Thousands of firefighters have desperately tried to contain the blaze but by Tuesday night, officially zero per cent of the wildfire had been contained, according to state firefighting agency spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff.
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Pashilk lived in Clearlake – one of the towns that was evacuated but remained untouched by the fire that was still raging in the tinder-dry countryside of Lake County.
A shelter for large and small animals can be taken to the Devore Animal Shelter, 19777 Shelter Way or the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds, at 14800 Seventh St., in Victorville.
“The residents of Lake County have experienced senseless loss and endured significant hardship over the past year”, Chief Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Fire officials do not know what caused the fire, but about 12 hours after it began they said it had already burned more than 6,000 hectares.
The blaze erupted late Tuesday morning in Cajon Pass and has grown rapidly.
Mandatory evacuation calls went out to 34,506 homes with more than 82,600 people, Sherwin said.
Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said: “You have the weather concerning us right now as the winds – and you have the topography that makes it very hard”.
“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.
Pashilk, a construction worker and former inmate firefighter, fought several brush fires in 2007 while serving a five-year sentence for drug possession and firearm charges.
Pashilk was on parole from 2007 until 2011, when he was released. It destroyed 40 buildings since starting on Saturday, and was only 20 percent contained. He was imprisoned six more times for violating his parole, but did not work as a firefighter again before he finally left parole in 2011.
He is now accused of setting the Clayton Fire along with 16 other fires around Lake County in the past year.
Meanwhile, evacuations enforced due to another fire in Lake County were partially lifted after the blaze showed signs of fading, Berlant said.
The so-called Blue Cut Fire devoured ranchlands before surging west to the Los Angeles County line and east to the Mojave Desert.
The fire forced a freight train to make an emergency stop and has closed portions of Highway 138 and Interstate 15 – a major desert freeway and the main route to Las Vegas.
In less than a day after igniting, a Southern California wildfire, burning uncontrollably, has engulfed 30,000 acres. The fire grew to almost 2,000 acres Tuesday within about an hour of it starting. The fire’s location is about 65 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The fire briefly stopped a freight train on nearby tracks. All motorists were urged to avoid the Cajon Pass area.
Mike Martin, 65, was forced to seek cover at the Fontana evacuation center while he was commuting home from his job in Irvine.
It’s also stopped a freight train and the crew had to flee.
People whose homes were destroyed in the fire have expressed their anger at the alleged arsonist.
San Bernardino National Forest officials estimated Tuesday it has exploded to 1,000 acres in about 90 minutes.
Pimlott told the Los Angeles Times that Pashilk had been under investigation for about a year.
Interstate 15 remains closed in both directions.
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He had to evacuate his home last year during the Rocky Fire but he wasn’t as fortunate this year.
