Thirteen hundred firefighters are battling the blaze, but it has raged on unchecked.
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Cal Fire firefighters battle the Bluecut Fire along Cajon Blvd in Devore, Calif, on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016.
Half of the sky is a attractive blue but in the other direction it is ominously thick with smoke as the Blue Cut Fire rages over vast tracts of forest and desert plains.
Earlier on Thursday, Cal Fire noted that 1,584 firefighting personnel are involved in the effort to put out the massive blaze.
Flames danced in every direction along ridges of bone-dry canyons, chewing through drought-parched grass and stands of brush. Wildfires that grow rapidly could become the new norm.
The fire erupted Tuesday morning in Cajon Pass, and by Wednesday it had scorched more than 40 square miles, about twice the size of Manhattan.
Most of the family photos are digitally stored so their main priority now is to get the family pets to safety.
Hot weather conditions, dry winds and heavy bushes quickly spread the flames, which officials said were sparked on Tuesday morning.
That left evacuees in a cruel limbo, forced to spend another night wondering whether anything they owned was still intact.
San Bernardino County evacuee Shawn Brady, who is staying at a shelter, told The AP, “What I’ve been told is that flames are now ripping through my house”.
“I try to tell people that there is nothing in your home that is worth your life”. “It’s the not knowing that’s the worst”. Acording to the San Bernardino Fire Department, the fire has destroyed at least a dozen buildings.
“It hit hard, it hit fast – it hit with an intensity that we haven’t seen before”, said San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig.
The interstate is a major route connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and countless big rigs were parked along it on both sides of Cajon Pass on Wednesday, waiting for it to reopen.
Almost 1,000 kilometres northwest of there the authorities said the so-called Clayton Fire was 40 percent contained.
The blaze was first reported just before 5 p.m. Saturday in the area of Clayton Creek Road and Highway 29, according to the AP. Reopening the south side Thursday depended on fix of guardrails. Cadaver dogs were searching the ruins for anyone who was overrun by the flames.
Now there are eight fires rampaging through the state between Shasta County in the north and Camp Pendleton, just south of San Diego.
April Christy, who was at an evacuation centre in Fontana, said she had never seen a wildfire like it. The whole community of Wrightwood West of 1-15 and west of Highway 395 and west of Summit Valley North of Bear Valley Road, as well as East of Caughlin Road were told to evacuate.
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She said: “No joke, we were literally being chased by the fire. You can always get those back”.
