Crestline Burns More Often Than Almost Anywhere in California
Nestled around Lake Gregory in the San Bernardino Mountains, Crestline has been hit by repeated wildfires — including the devastating 2003 Old Fire. For its 10,770 residents, fire isn't a question of if but when.
Crestline is an unincorporated mountain community of approximately 10,770 people centered around Lake Gregory at roughly 4,700 feet elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains. The community occupies a forested basin where residential development surrounds the lake and extends up timbered slopes along narrow, winding roads. Crestline sits at the western end of the Rim of the World corridor, making it the first mountain community that upslope fire from the San Bernardino Valley floor reaches.
That geography has been tested repeatedly. The 2003 Old Fire burned directly through the Crestline area after racing upslope from the valley below, destroying hundreds of structures and forcing chaotic evacuations along Highway 138 and Highway 18. But the Old Fire was not Crestline's first major wildfire — the community has experienced significant fires roughly once per decade, a frequency that exceeds almost any other residential community in California. This pattern is driven by the same unchanging factors: proximity to the mountain rim, dense conifer forest extending from the wildland to every residential street, and limited road access through the Lake Gregory basin.