Wildfires threaten L.A. neighborhoods
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) – High humidity early Saturday helped firefighters battle a 2,500-acre wildfire that burned a wing of an old resort hotel and climbed toward residential communities. No injuries were reported and no homes were in immediate danger.
Although there was no estimate on when firefighters would contain the flames in the San Bernardino National Forest, humidity of 80 percent aided the pre-dawn assault.
The blaze began about 60 miles east of Los Angeles shortly before noon Friday. It singed a wing of Arrowhead Springs resort, a 1930s hotel now used by a theology school. Five outbuildings were destroyed.
California Department of Forestry spokesman Bill Peters said the agency was conducting a small training burn in the area before the wildfire broke out.
About 30 minutes after firefighters controlled the burn, they noticed a fire about 300 feet away, Peters said.
“They immediately called for additional resources,” he said. “They tried to attack it, but it got away.”
Peters said an investigative team will determine what caused the wildfire. “If CDF is found to be responsible, then we will make good,” he said.
The wildfire burned its way north toward the small resort communities of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. Air tankers released fire retardant on the brushy slopes.
“I’m seeing flames – 30-foot flames – and my deck is covered completely in ash,” said Jamie Mariani, a server at Cliffhanger Restaurant in Crestline, as she watched the fire burn on the mountain slopes to the south.
In Arizona, firefighters were battling a wildfire that has scorched 23,300 acres on Mount Lemmon, which overlooks Tucson. The fire was 60 percent contained by Saturday afternoon and firefighters said they remained optimistic that they were gaining the upper hand.
Breezy winds were expected from the southwest Sunday and Monday, potentially heightening the danger that the fire will spread, said National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Goering.
In New Mexico, about 500 firefighters worked to mop up remaining hot spots in a 12,850-acre wildfire burning in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The fire was 90 percent contained Saturday and fire officials said fire lines were holding.