Not only did the fire level her house, but it also engulfed the Summit Inn, a popular Route 66 diner where she was the general manager. About 82,500 people from some 34,500 homes were under mandatory evacuation orders, San Bernardino County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin said.
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Many home have burned, but the exact number remains unclear.
Officials have still not released how many homes have been damaged or destroyed in the blaze, which started on Tuesday and quickly exploded.
Six firefighters were briefly trapped by flames during the fire’s early hours, when occupants of a home refused to leave and the crew stayed to protect them.
Deputies called the homeowner who told them he made no such request. But he was waiting for official word.
“I’m trying to remain optimistic”, Brady said as he sat outside a shelter for evacuees in Fontana. “It’s the not knowing that’s the worst”.
A preliminary estimate found 96 single-family homes, 213 outbuildings and more than 200 vehicles were incinerated in the wildfire, which has grown in size to almost the area of the city of San Bernardino.
Yvette Eddy, a field representative with the office of Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, said some residents in his 33rd Assembly District have been hit with enormous rate hikes.
The blaze in Cajon Pass caused serious problems for a swath of mountain communities. The agency has already spent nearly 40 percent of its fire-fighting budget for the year, $165 million, and Southern California’s traditional fire season hasn’t even begun yet. However, highways 138 and 2 remain closed.
Those assessing damage were also looking for dead and injured, but none had been reported yet. There are no known fatalities but dogs are searching the ruins for bodies.
The Southern California fire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains.
One by one, customers entered the market to buy snacks, several of them sticking around during past wildfires as well. She spotted at least five firetrucks setting up at the end of her street Wednesday morning and said she could see fire in the distance from her window. “Climate change is starting to take over”, says Kolden, “so there’s a higher probability and incidence of fires all over the West every single year”. Then, the spinning air gets pushed up into the sky as heat from the flames rises, stretching the tube and making it spin faster and faster as it turns vertical. Evacuation orders are still in effect in Wrightwood, but some residents are ignoring them.
U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bob Poole credited the success to finally having enough resources to keep up.
Another large fire, north of San Francisco, was fading.
The 6-square-mile blaze was 55 percent contained after destroying at least 268 structures, including 175 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class community of Lower Lake. Damin Pashilk is charged with 14 counts of arson in connection with 12 separate fires dating back to July 2015 and one count of attempted arson.
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Brett Minor, a Cal Fire engineer who works in Lake Elsinore, was part of a team of four engine crews – the fifth dropped out because of mechanical problems – sent Wednesday to Old Cajon Boulevard, where southerly winds rapidly pushed flames into the valley.
