A “human-caused” brush fire flared quickly out of control and prompted the evacuation of some 700 people on Tuesday from a mobile home park and nearby community in Southern California’s Riverside County, state fire officials said.
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The Highland Springs Village Mobile Home Park in Cherry Valley was also being evacuated by sheriff’s officials.
Two people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
The trailer park consists of roughly 200 homes, but the majority of the estimated 700 evacuees were from Banning Bench, she said. It was 10 per cent contained.
“We have some in wheelchairs, some in walkers, and some get along pretty well on their own”, Richard Feenstra, owner of Cherry Valley Lodge, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. More than 320 firefighters were initially assigned to the blaze, dubbed the Bogart Fire, and crews had managed to carve containment lines around 5 percent of its perimeter by 5.30 p.m. (2230 GMT), Cal Fire reported. At least five water-dropping helicopters and nine air tankers, including a DC-10, had been involved in dropping water and fire retardant, but fire officials said they were releasing some air resources.
More than 300 firefighters and more than a dozen aircraft are battling the flames as they spread over the hilly area.
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A man in a dozer fights a wildfire as it burns near homes in the brush in Beaumont, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016.
