Timelapse video shows fires sweeping across California’s Santiago PeakThree major wildfires have erupted in southern California amid a heat wave, threatening tens of thousands of homes and other structures. Surveillance cameras from UC San Diego’s ALERTCalifornia program captured footage of fires burning across Santiago Peak, with giant clouds of smoke at times blanketing the area as dried shrubbery goes up in flames.
Homes, vehicles and stables burned as three major wildfires in Southern California grew dramatically and became more aggressive, though firefighters were hoping to get some relief Wednesday, with cooler weather. More than a dozen people, mostly firefighters, were injured, officials said.
In Orange County, the Airport Fire charred cars and left a wake of rubble and ash while flames pushed east and over mountains into neighbouring Riverside County. Eight firefighters and two residents have been injured in the blaze, which burned nearly 91 square kilometres by early Wednesday, said Orange County Fire Capt. Sean Doran.
He said cooler overnight temperatures provided some respite after a heat wave plagued the region for days.
In El Cariso, a Riverside County community of 250 people, an Associated Press photographer saw at least 10 homes and several cars engulfed in flames.
The fire reached the community along Highway 74 Tuesday afternoon when some residents scrambled to evacuate on the road clogged with fire trucks and firefighters, and the sky turned dark and smokey and began raining ash.
A charred tricycle remains after the Airport Fire swept through Tuesday, in El Cariso, an unincorporated community in Riverside County, Calif. The Airport Fire is one of three major wildfires burning in Southern California and endangering tens of thousands of homes and other structures. (Etienne Laurent/The Associated Press)In the mountain community of Wrightwood, scorched trees burned bright orange behind homes as authorities implored residents to evacuate ahead of the exploding Bridge Fire. The fire east of Los Angeles grew tenfold in a day, burning 194 square kilometres by early Wednesday to become the largest of three major wildfires endangering tens of thousands of homes and other structures across the region.
“It was very, I would say, hellish-like,” said Alex Luna, a 20-year-old missionary who heeded calls to evacuate the community of 4,500 in San Bernardino County, late Tuesday. “Ash was falling from the sky like if it was snowing.”
WATCH | Fire tears through Angeles National Forest:
Fire burns in California’s Angeles National ForestThe fire, dubbed the Bridge Fire, prompted officials to order evacuations in some areas, including the community of Wrightwood, as flames spread in the Angeles National Forest.
The fires sprung to life during a triple-digit heat wave that finally broke Wednesday. Other major fires were burning across the West, including in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, where about 20,000 people had to flee a blaze outside Reno.
In Northern California, a fire that started Sunday burned at least 30 homes and commercial buildings and destroyed at least 40 vehicles in Clearlake City, 117 kilometres north of San Francisco.
California is only now heading into the teeth of the wildfire season, but already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burned than during all of 2023.
GALLERY | Images from the wildfires:
Arrest made in Line FireEvacuation orders were expanded Tuesday night in Southern California as the fires grew and included parts of the popular ski town of Big Bear. Some 65,600 homes and buildings were under threat by the Line Fire, including those under mandatory evacuations and those under evacuation warnings, nearly double the number from the previous day.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday that a Norco man suspected of starting the Line Fire in Highland on Sept. 5 had been arrested and charged with arson. He was held in lieu of $80,000 US bail.
Residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were told to leave the area, which is a popular destination for anglers, bikers and hikers. As of late Tuesday, the blaze had charred more than 140 square kilometres of grass and brush with 14 per cent containment, according to CalFire. It blanketed the area with a thick cloud of dark smoke.
The fire impacted key radio towers, including communication channels for those responding to the fire. Cooler weather could moderate fire activity toward the end of the week, CalFire said in an update. Public safety power shutoffs were anticipated in parts of the Big Bear and Bear Valley areas.
The acrid air prompted several districts in the area to close schools through the end of the week because of safety concerns.
Smoke from California wildfires obscures the view of casinos northbound on the Las Vegas Strip on Wednesday. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun/The Associated Press)’Never seen anything like this’In Orange County, the Airport Fire also burned some communications towers on top of a peak, though so far officials said they did not have reports of the damage disrupting police or fire communication signals in the area.
The fire has slowed in some hillside areas affected by previous wildfires and sped up in others, zipping across newly grown grasses, Doran said. He said firefighters were focusing on the eastern side of the blaze in Riverside County.
“That is where the fire has been pushing,” Doran said.
Firetrucks are seen around a building as scorched trees smoulder during the Bridge Fire in Wrightwood, Calif., on Wednesday. (Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)For Wrightwood, a picturesque town 97 kilometres east of Los Angeles known for its 1930s cabins, threatening wildfires have become a regular part of life. Authorities expressed frustration in 2016 when only half the residents heeded orders to leave.
Janice Quick, the president of the Wrightwood Chamber of Commerce, lives a few miles outside town. Late Tuesday afternoon she was eating lunch outside with friends and they were rained on by embers the size of her thumbnail that hit the table and made a clinking sound.
A friend texted to tell her that the friend’s home had been consumed by fire, while another friend was watching through her ring camera as embers rained down on her home.
“I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve been through fires before,” said Quick, who has lived in Wrightwood for 45 years.
Firefighters monitor the Airport Fire from a ridge near Porter Ranch in Trabuco Canyon, Calif., on Tuesday. (Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register/The Associated Press)’Getting a little scarier now’Concialdi said the fire was burning away from homes in Orange County, but there are 36 recreational cabins in the area. He said authorities don’t yet know if the cabins were damaged or destroyed by the blaze.
Two firefighters who suffered heat-related injuries and a resident who suffered from smoke inhalation were treated at a hospital and released.
Sherri Fankhauser, her husband and her daughter set up lawn chairs and were watching helicopters make water drops on a flaming hillside a few hundred yards away from their Trabuco Canyon home on Tuesday.
They didn’t evacuate even though their street had been under a mandatory evacuation order since Monday. A neighbour did help Fankhauser’s 89-year-old mother-in-law evacuate, Fankhauser said. The flames died down last night but flared up again in the morning.
“You can see fire coming over the ridge now,” Fankhauser said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s getting a little scarier now.”
The Airport Fire burns along the hillside as residents watch from the shoreline in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on Tuesday. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
