Cars burn on Interstate 15 fire; drone interferes with firefighting effort
A fast-moving brush fire swept over the 15 Freeway in San Bernardino County on Friday, destroying 20 vehicles, damaging 10 others and threatening several mountain communities. Several structures have been burned.
In a region where brush fires are a way of life, the scene on the main route to Las Vegas was surreal. For more than an hour, cars, trucks and even a boat burned as news helicopters recorded the destruction.
Helicopters made dramatic water drops on burning vehicles.
Dozens of vehicles were abandoned on the freeway as drivers fled from the flames.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Carapia.
Carapia said that 60 to 70 cars were abandoned on the road, so emergency responders had a difficult time trying to maneuver through all the cars left behind. They were able to turn some cars around that were outside the immediate hot zone through an access road between the highways, he said.
Video posted by motorists trapped on the freeway showed people getting out of their vehicles and walking away from the cars on fire.
It's unclear if anyone was hurt. Officials from two hospitals near Cajon Pass, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center, said that they hadn't received any patients who had been injured in the fire as of 5:30 p.m. James Gallagher with Loma Linda said that patients would be first sent to Arrowhead Regional because of their burn unit, and that his facility would serve as back-up.
The fire was heading toward rural communities in the Baldy Mesa area. Officials said homes there were threatened. TV footage showed several structures burning, though no details were immediately available.
An evacuation center has been set up at Serrano High School at 9292 Sheep Creek Road in Phelan.
The fire had burned more than 3,500 acres and was spreading rapidly through the chaparral and grass, said Melody Lardner, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was being fueled by dry conditions and heavy winds. She said that two southbound lanes of the freeway and one northbound lane were closed.
Traffic -- typically bad on Fridays as people head to Las Vegas -- was jammed for miles. Officials urged drivers to stay away.
It's not unusual for a fast-moving fire to jump over roads. In the massive Old Fire in 2003 in the San Bernardino National Forest, flames jumped California 18. Video captured a KNBC news van catching fire as a reporter fled.
But the situation on Friday was unique because the 15 Freeway is a major roadway and was packed with weekend travelers.
The cause of the fire is unknown, Lardner said.
The fire left residents on edge.
While studying at her Victorville home Friday afternoon, Stephanie Lowe, 24, got a text message from her grandmother. She was worried about Lowe’s boyfriend, who takes Interstate 15 to get to his job at a warehouse in Ontario.
“I hope Hector made it to work,” it read. “The 15 Freeway, cars are on fire. Look at the news, it looks terrible.”
It was 4:02 p.m., but when she looked outside it seemed later.
She ran to the front door and didn’t see anything and then checked out back. She’s used to wild fires – they’re common near her home, she said – but this looked surreal. She watched heavy, black smoke float across the sky. The sun looked bright red.
“It looks like a scene from an end of the world movie,” she said.
She flipped on the TV and got an even-scarier view. She watched cars burn and wondered how they’d caught on fire. She texted her boyfriend, who told her he hadn’t gone to work Friday.
“It’s trippy,” she said, sighing, “If he’d been going to work at that moment. Wow.”
By 5:30 p.m., Lowe said the sky was getting even darker.
Officials have been warning for a bad fire season after four years of drought.
The situation is made worse by dying trees in forest areas.
This year, researchers with the U.S. Forest Service surveyed 4.2 million acres of trees in the Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles and Los Padres national forests and found that 2 million trees had died because of drought and the invasion of bark beetles. The tiny bark beetle thrives in dry conditions, chewing away at pines and making them brittle.
During the Lake Fire in late June, crews had to ground a DC-10 jumbo jet tanker carrying 10,800 gallons of flame retardant after spotting a hobby drone near the drop site. Two smaller planes also abandoned their missions.
On Sunday, firefighters had to temporarily halt drops on a 35-acre brush fire in Yucaipa. Authorities say that drones could interfere with firefighting aircraft that fly at low altitudes.
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Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles TimesUPDATES
4:37 p.m. Updated throughout
4:01 p.m. Updated with new details.
3:55 p.m. Updated with cars on fire.
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