The fire investigators traced it to a single point: a failure of electrical equipment on private property near the junction of Highway 243 and Highway 74. At 1:43 PM on July 15, 2013, that failure became ignition, and the Mountain Fire began its sixteen-day march through the San Jacinto Mountains. What followed was a $25.8 million firefighting effort, nearly 6,000 evacuated residents, and a legal saga that would span years - all traced back to property owned by one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest businessmen.
The fire burned on steep slopes of timber and chaparral, the classic fuel load of Southern California's mountain terrain. Within days it reached to within two miles of Palm Springs, draping the resort city in a blanket of ash and smoke. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway shut down. Mount San Jacinto State Park closed. Air quality warnings spread across the region as the column of smoke became visible for miles. At the fire's peak, 3,500 firefighters worked the lines alongside 20 helicopters, 12 airplanes, and 260 engines - an aerial and ground armada thrown against walls of flame advancing through century-old overgrowth.
The artist colony of Idyllwild and nearby Fern Valley faced the fire's direct threat. Nearly 6,000 residents received evacuation orders, loading cars with photographs and pets and irreplaceable memories. Yet unlike many California fires, this one spared the town. The evacuation orders lifted on July 21 when heavy rainfall - a rare summer storm - helped bring the blaze under control. Ken Kietzer, a scientist with California State Parks, offered an unexpected assessment: the fire had actually benefited Mount San Jacinto State Park. It had burned as a creeping ground fire rather than a devastating crown fire, clearing decades of fuel buildup and thinning the understory in ways that would help the ecosystem long-term.
The property where the electrical failure occurred belonged to Tarek M. Al-Shawaf, founder, president, and chairman of Saudconsult - the oldest and largest engineering and architectural firm in Saudi Arabia. A former Saudi government official, Al-Shawaf owned the land through a complex arrangement involving caretakers. Cal Fire investigators determined the cause was not utility company equipment but something on private property. On the next-to-last day before the statute of limitations would expire, the DOJ sued Al-Shawaf and his caretakers for approximately $25 million in fire suppression costs and federal land damage.
The legal aftermath took strange turns. In July 2019, after a state court settlement of just over $1.56 million, the DOJ dropped its much larger federal lawsuit against Al-Shawaf. The reason given: acting "in the interest of justice" based on unspecified "new evidence." When the Idyllwild Town Crier pressed for details, the U.S. Attorney's Office refused to explain. The fire that cost $25.8 million to fight, that evacuated thousands, that burned 27,500 acres of national forest, ended in legal silence. The mountains have regrown. The questions remain.
Coordinates: 33.705N, 116.726W. The Mountain Fire burn area is visible from altitude in the San Jacinto Mountains, approximately 100 miles east of Los Angeles. The terrain rises steeply above Palm Springs with elevations exceeding 10,000 feet at Mount San Jacinto's peak. Nearest airports: Palm Springs International (KPSP) 15nm northeast, and Hemet-Ryan Airport (KHMT) 20nm west. Expect strong afternoon thermals and rapidly changing mountain weather conditions.