WRIGHTWOOD, California--Three Southern California wildfires torched dozens of mountain homes, tore through a ski resort and forced thousands to evacuate in towns and cities east of Los Angeles on Wednesday. Around 40 homes and cabins burned in the villages of Mount Baldy and Wrightwood and flames damaged lifts at the nearby Mountain High ski resort, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported. The San Bernardino County blaze, named the Bridge Fire, exploded to 48,000 acres (19,000 hectares) in 48 hours, becoming the largest in the state.
By Wednesday afternoon the three fires had blackened over 105,000 acres of scrub, brush and forest, an area a third the size of Los Angeles. "In recent history, this is the fire that has been the most dramatic over a single day period," LAFD spokesman Fred Fielding said of the Bridge Fire, as flames burned on a nearby hillside. Mike Devestern, 55 and a Wrightwood resident, said he was stunned by the speed with which the fire arrived on his doorstep and the chaos of watching his community flee Tuesday afternoon.
"It was like a movie yesterday," he said. "Everybody ... trying to get out of here before they got burnt." The Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties destroyed dozens of homes in El Cariso Village and Decker Canyon as it grew to over 23,000 acres, according to authorities and local news reports. "There was no more exit, you had to drive through the flames to get out," Ryan LaMothe, whose home was destroyed by the Airport Fire, told local television news station KTLA5.
Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency and said he had secured federal funds to fight the fires. Tinder-dry scrub and gusting winds are driving flames up steep canyons and mountainsides during a severe heatwave that scientists blame on climate change. Over a dozen injuries to civilians and firefighters have been reported. Cooler conditions are expected later in the week.
