Cool weather forecast offers hope in battling intense Southern California blaze
MOUNTAIN HOME VILLAGE, California — Several days of temperatures above 50 degrees have fueled a wildfire in Southern California that was so hot it was creating a thunderstorm-like effect. But firefighters are hoping to gain the upper hand as cooler weather is expected in the area after Tuesday.
The fire in the line has forced at least 6,000 people evacuate and threatened thousands of homes and businesses as the fire raged along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.
Firefighters worked in steep terrain and difficult conditions, with temperatures exceeding 37.7 degrees Celsius, which limited their ability to control the fire. Clouds were created that could cause gusts of wind and lightning strikes.
“We’re dealing with temperatures in the 100s and hard-to-reach, steep terrain that hasn’t had a fire in decades, or in recorded history, so all that vegetation has led to significant fuel loads,” said Rick Carhart, a Cal Fire spokesman.
State Fire Managers According to the fire department, three firefighters have been injured since the fire was reported on Thursday.
The extreme heat warning issued for the Los Angeles area expires Tuesday evening, with cooler temperatures expected to follow.
By Monday evening, the fire had burned about 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) of grass and brush, blanketing the area in a thick cloud of dark smoke. It was 5% contained.
The fire is one of several wildfires burning in the western U.S., including Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. About 20,000 people have been displaced by a blaze outside Reno.
The Line Fire is one of the most dangerous fires in California. There are also a few north of San Francisco that have destroyed more than two dozen homes and another that broke out in Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles.
Stephen Richardson, whose 1930s wooden cabin in the unaffiliated community of Mountain Home Village is on the path of the Line Fire, said Monday that he has added more fire-resistant cladding to the building and pruned away some of its branches.
“That’s about all I can do other than stand on the roof with my garden hose, but that’s not in the plans,” Richardson said.
Residents of the Southern California mountain community, like Richardson, are weighing whether to stay and protect their homes or leave. Richardson, a math and physics professor at Platt College, said he planned to meet with his students online before deciding to leave the community where he was born and raised.
“If we see flames and the air gets bad, we’ll probably go down,” he said.
Mara Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which issues evacuation orders, said nearly 5,000 homes were under existing orders and nearly 17,000 were under evacuation warnings.
Evacuations were ordered Saturday evening for Running Springs, Arrowbear Lake, areas east of Highway 330 and other regions.
Steven Michael King, a resident of Running Springs, said he planned to stay and fight the fire and help his neighbors until Sunday morning, when the blaze escalated. He had prepared his home to prevent fire damage, but decided to leave out of fear that the smoke would later prevent him from finding a way out.
The affected area is near small mountain towns in the San Bernardino National Forest, where Southern Californians ski in the winter and mountain bike in the summer. Running Springs is on the route to the popular ski resort of Big Bear.
Meanwhile, firefighters used bulldozers, helicopters and planes Monday to battle another fast-spreading fire that broke out near a remote-controlled aircraft airport in Orange County. The blaze spread to about 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) in just a few hours.
Another fire that started Monday night in the Angeles National Forest in Southern California, north of the Los Angeles County city of Glendora, was about 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) in size and was zero percent contained.
Los Angeles County police have ordered visitors to a campground and residents of an adjacent river community to evacuate, the U.S. Forest Service said.
And in Northern California, a fire spanning less than a square mile (2.6 square kilometers) burned Sunday, torching at least 30 homes and commercial buildings and destroying 40 to 50 vehicles in Clearlake City, 110 miles (117 kilometers) north of San Francisco, officials said. About 4,000 people were forced to evacuate due to the Boyles Fire, which was about 40% contained as of Monday afternoon.
In Nevada, the out-of-control Davis Fire, burning about 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) outside Reno, grew to about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) after it ignited Sunday afternoon. The blaze started in Davis Creek Regional Park in the Washoe Valley and was burning through heavy timber and brush, fire officials said.
A state of emergency declared Sunday for Washoe County noted that about 20,000 people were evacuated from neighborhoods, businesses, parks and campgrounds. Parts of south Reno remained under evacuation orders Monday, with some homes, businesses and traffic lights in the area without power.
In Idaho, fire managers were prepared for an active day, with warm, dry and windy conditions and even more challenging conditions on Tuesday. The Boulder and Lava Fires are raging in western Idaho.
In central Oregon, firefighters were battling several fires that had evacuation warnings, including a fire west of Mount Bachelor in the Deschutes National Forest.