Fire crews in Southern California are finally gaining control of three wildfires that have destroyed dozens of buildings, burned more than 100,000 acres and kept countless residents from their homes for days.
On Friday, containment of the 51,884-acre Bridge Fire increased to 3% after days of marching north across the Angeles and San Bernardino National forests with crews unable to contain any of its perimeter. More than 5,000 structures are still threatened by the flames and dozens of buildings destroyed.
Firefighters there and to the east battling the Line Fire and to the south on the Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties have counted on a break from days of extreme heat and low humidity as an opportunity to begin taming the out-of-control blazes.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, containment of the line fire increased up to 21%. Overnight into Friday morning, the fire grew by less than 200 acres, to 37,743 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s website.
Robert Rice, with the Department of Forestry, is keeping a watchful eye on the remains of the bridge fire in Mt. Baldy on Thursday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The airport fire’s containment also increased Friday morning, climbing to 8% from 5% a day earlier. The fire was listed at 23,494 hectares. Teams there are assessing how many homes were destroyed in an isolated town nestled in the Santa Ana Mountains after the fire jumped Ortega Highway earlier this week and raced through town.
On Thursday, authorities there began to reduce evacuations as the weather turned in their favor.
By the weekend, firefighters could battle the blazes with temperatures hovering in the 70s in some places, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
“It’s really a little less windy and a little higher humidity,” Bryan Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, said Thursday. “That should translate to better fire fighting conditions, absolutely.”