Blaze burns homes, spurs evacuations
A rapidly expanding brush fire in Lytle Creek in San Bernardino County on Wednesday burned several homes, threatened others along with businesses and forced evacuations, fire officials said.
By 6 p.m., the fire’s size had reached 500 acres, with around 600 structures threatened, said Cal Fire/San Bernardino.
Around 1,000 residents were under evacuation orders, Cal Fire said.
Residents of Lytle Creek who live north of Lytle Creek Ranger Station on Lytle Creek Road were ordered to evacuate around 6:50 p.m., according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Additional evacuation orders were issued for Lytle Creek Road south of the ranger station, west of Sierra Avenue, north of the 15 Freeway and east of Duncan Canyon Road to the foothills.
An evacuation warning was in place for residents north of Glen Helen Parkway, east of Sierra Avenue and Lytle Creek Road and west of the 15 Freeway, the San Bernardino National Forest reported.
Lytle Creek is north of Rialto and on the south side of the Cajon Pass.
One firefighter from an unspecified agency was transported to a hospital with a minor injury, Cal Fire said.
High voltage power transmission lines that feed the Greater Los Angeles area also were threatened by the fire and were a secondary concern after the immediate threat to the Lytle Creek community, said Mike McClintock, battalion chief with the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
Some structures had burned, including homes seen ablaze in TV footage. San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesman Eric Sherwin estimated about a dozen or so structures had been damaged or destroyed.
The fire was advancing to the northeast. In some areas, light winds pushed the flames, and in others, the flames were assisted by the topography as flames burn more easily uphill.
McClintock said the Fire Department was forecasting the fire’s potential spread and had contingency plans in the event it got into the Cajon Pass.
The fire was burning on the east side of Lytle Creek Road north of Glen Helen Parkway, as well as west of Lytle Creek Road.
The fire was reported at 1:40 p.m. on Lytle Creek Road, 1 mile north of Duncan Canyon Road. Sherwin said officials are investigating whether excavation equipment in the area might have touched off the blaze.
By just after 6 p.m., there was no containment reached.
Containment is the area of a fire that firefighters have surrounded, usually with hand lines dug up using shovels or trenches plowed with bulldozers.
Traffic on the 15 Freeway was moving slowly in the area. The Sierra on- and offramps of the 15 were closed.
An evacuation center was set up at Jessie Turner Community Center, 15556 Summit Ave., Fontana.
Large animals can be taken to the Devore Animal Shelter, 19777 Shelter Way, San Bernardino.
Sherwin said firefighters are entering the beginning of the peak of the fire season, and even though the temperatures in the past week have been cooler, brush remains dry.
Windy conditions also impacted the fire’s spread, Sherwin said.
The fire is being jointly managed by San Bernardino County, the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire’s San Bernardino Unit. Firefighters from throughout Southern California were on the lines.
More than 500 firefighters and over 50 engines were on the scene working to suppress the fire and were supported by aircraft dropping retardant.