As many as eight wildland fires were burning in California on Wednesday, three of them scorching thousands of hectares as firefighters sought help from emergency services in other states and the California National Guard. Earlier Wednesday, fire officials said the fire had burned 30,000, but later said better mapping provided a more accurate acreage.
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“Blue Cut Fire in the Cajon Pass (San Bernardino Co) is now 31,600 acres and four percent contained”, the message posted on Twitter stated.
“By the time I came in and told [John] and we both came outside again, it was just massive”, she said of the fire.
Fire officials described the blaze as unusually fierce, even for a year of intense wildfires in the U.S. West, where years of drought have dried trees and brush and placed a heavy burden on firefighting resources.
An evacuation order has been issued for an area home to more than 82,000 people, just east of Los Angeles, reported the broadcaster on Thursday.
“Right now we are seeing very, very strong winds that are just fanning this fire”, Cal Fire public information officer Daniel Berlant said at a briefing Wednesday.
Six firefighters were trapped by flames in the southern California Bluecut fire, while trying to protect residents of one home who refused to leave. “We know we have the wind coming”, said Eric Sherwin of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
The flames jumped a road Sunday and moved into the town of 1,200, where a post office, a winery, a Habitat for Humanity office and several other businesses were destroyed. The high school is still unharmed, according to SFGate.com, but the sports fields were burned, and classes have been canceled indefinitely.
“We don’t like losing homes and it’s challenging when we’re up against a fire that’s burning so aggressively”, said Glen Barley, Cal Fire’s San Bernadino Unit Chief. “There will be a lot of families that come home to nothing”.
California is used to seeing wildfires during the warm summer months, but this fire grew unusually quickly. California is now smack dab in the middle of its fifth year of a historic drought.
The fire erupted late Tuesday morning in Cajon Pass, a critical highway and rail corridor through mountain ranges that separate Southern California’s major population centres from the Mojave Desert to the north.
Among those that were destroyed were business centers, homes, a historic restaurant, and the popular Summit Inn located in Hesperia.
The Clark County Department of Air Quality said the advisory will be in effect Wednesday through Friday.
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A wildfire with a ferocity never seen before by veteran California firefighters raced up and down canyons, instantly engu.
