San Bernardino County fire officials say the fire is 22 percent contained on Thursday night, up from 4 percent at the beginning of the day.
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Firefighters were gaining ground on Friday against a wildfire burning in a Southern California mountain pass that has forced some 80,000 residents to flee their homes and has consumed dozens of structures.
The fire that broke out Tuesday in the Cajon Pass near Interstate 15 east of Los Angeles has now burned 56 square miles.
The Blue Cut Fire started the morning of August 16 in the Cajon Pass, west of Interstate 15; As of August 18, the blaze had ballooned to about 35,969 acres, with 22 percent of that contained, according to CalFire.
Firefighters continue to battle flames that have climbed the rugged flanks of the San Gabriel Mountains, threatening communities including the ski town of Wrightwood at an elevation of almost 6,000 feet.
Many residents remained in limbo, unable to go home and wondering whether anything would be left when they can.
It was “a unsafe combination of hot weather, bone-dry conditions and breezy winds” that allowed these fires to advance and spread, reports The Washington Post. Evacuation orders are still in effect in Wrightwood, but some residents are ignoring them.
The amount of damage from the erratic fire has been hard to estimate, though authorities have said “numerous” buildings have been destroyed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Weather conditions and the dryness of the brush have made the fire unpredictable.
Crews are also still battling the Soberanes Fire near Big Sur.
“It burns that much quicker, that much hotter”. Though officials ordered everyone to evacuate the ski resort of Wrightwood as well as Lone Pine Canyon, Swarthout Canyon, West Cajon Valley and Lytle Creek Canyon, there were reports of people refusing to leave.
Residents in Lower Lake and surrounding communities are still recovering from California’s third-most-destructive wildfire past year, which burned 120 square miles and cost more than $1.5 billion in damages.
The fire command assembled a fleet of 10 air tankers, 17 helicopters, 178 engines, 26 crews, 17 helicopters and an army of over 1,500 firefighters, many of them just off the lines of a wildfire that burned for 10 days just to the east.
The 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. The blaze is now 65 percent contained and is currently 3,929 acres.
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The equipment manager, or “armorer”, of the U.S. Olympic fencing team, was among those who lost their homes. News stories displayed here appear in our category for General and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
