Sheep Fire near Wrightwood swells to 990 acres, prompting evacuations amid containment woes
A wildfire burning in the Angeles National Forest swelled to 990 acres Monday, prompting evacuations in San Bernardino County.
The blaze, dubbed the Sheep Fire, sparked Saturday evening near Wrightwood in heavy dried vegetation, according to forest service officials. By Sunday night, it had spread to 775 acres and was burning toward Desert Front Road.
It was 5% contained Monday morning, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
“The terrain is very steep — it's a bad area,” said Alison Hesterly, a public information officer with Cal Fire San Bernardino. Hesterly said the majority of the fuel, or vegetation, on the western side of Highway 2 doesn't have any recent fire history, “so we're talking about areas that haven't burned in 20-plus years.”
The fire was burning primarily on Forest Service land, she said, and was moving northwest.
The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department has issued evacuation orders for areas near the fire, including Highway 2 south to Lone Pine Canyon Road; Wright Mountain Road to Sheep Creek Drive; Desert Front Road and Wild Horse Canyon; and Highway 138 to Sand Canyon.
The rest of the community of Wrightwood is under an evacuation warning, officials said. An evacuation center has been set up at Serrano High School in Phelan.
The fire ignited only days after Southern California fire officials warned residents that drought and extreme heat were creating conditions for a potentially treacherous fire season this year. A triple-digit heat wave blanketed much of California this weekend.
“Given the fuel conditions, the fire conditions that we're here talking about, I foresee a very tough four, five, six months in front of us,” Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said Thursday.
Vegetation in some parts of the region is 40% drier than normal for the date, officials said.
More than 200 personnel were assigned to the blaze, according to Hesterly, who described it as a “rapidly expanding incident.” Fixed and rotary-wing aircraft were attacking the fire from above while crews on the ground worked to lay containment lines.
“They're really focusing hard on the edges on the northwest side and the south end to secure those edges, to hope that the wind won't blow the fire out of the containment lines,” she said. “That's a huge focus for today — securing those high-risk areas with hose lines and hand lines.”
Meanwhile, crews on Monday were making progress on another fire that ignited over the weekend, the Fish fire near Duarte.
By Monday morning, it was holding at about 35 acres and was 18% contained, officials said. No structures were threatened and no evacuation orders had been issued.