At least 80 homes have burned and 1,500 others are threatened by a wildfire racing across Kern County that grew to 8,000 acres in less than 24 hours and quickly became the state’s most destructive fire of the year.
Authorities said they were overwhelmed by the fire, which pushed into rural communities Thursday evening so quickly that firefighters could not keep up with the inferno. They said years of drought combined with heat and strong winds created the devastating conditions.
The Erskine fire was burning off Erskine Creek Road just south of Highway 178, near Lake Isabella in Squirrel Valley. The blaze is “extremely dangerous, extremely volatile,” said Kern County Fire Capt. Tyler Townsend.
“I've never been in a wildland fire where I've seen so many homes burn,” said Townsend, who has been in the area for nearly a decade. “It's one of the most devastating I've ever seen.”
The blaze raced across 11 miles in 13 hours while firefighters raced to try to protect rural neighborhoods.
“Firefighters from all agencies … have been engaged in a firefight of epic proportions trying to save every structure possible,” said Kern County Fire Chief Brian Marshall at a news conference Friday morning. “In a situation like this there’s not enough fire trucks and firefighters to put in front of every structure … they’re working whole neighborhoods.”
Marshall estimated that at least 100 structures -- including 80 homes -- have been destroyed by the fire, but he said an accurate count wouldn’t be available until after sunrise.
The wind-pushed fire was uncontained and chewing through dead grass and big trees parched by years of drought. Hundreds of firefighters were flooding the area Friday morning to join in the effort, officials said.
The fire is threatening the small communities of South Fork, Weldon, Onyx, Lakeland Estates, Yankee Canyon and Mountain Mesa.
About 300 firefighters were available to fight the flames Thursday night, but that number was expected to double Friday, Townsend said. Three firefighters have suffered smoke inhalation, officials said.
Video from local TV stations showed the fire moving rapidly down a hillside and into a neighborhood of homes. Another video from the Kern County Fire Department showed some structures engulfed in flames as a large air tanker flew over the blaze.
On Thursday, Cathy Berlin sat with her three dogs and some family members at the entrance of an evacuation center at the Kern River Valley Senior Center in Lake Isabella, wondering what would come next.
"We lost our house, I've lived in that house for as long as I've lived here, 14 years," she said. "Now we've got nothing."
Berlin's house, a mobile home, was one of several that burned in the flames of the Erskine fire. She said she in Los Angeles, taking a friend to the hospital, when she heard of the fire.
"It took me five hours to get here, even though I went 90 miles per hour," she said. "My family got out, but they didn't have time to take anything except the dogs."
Some houses were already little more than embers on the ground, while others were deep in flames.
Smoky haze could be seen for miles, and orange flames lighted the evening air as planes and helicopters made drops.
Conditions were the worst they could have been for a fire, said Geri Jackson, a spokeswoman with the Sequoia National Forest, one of several agencies responding to the blaze. Temperatures were in the high 90s, humidity was in the single digits and low teens, and the area was just coming off a weeklong wind advisory.
“The wind, the heat and the low humidity -- all that does is just drive a fire,” Jackson said. “When the fire initially started, it took off quickly.”
Power was out at 6,488 homes, a representative from Southern California Edison said. AT&T cell service was also out, making it difficult for residents to communicate with loved ones and officials.
In addition to the evacuation center at the Senior Center at 6405 Lake Isabella Blvd., evacuees were being sheltered at Kern Valley High School at 3340 Erskine Creek Road. A local television station reported long lines of people at the high school, waiting to use a land line to make a phone call.
Also, Kernville Elementary School, "Home of the Mountaineers," was home to more than 100 people who were evacuated from their homes in Lake Isabella on Thursday night.
Ramon Williams sat leaning against the school sign for Kernville Elementary looking at the ground, red-eyed and in disbelief.
"That place shouldn't have burnt down," he said. "We kept our yard clean. We got three acres."
Williams lost his mobile home to the Erskine fire, leaving with just the clothes he wore.
"I don't have anything," he said. "This is all I've got."
Williams said he escaped from his home in Weldon with his wife and 10-year-old granddaughter.
"You couldn't even see, you were just choking on it," he said. "When we got out, the sky was bright orange. It was like something out of the Bible."
Williams said he has fire insurance but doesn't know if he would rebuild a home on the same land.
"After tonight, everything's gonna change," he said. "I don't know what will happen next."
The Kern County blaze is the latest of several major brush fires to hit Southern and Central California in the last two weeks.
In Santa Barbara County, the Sherpa fire forced hundreds to flee their homes north of Santa Barbara last week. This week, two fires in the hills above Azusa and Duarte forced more evacuations.
In San Diego County, firefighters increased containment Thursday of the Border fire just north of the U.S.-Mexico border that prompted mandatory evacuations for the entire east county community of Potrero. The Border fire has burned 6,840 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Border fire has destroyed four outbuildings and left three firefighters with minor injuries. The cause is under investigation.
Temperatures in the Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara county mountains and valleys hovered in the 90s Thursday, but they could climb into the 100s by the weekend while coinciding with a drop in humidity and strong winds, National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall said.
A red-flag warning -- meaning weather conditions are prime for a fast-moving, destructive wildfire -- was in effect for the those three counties, while a heat advisory was expected in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties, the weather service said.
Weather conditions will get worse through the weekend, Hall said.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna
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