Some people have been running for their lives just ahead of the flames. Authorities could not immediately say how many homes had been destroyed, but they warned that the number will be large.
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Drought-stricken California has been hit with waves of wildfires this summer, fueled by dry conditions, heat and dead brush.
“It hit hard. It hit fast”. He said he had seen all kinds of things burn, including the Summit Inn, a historic diner near I-15, he said.
There are no known fatalities but dogs are searching the ruins for bodies. The cause of the fire was unknown.
Officials say he is also suspected in several other fires over the past year in Lake County.
The fire burned a bridge and train trestle in the Cajon Pass, impacting the movement of goods to and from the Los Angeles region, Los Angeles County officials said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Residents like Vi Delgado and her daughter April Christy, who had been through a major brushfire years before, said they had never seen anything like it either.
“No joke, we were literally being chased by the fire”, said a tearful April Christy, sitting in a van with her mother Vi Delgado at an evacuation auto park in Fontana.
Snow said that he was watching an NBC Los Angeles live stream of the fire as flames surrounded Hockaday’s house in Cajon Pass and that he reached out to the newsroom, which got in contact with dispatchers to get rescuers to Hockaday’s location in a canyon called Lost Lake.
“This moved so fast”, said Darren Dalton, 51, who along with his wife and son had to get out of his house in Wrightwood, a mountain town of 4,500 popular with skiers in winter.
In another sign of progress, fire officials lifted numerous evacuation orders in the town, allowing about 4,000 residents to return home earlier in the day.
More than 34,500 homes were threatened and 82,640 people were under evacuation warnings.
“From reports that we were hearing, possibly up to half didn’t leave”, said Lyn Sieliet, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
Hundreds of cars packed with residents, belongings and animals left the town.
An air tanker fights California’s Bluecut wildfire with flame retardant.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze was 50 percent contained Wednesday evening. Countless big rigs were parked along both sides of the highway on Wednesday, waiting for it to reopen.
More than 1,300 firefighters and other emergency workers were battling the Blue Cut fire, which flared early Tuesday about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and spread rapidly along the Cajon Pass.
The inferno began around 10:30 am (1730 GMT) Tuesday and has already burned through 30,000 acres (more than 12,000 hectares), according to the multi-agency Inciweb information site.
Firefighters are continuing to tackle a huge blaze in southern California, with several of them describing it as the most ferocious they have ever seen.
One major fire, north of San Francisco, was fading, and about 4,000 people in the town of Clearlake were allowed to return home.
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More than 600 miles (970 km) to the northwest, crews made headway against a Northern California wildfire that has destroyed more than 175 homes and businesses.
