Earlier in the day, six firefighters were trapped by the wildfire, but were able to find shelter at a nearby structure, according to San Bernardino County Fire.
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Michael Eberle, a resident of the affected area, said his family packed everything they needed to survive outside of the house as well as a folder of important papers in preparation for their evacuation. Temperatures were expected to hit 104 degrees in the area, with wind gusts of up to 40 miles an hour in some areas fanning the flames.
The Clayton fire, as it is called, has burned more than 1,600ha of land and is being fought by around 1,700 fire personnel, who have brought 35 per cent of the blaze under control, according to Cal Fire.
The Southern California wildfire that began as a small midmorning patch of flame next to Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass had by Tuesday’s end turned into a 28-square-mile monster that had burned an untold number of homes.
A fire raging east of Los Angeles spread rapidly Wednesday, posing a threat to more than 82,000 people and prompting the governor of California to declare a state of emergency.
“In my 40 years of fighting fire I have never seen a fire behavior so extreme as it was yesterday”, Mike Wakoski, a commander with the incident team, told reporters.
The brush fire was 0% contained as of Wednesday morning, according to the San Bernardino National Forest. Heavy gray smoke hung in the distance.
Mr. Barley said officials expect the fire to grow at a similarly intense rate Wednesday.
Officials say fuels are extremely dry and very explosive this time of year leading to unprecedented fire growth.
“We’re in the fifth year of drought and we’re starting to see the consequences of that”, Miller said. But fire officials say several firefighters had to shelter in place while trying to save a home as the fire raced through a neighborhood.
Pashilk has not been implicated in any of the three huge blazes that destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Lake County last summer.
“It’s terrible”, said Shad Boyd, 49, a retired transportation worker who lives in the desert city of Adelanto a few miles downwind from the fire. “The skies are black, the ash has covered the cars and the driveway”.
Mr. Boyd’s sister, Shannon Tripp, was one of the thousands of commuters who depend on Interstate 15 to get to jobs in the San Bernardino and Riverside area from the high desert. Wind pushed flames through the hills and toward residential communities tucked into the forest, he said. Two sustained minor injuries and were quickly treated and released from a hospital. They returned to duty, the fire department said.
Tourists visiting the U.S. West should be aware of a risky situation in San Bernardino County in Southern California.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known.
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The fire destroyed 175 homes and other structures in the working-class town of Lower Lake. It was unclear how many structures have been destroyed by the inferno.
