By Wednesday, a day after it ignited in brush left bone dry by years of drought, the blaze had spread across almost 47 square miles and was raging out of control.
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A “devastating” and ongoing wildfire in San Bernardino County, California, is raging across 30,000 acres and has destroyed many homes, San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said today. By mid-afternoon, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said the agency had received reports of winds up to 70 miles per hour “fanning the flames” in the Cajon Pass. Cadaver dogs will be brought into the burn area Wednesday to search for the possible remains of people who may not have been able to escape the quick-moving blaze, according to the fire department.
“The pool may be safe area where it’s not going to burn, but the air around is super-heated from all the gases from the fire and you still have to breathe and a lot of times those super-heated gases cause significant damage to your lungs”, Cheif Belyea said.
“If the first house catches on fire here or the fire breaks this mountain here, then I’m gone, then we’re gone”, Santucci said. She learned later that authorities did save the animals, but officials could not tell her if her home survived. The air for miles around the blaze was filled with smoke.
“This moved so fast”, said Darren Dalton, 51, who along with his wife and son had to get out of his house in Wrightwood.
California is used to seeing wildfires during the warm summer months, but this fire grew unusually quickly.
As many as eight wildland fires were burning in California on Wednesday, three of them scorching thousands of acres as firefighters sought help from emergency responders from other states and the California National Guard. This is a tight little community up here.
The inferno has claimed one high-profile victim so far: the Summit Inn, an old-fashioned diner on the world-famous Route 66 that counted celebrities Elvis Presley and Clint Eastwood among its clientele. Countless big rigs were parked along both sides of the highway on Wednesday, waiting for it to reopen.
Authorities said they were forced to close part of Interstate 15, which runs through the Cajon Pass between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, and to order about 80,000 residents to evacuate. They were treated at a hospital and sent back out to fight the blaze, Inciweb said.
Meanwhile, a major blaze north of San Francisco was fading, and about 4,000 people in the town of Clearlake were allowed to return home.
Their relief was tempered with anger at a man who authorities believe set the blaze that wiped out several blocks of a small town over the weekend.
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About 970km to the northwest, the so-called Clayton Fire was 40 percent contained after charring 1,600 hectares in and around the community of Lower Lake and destroying 175 homes and businesses. He appeared in court Wednesday but did not enter a plea.
