At this time, the wildfire has burned 30,000 acres and remains at zero percent containment.
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A fast-moving wildfire threatened scores of homes at a Northern California lake community that was evacuated because of a devastating nearby wildfire a year ago.
“This fire roared through the city like a wave of water – it was a wave of fire that came through here”, said Lt. Doug Pittman, a Marin County sheriff’s spokesman working on behalf of the forestry department.
At least one structure was destroyed by the flames fanned by winds and high heat.
Hot weather conditions, dry winds and heavy bushes quickly spread the flames, which officials said were sparked on Tuesday morning.
The entire community of Wrightwood was forced to evacuate Tuesday afternoon, and by nightfall, the evacuations extended to the edge of Los Angeles County.
“This fire is burning in significantly different terrains at multiple elevation levels”, Sherwin said.
About 4,500 people live in the mountain resort, which is now under evacuation orders.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for all residents of Lytle Creek. A California man was arrested Monday on arson charges for allegedly sparking a wildfire that. He was completing a five-year sentence when he was assigned to fight wildfires for four months in 2007.
Many structures have been destroyed and exact figure is yet to be known.
Waters says more than 1,700 inmates are now fighting fires statewide, including 340 fighting the Lake County blaze.
Night-time helicopters were assisting efforts to control the blaze, it said, continuing the work of 10 air tankers that doused the area fire retardant earlier in the day.
The area contains several dozen large homes and horse ranches.
Huge lines of flame are snaking along ridges above the communities.
Six firefighters were briefly trapped by flames at a home where the occupants had refused to leave, forcing the crew to protect the house, fire officials said.
The Interstate 15 near Cajon Pass connecting Los Angeles with Las Vegas has been partially shut down too.
Fire investigators accused Damin Anthony Pashilk of setting the Clayton Fire on Saturday and already it has scorched more than 4,000 acres.
The fire also forced a freight train to make an emergency stop and closed portions of Highway 138.
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.
There have been several weeks of major fires, even though the full force of “fire season” has yet to arrive and even seasoned observers have been surprised by the staggering speed of the southern California fire.
“There’s smoke of every color imaginable”, San Bernardino Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford, who represents the area, said by phone from her office about 20 miles from the fire.
The fire has also prompted road closures in the eastern part of Los Angeles County, near the San Bernardino County boundary.
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U.S. Forest Service firefighters stage before getting their assignment to cover a wildfire falls near the Cajon Pass in California..
