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Half of fire-threatened town hasn’t evacuated

More than 1,300 firefighters were battling the giant blaze and more were on the way, but as of early Wednesday they had been unable to contain the inferno.

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More than 80,000 people have been evacuated from their homes as a wildfire continues to blaze in Southern California.

Interstate 15, the main route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, remains closed from Hesperia to San Bernardino.

California governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency.

“The circumstances of this fire by reason of its magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single local government and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat”, he said in Tuesday’s statement. A firefighter from Palo Alto, Calif., inspects damage caused by a wildfire near Main Street in Lower Lake, Calif., Monday, Aug. 15, 2016.

Typically, the Cajon Pass has winds of up to 45 miles per hour during the summer and might end up fueling the fire, but it was around 10 miles per hour Wednesday morning. Just last month Harvard University and Yale University researchers published a watch list of hundreds of counties in the western USA that they say are at the highest risk of exposure to risky levels of pollution from the increasing wildfires. “We love it in the canyon”, he said.

The entire mountain town of Wrightwood, with about 4,500 people, was ordered to evacuate as the blaze grew more fierce.

The fire was first reported at 6:03 pm on August 13th near Highway 29 and Clayton Creek Road. That figure is projected to climb to more than 82 million people between 2046 and 2051, according to the study.

In total, about 34,500 homes have been evacuated, and two firefighters have sustained injuries.

In total, 112,950 acres of California land have burned in wildfires this year, according to USA Today. However, many residents fled in the face of a fierce, wind-driven blaze about two miles to the southeast. Officials with the San Bernardino National Forest say five years of drought coupl.

Staff and regular customers of the Summit Inn attempt to retrieve valuables from the restaurant’s safe on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2016 after the Blue Cut Fire destroyed the historic business on Tuesday in Hesperia, Calif. Californias newest huge wildfire advanced on thousands of homes Wednesday, feeding on drought-stricken vegetation and destroying an untold number of structures as it expanded to almost 47 square miles.

Flames danced in every direction along ridges of bone-dry canyons, chewing through drought-parched grass and stands of brush.

Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said Wednesday that 40-year-old Damin Pashilk – the suspect in a blaze that destroyed 175 homes and other structures over the weekend – is also accused of starting a blaze that burned a couple of acres and an uninhabited mobile home. Cancilla still doesn’t know the fate of his own home and spoke at a center for evacuees set up at a high school.

The fire began as a small grass fire in Berkeley Hills, California but would go on to consume 1,500 acres and consume 3,000 homes, apartments and condos, according to San Francisco-based KPIX.

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His wife, Jennie, added: “A lot of people want to hang him high”.

CREDIT AP  KEVIN WARN