‘True miracle’: Edgehill fire in San Bernardino is quick and furious, but no residents are hurt
Hot, dry weather across California continued to fuel fires, with explosive growth again recorded at the Park fire in Butte and Tehama counties. Meanwhile, a smaller fire in the Southland reduced homes to rubble and sent families fleeing for safety.
Aidan Milam was at home Monday afternoon in San Bernardino when he and his girlfriend started to smell smoke.
They said they knew immediately they needed to get out — and fast. As they ran up the driveway, homes on both sides of them were burning, Milam said. He was able to grab the family dog before they hightailed it out of danger.
The trio made it out safe, but Milam’s home was among the five on West Vista Drive that were completely destroyed in the Edgehill fire, which rapidly blew through the neighborhood before it was doused. Three other homes were damaged, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District.
A fast-moving wildfire burned through a hillside community in San Bernardino on Monday afternoon, damaging homes and forcing evacuations.
“This house is more to me in memories than what I lost inside of it,” said Milam, 22, as he stood outside the singed home where he grew up. He had hoped to one day inherit the house.
“The true miracle coming out of this,” said San Bernardino fire spokesperson Eric Sherwin, “was the fact that this fire hit the community so hard and we didn’t have a single civilian injury. ... That’s just incredible.”
He said one firefighter was injured but had since been released from the hospital. Investigators are looking into the start of the fire, which appears to be human-caused, Sherwin said.
By Tuesday afternoon, firefighters were able to completely contain the fire, which was limited to 54 acres. The area remained under an excessive heat warning through Tuesday night.
The Park fire, now the fourth-largest wildfire in state history, saw a major blowup Monday, with dramatic smoke plumes filling the air near the junction of Highways 32 and 36, not far from the small town of Mineral. That town was already under an evacuation order; additional orders were issued for several communities in Tehama County near the Plumas County line.
“The fire is expected to continue to challenge crews until more favorable conditions arrive later in the week,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wrote in its latest update Tuesday.
Jim Evans, a spokesperson for the Park fire incident, said the fire got into a remote area with exceptionally dry, untouched brush, making it hard to fight, especially in high temperatures.
Tuesday morning brought “some of the same conditions we got yesterday,” Evans said. “That adds more fuel to the fire.”
Humidity could drop even lower Tuesday, officials said.
The Park fire is burning along creeks that provide vital spawning habitat for California’s spring-run Chinook salmon. Biologists worry the fire will cause harm.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep the acreage down and also to get up the containment,” Evans said. “The humidity has been [low] even at night.”
The Park fire, now about 34% contained, grew to 414,890 acres as of Tuesday evening, up more than 10,000 acres from Monday morning. More than 600 structures have been destroyed, many of them homes, and almost 3,000 remain at risk, according to Cal Fire.
“Critically low fuel moisture, steep canyons, long drive times and daily spot fires have caused difficulty in suppressing the fire spread,” Cal Fire wrote in its update. “Temperatures will continue to be hot and dry throughout the day.”
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