The raging Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass grew to 37,002 acres Friday morning, fire officials said.
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At Blue Mountain Farms, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles in the town of Phelan, ranchers had to face the reality that a wildfire was burning in their area for the second time in two years.
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.
At a dawn briefing, half the firefighters raised their hands when an official asked how many had just come from the earlier blaze, part of a siege of wildland infernos up and down California this year. 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 is one of almost 30 major blazes reported to have scorched some 530 square miles in eight Western states this week, in the midst of a wildfire season stoked by prolonged drought and unusually hot weather, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. On top of that, more people are moving into fire-prone regions, complicating firefighting efforts.
The Southern California 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.
County fire spokesman Eric Sherwin says the new figure represents a big step forward in the firefight. For homeowners who have evacuated there is no certainty to the future. A day earlier, on August 16, just 3 hours after the fire was first reported, NASA’s Aqua satellite provided a view showing smoke rising north of San Bernardino County.
An estimated 82,640 people have been forced to leave their homes.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – Lisa Gregory has kept a close eye on the weather since fleeing her home in the woods as a wildfire advanced in Southern California. By Friday afternoon, evacuation orders were lifted for residents of Phelan, west of Green Road to Snowline Road.
“What I’ve been told is that flames are now ripping through my house”, said Brady, a dockworker who lives on the outskirts of the evacuated town of Wrightwood with his mother, sister and a dog. USA government forecasters have said the risk of major wildfires in Southern California is likely to remain high until December, given the dryness and warm weather.
Greg Massialas, head of the U.S. Olympic men’s foil team that won a bronze medal in Rio, said in a statement Thursday that Porter was a critical member of the team, and it’s a shame he lost so much himself while assuring that the fencers prospered.
“This moved so fast”, said Darren Dalton, 51, who along with his wife and son had to get out of his house in Wrightwood.
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Wildfires across the country in recent years have grown more ferocious and expensive to fight. Decades of aggressively knocking down small fires also have led to the buildup of flammable fuel. The blaze is now 65 percent contained and is currently 3,929 acres.
