Both sides of the highway were shut down Wednesday night just after 11 p.m. when the Sherpa Fire came within 300 yards of the highway, which was closed on the northbound side at Winchester Canyon and the southbound side at Buellton.
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Some firefighters have told of a flame vortex – described as looking like a “fire tornado” – jumping across freeways and spreading the blaze rapidly.
Several ranch homes were evacuated, but no structures have burned.
The “wall of fire” at times “looked like a fire tornado, a vortex of flames crossing through the hillside”, Wait said. The Cedar Creek Fire grew to more than 3,000 acres by Wednesday evening, the Arizona Republic reports, sending plumes of smoke through the scenic White Mountains east of the state.
Evacuation orders remain in effect for El Capitan Canyon, El Capitan Ranch, El Capitan State Beach and Campground, Refugio State Beach, Refugio Canyon, Las Flores Canyon and the ExxonMobil crude processing facility, Venadito Canyon, Ocean Mesa at El Capitan and the Refugio Campground. Fires also had threatened homes in Nevada and Utah.
As of Thursday evening, the fire had burned an estimated 1,700 acres the Los Angeles Times reported.
The California Highway Patrol said the Highway 101 from Buellton to Gaviota, which had been closed because of the fire, reopened Thursday morning.
Crews working in steep terrain took advantage of calmer winds Thursday to build lines around the blaze, Zaniboni said.
“The winds weren’t as bad, and the back-burns did exactly what we wanted them to do”, Navajo County Sheriff KC Clark said at a late afternoon news conference.
Winds gusting to almost 40 miles per hour pushed the flames through brush-choked canyons, leading officials to order mandatory evacuations in Refugio Canyon, Venadito Canyon and Las Flores Canyon, which includes the refinery, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said.
The weather was expected to pose problems for crews in those states and California, where flames that ignited Wednesday afternoon chewed through almost 2 square miles of dry brush in an area that has not burned in some 70 years.
Sheriff Bill Brown says his department has made 395 calls to residents so far ordering mandatory evacuations and an additional 33 have been issued warnings.
ExxonMobil evacuated non-essential employees from the Las Flores Canyon site, and those that remained through the night helped protect it against the flames, company spokesman Todd Spitler said. He said more than a dozen hotel guests and 45 horses were evacuated late Wednesday night.
Wolfe says winds diminished overnight, helping firefighters who are burning areas ahead of the fire to deprive it of fuel Thursday.
The New Mexico National Guard has been activated to help fight the blaze, also known as the Dog Head Fire, which still remains uncontained, Gov. Susana Martinez announced Thursday.
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In central New Mexico, a blaze that began Tuesday, spread across 16,000 acres by Thursday night, forcing evacuations and burning 24 homes along the way. No evacuations were ordered, but voluntary evacuations were recommended at one point Wednesday with a temporary shelter set up as a precaution at Reno High School.
