Highway 330 reopened on November 22, a full two weeks prior to the previously rescheduled opening of the roadway connecting Highland in the Central Valley of San Bernardino County to the eastern San Bernardino Mountain communities.
The closure was necessitated by the ravages of the Line Fire, which charred 43,978 acres was ignited on September 5, in the midst of a long-running heat wave, at roughly 6 p.m. in northeast Highland near the intersection o of Baseline Road and Alpin Street by an arsonist in what is now believed to have been his third attempt at starting the fire.
Originally dubbed the Baseline Fire, it resisted efforts by the California Division of Forestry, known by the acronym CalFire, which serves as the contract fire department for the City of Highland, and the San Bernardino County Fire Division, to knock it down.
A CalFire incident management team was activated on September 6, as the steep terrain of the area into which the fire was spreading created challenges.
With the escalation of the surrounding heat, the fire began to expand rapidly on September 7 into the San Bernardino Mountains, and Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency existed in San Bernardino County as a consequence of the fire, and he authorized the use of a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover elements of the firefighting effort.
Evacuation orders for the communities of Running Springs and Arrowbear Lake were issued, thereafter followed by evacuation orders to those in the communities of Angelus Oaks, Seven Oaks and all campgrounds and cabins in the area; Green Valley Lake north from Highway 18 along Green Valley Lake Road; the community of Forest Falls; and the community of Mountain Home Village. Those orders pertained to 11,400 structures under what was deemed to be immediate threat.
At one point, there were 56,100 structures threatened, i.e., in the logical path of the directions in which the fire was prone to spread. In addition to the 11,400 structures most immediately under threat being put under evacuation orders, the remaining 44,700, primarily within the communities of Cedar Glen, Lake Arrowhead, Twin Peaks, Crestline, and Valley of Enchantment, along with the area from Garnett Street east to Bryant Street and Carter Street north to Mill Creek and the area of Big Bear Valley from the dam to Cactus Road, Erwin Lake, Sugar Loaf, Big Bear City, Big Bear Lake, and Fawnskin, were provided evacuation warnings.
Evacuation orders were based upon the incident commander’s determination that there was an immediate threat to life in the area covered by the order. The issuance of the orders carried the full weight of California law, authorizing law enforcement officers to arrest those who did not comply. The areas were lawfully closed to public access.

The California National Guard was deployed, including four UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, two C-130 aircraft, hand crews, and one military police company to assist with evacuations.
A state military police company, consisting of a California National Guard unit, was dispatched to support the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department with evacuations and traffic control points in evacuated areas. In addition, the United States Forest Service issued Forest Order NO. 05-12-00-24-09, creating a forest closure area around the Line Fire. All National Forest lands, trails, and roads were closed to the public within that zone.
On Tuesday, September 10, 36 miles from where the fire had started in Highland, detectives with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department sojourned across the San Bernardino County/Riverside County line to a home at 1394 Detroit Street in Norco, where they arrested 34-year-old Justin Wayne Halstenberg, whom they maintain was the persistent arsonist who had touched off the Line Fire near the intersection of Baseline Road and Alpin Street on September 5.
Investigators, led by Battalion Chief Matt Kirkhart with CalFire and Jake Hernandez of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s specialized arson unit, determined that the fire had been deliberately set with the use of materials later identified as coins wrapped in paper soaked in a flammable liquid. That team examined available video footage including traffic cameras around Baseline Road, identifying a white truck as the vehicle used by the arsonist. Further evidence implicating Halstenberg was obtained from at least one license plate reader in the area. Investigators made a direct link between Halstenberg and the ignition of the fire on the basis of his vehicle license plate, which was documented by a license plate recorder as being in the area at the time of what can be shown as the third and successful effort to start the fire, as well as at two previous unsuccessful attempts.
A search warrant was served at Halstenberg’s home at the time of his arrest. According to investigators, material indicating he was responsible for setting the wildfire was found during that search.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office charged Halstenberg, who remains in jail, with eleven felony counts, including a single count of aggravated arson, three counts of arson on structure or forest land, three counts of possession of material or a device for arson, one count of arson resulting in bodily harm, and a count of arson of an inhabited structure.
He was arraigned on the charges on September 17 in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court.
According to prosecutors, on September 5, Halstenberg succeeded in creating a grass fire in a field near Bacon and Lytle lanes in Highland. That fire was reported and quickly extinguished by local firefighters. Halstenberg, who was lurking in the area, made a second attempt at igniting a fire just east of Bacon Lane, near Base Line and Aplin streets, authorities maintain. A passer-by acted quickly to stomp the fire out. “Undeterred, he ignited a third fire, which is what we now know as the Line Fire,” according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
By September 12, the fire had to that point covered 37,207 acres and was at 18 percent containment. The fire raged on for more than three weeks.
Highway 330 was closed on September 24. Statements made by responsible officials was that by the end of October it would be reopened.
Crucial elements of the road infrastructure, including the guardrails, were damaged by the fire. With some of the guardrails gone entirely and other compromised to the point that they might not be able to prevent a vehicle that slammed into them or even scrapped them from continuing off the road and over the ledge to the steep canyon below, officials closed the road entirely to anything other than emergency personnel.
The closure pertained to cars going both up the mountain from Highland Avenue in Highland to Live Oak Drive just outside of Running Springs and then down the mountain between those two places.
Three days before the closure, contractors hired by the state, began, on September 21, to repair and reconstruct roughly 4.8 miles of burned and damaged pavement, damaged guardrails and signs. It also initiated efforts to clear timber, sand, gravel, rocks and boulders from the drainage system along the road and to repair damage to culverts, drainage ditches and channels. While there had been hope the road might be reopened by October 20, that did not happen. On October 28 it was announced that the road was to remain closed indefinitely, as the $9.8 million repair effort, using money was disbursed form the state’s emergency project funding, was to be carried out the California Department of Transportation. The closure was far more radical than what most members of the public anticipated.
Caltrans set a target of December 9 for the reopening of the roadway.
It turns out now, however, that the road has been reopened, in time for today’s opening of Snow Valley near Running Springs and Saturday’s initiation of the ski season at Snow Summit in Big Bear.
Those heading to the mountain resorts this holiday weekend and into the Christmas season will be able to do so using Highway 330. Nevertheless, the scene as they take the drive up the mountain may put a damper on their festive spirits, as the devastation wrought by Halstenberg is overwhelmingly visually apparent. Much of the green forest is now depressingly burnt black. Still present are the vehicles and machiner employed by Caltrans contractors looking to restore the road. Work includes the removal of dead and dying trees ravaged by the fire, road asphalt, fractured bridges, debris and sediment that came down the mountain slopes with light rains earlier this season because of the fire’s destruction of the underbrush and accompanying erosion, and the spans of still unrepaired guardrails.
According to Caltrans, the project’s first phase of repairs are nearing completion. Material to fashion new guardrails has arrived and the first set of repairs are now under way. Artificial temporary dams are in place to protect workers from flash-flooding if a rainstorm develops while the repair work is yet ongoing.
The second phase is to begin next Wednesday, if things go according to schedule. The damaged culverts along the road have now been cleared of debris to allow those repairs to start.