A wind-driven wildfire in central California led to more evacuations and the closure of the Hearst Castle on Saturday.
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This week, almost 30 major wildfires have burned about 850 square kilometers in eight western USA states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The Community Foundation, which serves San Bernardino and Riverside counties, kickstarted the fund with a $100,000 contribution.
The Sultana High School American Red Cross Shelter in Hesperia is closed.
At 3:05 p.m. Tuesday, less than five hours after the fire erupted in the Cajon Pass, county CEO Greg Devereaux, acting as the county’s director of emergency services, declared a local emergency. All ramps at Kenwood Avenue and Cleghorn Road were still shut down, officials said.
Highway 138 is open to residents only from Highway 2 to Stone Basin Rd.
Old Cajon Blvd north of Devore.
US Forest Road 3N31 at Lone Pine Canyon Road is closed.
Before residents return home, they may view damage assessment reports available online, via phone recordings and on postings at evacuation centers. A Damage Assessment Team working under the Blue Cut Fire Unified Command announced that a preliminary estimate of 105 single family residences and 216 outbuildings were destroyed by the Blue Cut Fire.
But Horton said the total damage numbers could increase as the team goes through fire-damaged areas, putting together maps to show evacuated residents whether their homes survived. Evacuation notices for residents were lifted, except for El Cajon Valley where mandatory evacuation remains in place.
“You don’t want somebody to come back to a neighbourhood where a fire could suddenly flare up on the property next door from something still smoldering”, Dillon said.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) Authorities have lifted all evacuation orders affecting thousands of people, less than a week after a wildfire raged through mountainous terrain in Southern California and consumed hundreds of homes and other buildings. They said the fire is threatening homes and timber.
Ms Santore said the family was “holding up”, but that when everyone was asleep she had gone outside and cried thinking of the family’s lost pets and mementoes. She was running an errand Tuesday when the fire charged through her neighborhood. We grabbed the dogs and basically got in the auto and left.
“I’m hoping someone is stuck around hiding someplace”, she said. ‘And if I start calling, they might recognize our voices’.
A prolonged drought has transformed swathes of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including a blaze in rural Santa Barbara County that prompted the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds and another in San Luis Obispo County that forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle on Saturday. Among those under threat are the famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which was closed Sunday and will remain closed Monday after flames reached a ridge approaching the landmark and threatened its water system, the state Parks Department said.
Firefighters were also near full containment of the Clayton fire in idyllic Lake County near Napa, with the blaze about 95% contained by Sunday.
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Hearst Castle was closed over the weekend, though officials say the fire is growing in the opposite direction of the popular tourist attraction.
