Fierce winds whipped up early Thursday, sparking new fires across Southern California including a destructive blaze that tore into neighborhoods in north San Bernardino and destroyed homes.
The Hillside fire erupted about 1:40 a.m. Highway 18 at Lower Waterman Canyon and quickly spread into neighborhoods, consuming at least 200 acres and burning multiple homes as authorities rushed to evacuate sleeping residents, said San Bernardino County Firefighter Chris Prater.
Fire officials ordered mandatory evacuations north of 50th Street, west of Highway 18 and east of Mayfield Street. An evacuation center has been established at 1020 Pacific Street in San Bernardino.
“If you live in an evacuation zone, go ahead and leave now,” Prater said.
(Chris Keller / Los Angeles Times)
Footage from the scene showed waves of embers flying onto residential streets, igniting palm trees and setting homes ablaze. Two homes on Saturn Court appeared to have burned, but the number of homes lost in the fire was not immediately clear.
More than 450 firefighters and a helicopter are on scene trying to protect homes and get control of the raging blaze. Their efforts have been made more difficult by intense winds gusting at speeds above 30 mph, Prater said.
“The wind has been the biggest factor in the fire spread,” he said.
About an hour before the Hillside fire started, a new fire at Rancho Jurupa Park in Jarupa Valley was already well underway. That fire, dubbed the 46 fire, broke out about 12:39 a.m. and has burned 75 acres over the course of several hours. The blaze, which forced mandatory evacuations, has damaged two homes and two other structures, according to the Cal Fire.
Residents south of Limonite Avenue, west of Crestmore, east of Van Buren and north of the Santa Ana River have been placed under mandatory evacuation orders. An evacuation center has been set up at Patriot High School at 4355 Camino Real in Jurupa Valley.
They were among more than two dozen fires that were sparked by an extreme Santa Ana wind event that will batter Southern California through late Thursday.
The biggest battle Wednesday was in Ventura County, where 1,000 firefighters trying to control the wind-driven Easy fire that surrounded the Reagan Library were stymied by intense gusts that sent embers flying far beyond the body of the blaze. As the fire burned Wednesday helicopters repeatedly dropped loads of water around the Reagan complex, which is perched atop a hill blanketed in dense brush, amid 60-mph winds that were strong enough to knock a person off balance.
Southern California Edison confirmed Wednesday evening that the fire, which has burned 1,650 acres, broke out in its service territory near one of its sub-transmission lines, which was not de-energized at the time of ignition. The utility has notified the California Public Utilities Commission that there was activity on the sub-transmission line around the reported time of the fire, spokesman Robert Villegas said.
The exact cause of the fire remains unknown. Three firefighters have been injured in the blaze and two structures have been destroyed.
Other smaller fires erupted in communities including Riverside, Santa Clarita, Brea, Whittier, Lancaster, Calabasas, Fullerton, Long Beach, Nuevo and Jurupa Valley.
Shortly before 8 p.m., a brush fire erupted near Gilbert Street and Castlewood Drive in Fullerton, prompting the evacuation of homes in the area, the Fullerton Fire Department said in a Facebook post. Gilbert Street was closed between Rosecrans Avenue and Imperial Boulevard.
The fire has burned 8 acres and is contained to the northeast corner of Gilbert and Castlewood, the Fullerton Police Department said in an update issued at about 9:45 p.m. No homes are at risk of burning, police said, and residents who fled on foot were permitted to return starting about 10:30 p.m.
This Santa Ana wind event was forecast to be unusually strong and long-lasting, and weather observations showed how dangerous the conditions were.
The air was parched on Wednesday, with relative humidity hitting zero atop Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains and on peaks in the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Los Padres National Forest. Humidity levels all over Southern California were extremely dry even at lower elevations, with Sinaloa Lake in Simi Valley getting as low as 8% and Moorpark, 7%, said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Forecasters warned that conditions will remain extreme through most of Thursday. The air will continue to be dry, and although Santa Ana winds have probably peaked, they’ll still be strong, expected to gust between 40 mph and 60 mph, said Kristen Stewart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.