The fire reached Sage Street in the rural community of Baldy Mesa, causing mandatory evacuations of more than 7,000 people east of Sheep Creek Road, north of State Route 138, west of the 15 Freeway and Highway 395, and south of Phelan Road.
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Drivers and their passengers had no selection however to desert their automobiles because the flames hopscotched down the freeway, destroying 20 automobiles, a number of of which exploded in fireballs.
Five such “unmanned aircraft systems” prevented California firefighters from dispatching helicopters with water buckets for up to 20 minutes over a wildfire that roared Friday onto a Los Angeles area freeway that leads to Las Vegas.
Los Angeles county firefighters battle wild land fire call the Pine Fire in Wrightwood, California.
The highway remained closed on Saturday morning near the fire, which is 10 percent contained, fire officials said online. Both suffered minor smoke inhalation, authorities said.
Firefighters are focusing on protecting some 700 homes in the area.
Firefighters have gained ground on the 3,500-acre brush fire that rapidly moved across the I-15 Freeway near Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, California, on Friday, forcing closure of part of the major highway and destroying multiple vehicles. But it is unusual for vehicles to be engulfed in these flames.
That fire also calmed and was 5 percent contained after burning 200 acres. Strip resort operators said late Friday it was still too early to determine how the fire would impact visitation. Many people who had fled the scene during the blaze returned to find their vehicles were scorched beyond saving. “All of a sudden, it just came on us”, he said of the fire.
It was the fourth time in a span of a month that a drone disrupted efforts to suppress a wildfire in Southern California, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Lee Beyer said.
When the flames were finally extinguished, 18 cars and two big-rig trucks were destroyed. Near a separate, smaller fire in the same mountains, sheriff’s deputies evacuated 90 girl scouts from a campground.
Allevato’s 15-year-old daughter, Leah, was devastated.
“We waited two years for this trip, and I saved all my cash”, she stated.
Flames intruded into nearby communities, burning five homes and threatening 50 more, San Bernardino County Fire said.
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Expected rain would come down at a much needed time in California, a day after a massive wildfire wreaked havoc in the dry conditions – something South Florida is all too familiar with.
