Team Rubicon volunteers are set to remove dozens of dead trees and vegetation to help mitigate wildfire risk on Big Bear as part of a nearly four-year plan to remove what was left behind by the 2022 Radford Fire and the 2024 Line Fire.
Since the fire broke out in September that year, the area has been closed to the public due to lingering hazards like felled or dead trees and unstable land.
"All the dead trees have a chance of falling at any time; particularly the older it gets, the danger, it increases," said Robin Brown, a retired firefighter who works with Team Rubicon, which is a veteran-led disaster response organization that has 200,000 volunteers across North America.
He says that volunteers flew in from places like Colorado, Alaska and Canada to help assist with the mitigation process as they work to chop down and remove hundreds of charred trees near Skyline Road. The work is being done in conjunction with Team Rubicon and the U.S. Forest Service.
"Anywhere where we have these fire scars in heavy timber, it is a problem," said Mike Page, with the U.S. Forest Service in the San Bernardino National Forest. "They have the ability to come in and supplement the work we're doing and help out in a big way to get it done faster."
After five days of work, Team Rubicon has successfully dropped more than 350 trees. They expect to remain in the area for at least two weeks. The team has taken over an elementary school in Big Bear as their incident command center, which is being led by Bob Yturralde.
"Normally, you'd see Team Rubicon after the fact to mitigate a crisis, and now, we're trying to be ahead of the game and mitigate problems that become bigger problems," Yturralde said.
© 2026 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.