San Bernardino County fire spokesperson Eric Sherwin says there are still no specific figures on how many homes have been lost.
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The so-called Blue Cut fire was still churning through the high desert and mountain communities of southern California on Friday, though firefighters made some progress overnight, helped by cooler weather and higher humidity.
“The fuels are extremely dry and very explosive at this time of year and in my 40 years of fighting fire I have never seen a fire behavior so extreme”, Michael Wakoski from San Bernardino County Fire Department said.
Firefighters impeded by treacherous terrain and the intensity of the fire have so far managed to carve containment lines around only 4 percent of it, officials said on the InciWeb tracking website.
“Structures are known to have been damaged or destroyed but can not now be assessed due to the extreme fire behavior and growth”, officials said in the InciWeb page.
Most losses were in Swarthout Valley, West Cajon Valley, Oak Hills and south Phelan, Hartwig said.
Evacuated areas included the ski-resort town of Wrightwood, where some 4,500 people live.
The National Weather Service says red flag warnings for unsafe fire conditions will remain in effect through Thursday evening.
Near Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles, a new fire broke out Thursday afternoon and spread quickly, charring more than 500 acres. The California Highway Patrol reopened I-15 late Wednesday night, while the southbound side remained closed.
Cars destroyed in the Clayton Fire are seen in Lower Lake, California, Aug. 15, 2016.
Firefighters were gaining ground on Friday against a wildfire burning in a Southern California mountain pass that has forced some 80,000 residents to flee their homes and has consumed dozens of structures.
In Wrightwood, under an evacuation order, people were going about their daily business.
“That number could have been much higher”, he said of the destroyed homes and buildings, noting that at one point the fire had grown by 30,000 acres in 24 hours.
Following a wildfire, a melted McDonald’s sign stands outside a restaurant in Cajon Junction, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. Scenes of destruction were everywhere Thursday after a huge wildfire sped through mountains and hi.
“The evacuation orders still in place are there for a reason”, Pitassi said.
“It burns that much quicker, that much hotter”, Collins said.
Crews are also still battling the Soberanes Fire near Big Sur.
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Charmy Hartinger said it has been a “roller coaster” since she got off work and realized she couldn’t go home.
