Several other wildfires were burning in the state, including a blaze in rural Santa Barbara County that prompted the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds.
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The Blue Cut fire in California has been toiling through communities at a fast clip, destroying areas without a moment’s notice.
Blue Mountain Farms, a horse ranch in Phelan, was in the path of the fire about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, just as it was for another fire in the area a year ago.
More than 1,300 firefighters were battling the blaze, along with 152 engines, 18 crews, eight air tankers, two Very Large Air Tankers, and eight helicopters, including night-flying choppers.
The Blue Cut fire, named for a narrow gorge near its origin in the Cajon Pass about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, has blackened 35,969 acres of drought-parched heavy brush and chaparral after breaking out on Tuesday. “I’m already packed, I got both my vans…and we’re ready to go, so we’re going to stay ’til the last minute and hope for the best”.
Firefighters have made significant progress but the fire continues to burn Friday about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
The 15 through Cajon Pass reopened after days of closure because of the fire, and some of the residents who were under mandatory evacuation orders have been allowed to return home.
“I want it to be over, but more than anything I just want to know, ‘Is my house still there?’ ” Lisa Gregory said as she sat in a lawn chair under a tree at an evacuation center.
Some evacuation orders have been lifted for residents living near a huge wildfire in Southern California.
“There will be a lot of families that come home to nothing”, San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said after flying over a fire scene he described as “devastating”.
While the fire grew nearly 8 square miles Thursday, the mood surrounding it was more cheerful.
During five years of drought, California’s wildlands have seen a continuous streak of destructive and sometimes deadly fires.
No fire-related deaths have been reported so far.
Greg Massialas, head of the U.S. Olympic men’s foil team that won a bronze medal in Rio, said in a statement Thursday that Porter was a critical member of the team, and it’s a shame he lost so much himself while assuring that the fencers prospered.
Wildfires across the country in recent years have grown more ferocious and expensive to fight. Decades of aggressively knocking down small fires also have led to the buildup of flammable fuel.
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The Clayton Fire that began August 13 and burned hundreds of structures in Lake County – including 189 homes – is now 75 percent contained at 3,929 acres.
