drove out to check out the fire in the Morongo Valley yesterday afternoon, the (extremely accurate) thermometer in my car flipped over to 112 at the Riverside County line and Highway 62.

Last night I went to the Yucca Valley Community Meeting, where firefighters were given standing ovations three times. For the most part it was a friendly and calm meeting, but a few people were mad, especially the people from the Pipes Canyon area above Yucca Valley, where the fire sped through almost without warning. One woman stood up to describe running for her life, with no advance notice from the radio or local authorities.

But the fire burned 22,000 acres in five hours, said one of the incident command guys at the meeting. "We had no idea it would burn so much so fast," he said.

No human lives were lost, but Yucca Valley Animal Control officer Kim Casey claimed last night claimed that there had been quite a few animal casualties.

John Miller of the U.S. Forest Service told me after the meeting that the unusually hot, fast fire in high desert vegetation was fueled by unusually tall grasses. "There wasn't enough wind to blow the seeds away," he said, and then there was that mid-March rain and snow. He didn't tell me that pollution and changes in climate have altered that high desert ecosystem, but that may also be true. (Scroll down to "Impacts of Anthropogenic N Deposition on Weed Invasion, Biodiversity and Fire Cycles at Joshua Tree National Park.")

The Desert Sun also has excellent coverage (and some amazing photos) here. More as the story unfolds.

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