More than 82,000 people are under evacuation orders, and several homes have already been gutted, but officials can not confirm how many.
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“The biggest thing was, we had to continually retreat against that advancing wall of fire, and that was something that I haven’t witnessed in this section, ever”, said Eric Sherwin of the San Bernardino County Fire Department, according to CBS News.
The flames have advanced, out of control, despite the efforts of 1,300 firefighters.
Six firefighters were briefly trapped while defending homes and assisting in evacuations in the Swarthout Canyon area west of Cajon Pass, according to a press release from San Bernardino County Fire.
A wildfire in Southern California raged virtually unchecked in thick brush on Wednesday after destroying dozens of houses and forcing the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes, officials said.
About 600 miles (970 km) to the northwest, the so-called Clayton Fire was 40 percent contained after charring 4,000 acres in and around the community of Lower Lake and destroying 175 homes and businesses.
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.
The road – Interstate 15 – was partially closed.
Cal Fire confirmed the fire had grown to 25,626 acres with 4 percent containment by Wednesday evening.
The fire did not damage I-15 itself, but it did damage guardrails that need to be repaired, said Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga.
Her escape involved a harrowing race down a mountain road, led by one police patrol auto in front and one behind her, with firefighters battling flames alongside her, according to a BBC correspondent’s naraation. Click ahead to see more scenes of the massive battle against what’s dubbed the Blue Cut Fire east of Los Angeles.
It prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in the area within hours of it breaking out, a move that more often comes after a blaze has done several days of destruction.
Reports on Wednesday noted that 40-year-old Damin Anthony Pashilk of Clearlake, California, was arrested on 17 counts of arson, and is being accused of sparking the major blaze over the weekend.
The Blue Cut fire ignited amid extremely hot, dry and windy conditions in the mountainous Cajon Pass region, about 125km northeast of Los Angeles on Tuesday.
One of the buildings ruined by the fire is the legendary Summit Inn diner on world-famous Route 66, in which celebrities, including Elvis Presley and Clint Eastwood, were known to visit. He appeared in court on Wednesday, but he did not enter a plea.
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“That’s a pretty fast-moving fire”, said Cathey Mattingly, a representative with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
