‘Hellish’ scene unfolds as wildfire races toward California mountain community

Alex Luna, a 20-year-old missionary, saw the sky turn from a cherry red to black in about 90 minutes as an explosive wildfire raced toward the Southern California mountain community of Wrightwood and authorities implored residents to leave their belongings behind and get out of town.

“It was very, I would say, hellish-like,” Luna said Tuesday night. “It was very just dark. Not a good place to be at that moment. … Ash was falling from the sky like if it was snowing.”

Luna was among those who heeded the evacuation order that was issued for the community of about 4,500 in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. The Bridge Fire, which had burned 73 square miles (189 square kilometers) as of late Tuesday with no containment, is one of three major wildfires burning in Southern California and endangering tens of thousands of homes and other structures.

The fires sprung to life during a triple-digit heat wave that finally broke Wednesday. The cooler temperatures brought the prospect of firefighters finally making headway against the flames.

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 40 to 50 vehicles in Clearlake City, 110 miles (117 kilometers) north of San Francisco. Roughly 4,000 people were forced to evacuate.

California is only now heading into the teeth of the wildfire season but already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023.

Evacuation 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 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 54 square miles (140 square kilometers) of grass and brush with 14% 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. Three firefighters have been injured since the blaze was reported Thursday, state fire managers said.

For Wrightwood, a picturesque town 60 miles (97 kilometers) 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.

In neighboring Orange County, firefighters used bulldozers, helicopters and planes to control a rapidly spreading blaze called the Airport Fire that started Monday and spread to about 3 square miles (8 square kilometers) in only a few hours. The blaze was ignited by a spark from heavy equipment being used by public workers, officials said.

By Tuesday night, it had charred more than 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) and was heading over mountainous terrain into neighboring Riverside County with no containment, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. It 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.

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 neighbor 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.”