TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. (AP) — Alex Luna, a 20-year-old missionary, saw the sky turn from cherry red to black in about 90 minutes. explosive fire A group of residents rushed to the mountain community of Wrightwood in Southern California, and authorities begged residents to leave their belongings behind and leave the city.
“It was like hell, it was so dark. It wasn’t a good place to be at that moment… Ash was falling from the sky like it was snowing,” Luna said Tuesday night.
Luna was among those who responded to an evacuation order issued for a community of about 4,500 in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. The Bridge Fire, which grew tenfold in a single day and had burned 75 square miles (194 square kilometers) as of Wednesday morning, is now the largest Of the three major forest fires Burning in Southern California, Tens of thousands of homes at risk And other structures.
The fires broke out during a heat wave that reached triple digits and finally ended on Wednesday. The cooler temperatures increased the odds that firefighters would finally be able to put out the flames.
Other major fires also broke out. Burning all over the westincluding in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, where about 20,000 people were forced to flee a fire outside Reno.
In Northern California, a fire that broke out on Sunday burned at least 30 homes and businesses and destroyed 40 to 50 vehicles in the city of Clearlake, 110 miles (117 kilometers) north of San Francisco. Nearly 4,000 people were forced to evacuate.
California has just begun its wildfire season, but it has already seen three times more forest fires than it did in all of 2023.
Evacuation orders were expanded Tuesday night in Southern California as wildfires spread to parts of the popular ski town of Big Bear. About 65,600 homes and structures were threatened by the Lane Fire, including those under mandatory evacuations and those under evacuation warnings, nearly double the number from the day before.
A Norco man suspected of starting the Lane Fire on Sept. 5 in Highland has been arrested and charged with arson, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday. He is being held in lieu of $80,000 bail.
Residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were asked to leave the area, a popular destination for fishermen, bikers and hikers. By late Tuesday, the fire had burned more than 54 square miles (140 square kilometers) of grass and shrubs with 14 percent containment, according to CalFire. It also blanketed the area in a thick cloud of dark smoke.
The fire has affected key radio towers, including communication channels for those responding to the blaze. The California Department of Fire said in an update that cooler weather could ease fire activity by the end of the week. Power outages are expected for public safety reasons in parts of the Big Bear and Bear Valley areas.
Safety concerns and hot air prompted several districts to close schools through the weekend. Three firefighters have been injured since the blaze was reported Thursday. State Fire Managers He said.
For Wrightwood, a picturesque town 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of Los Angeles known for its 1930s homes, threatening wildfires have become a regular part of life. Authorities expressed frustration in 2016. When only half the population responded to orders to leave.
Janice Quick, president of the Wrightwood Chamber of Commerce, lives a few miles from town. Late Tuesday afternoon, she was out eating lunch with friends when thumb-sized embers landed on the table.
One friend texted to say her friend’s house was on fire, while another friend watched through her ring camera as embers rained down on her house.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’ve seen fires before,” said Quick, a Wrightwood resident for 45 years.
In neighboring Orange County, firefighters used bulldozers, helicopters and planes to contain a fast-moving blaze called the Airport Fire that started Monday and spread to about 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) in just a few hours. Officials said the blaze was sparked by heavy equipment used by public sector workers.
By Wednesday, the fire had burned nearly 35 square miles (91 square kilometers). The blaze was spreading across mountainous terrain into neighboring Riverside County late Tuesday without containment, Orange County Fire Marshal Steve Conchalidi said. The fire has burned some of the highest peak’s communications towers, though officials said so far they have had no reports of damage disrupting police or fire communications signals in the area.
The fire has spread far from homes in Orange County, but there are 36 recreational cabins in the area, Conchalidi said. Authorities don’t yet know if the cabins were damaged or destroyed, he said.
Two firefighters with heat-related injuries and a resident with smoke inhalation were treated at the hospital and released.
Sherry Fankhauser, her husband and daughter set up lawn chairs and watched helicopters drop water on a burning hill a few hundred yards from their Trabuco Canyon home Tuesday.
They did not evacuate despite a mandatory evacuation order issued on Monday. Fankhauser’s 89-year-old mother-in-law said a neighbor helped her evacuate. The fire had been extinguished the night before but reignited in the morning.
“You can see the flames coming up the hills now,” Fankhauser said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s getting more terrifying now.”