All hands were on deck Thursday in an effort to contain the blazing fires – more than 1,500 firefighters responded to the Blue Cut fire, which has burned through 31,600 acres in Cajon Pass, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Over 1,500 personnel are at the scene today. The fire was 4 percent contained on Wednesday. She was led by a sheriffs patrol auto in front while a California Highway Patrol vehicle trailed behind and a truck filled with firefighters battled flames alongside her.
A firefighting helicopter maneuvers around power lines and smoke to make a water drop during the Blue Cut fire at the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, California, U.S. August 17, 2016.
“The intensity, the speed, the breadth, width of this fire, and how fast…”
“We are in the fifth year of the drought, so that in combination with the hot weather, low relative humidity and winds that we’ve been having is resulting in a fire that’s moving very fast, very intense”, said Cal Fire spokesman Henry Herrera.
The fire command says the destructive blaze has scorched more than 49 square miles as of Thursday morning, up from 40 square miles Wednesday night.
Half of the sky is a lovely blue but in the other direction it is ominously thick with smoke as the Blue Cut Fire rages over vast tracts of forest and desert plains. Jason Atkins, left, a friend of the Summit Inn’s manager, and Choppo Rios, the cook of the restaurant attempt to retrieve valuables from from the restaurant’s safe on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2016 after the Blue Cut Fir.
The Bluecut Fire is just the latest inferno to plague the historically dry state.
A massive wildfire in Southern California has grown into a major blaze, authorities said Wednesday, and has triggered a state of emergency and forced evacuations of more than 80,000 people.
It erupted on Tuesday in the Cajon Pass near Interstate 15, the primary traffic route between greater Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada, to the northeast and quickly devoured canyons and hillsides filled with dense, drought-parched brush and chaparral.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Fire officials indicated there were significant property losses but had yet to release a tally, leaving those who fled waiting to find out whether their homes were still standing.
Crews will be spraying fire-resistant gel on homes that are potentially in danger, just as they did in 2015 during the Lake fire in the Big Bear area.
The heat from the fire, fueled by dry brush, has created intense flames that have pushed through the retardants laid down by air crews, Sherwin said. Due to more accurate mapping, the acreage was later changed to 25,626, according to the San Bernardino National Forrest.
Another large fire, north of San Francisco, was fading.
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Investigators in Northern California said Tuesday they had been building a case against the suspected arsonist, 40-year-old construction worker Damin Anthony Pashilk, for more than a year.
