Threat lingers from Southern California wildfires, officials say

Firefighters working to contain several wildfires burning in Southern California have faced scorching heat for days but are looking forward to a continued dip in temperatures that could finally give crews the upper hand.

On Thursday, fire officials cautioned that several communities were still under threat as some wildfires continued to show "extreme fire behavior" on the ground.

Thousands of people remained under evacuation orders across Southern California due to the Bridge, Line and Airport fires Thursday but officials said cooler temperatures through the weekend should help.

"The conditions are improving a little bit — at least weather-wise," said Bryan Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard.

The Bridge fire has consumed at least 20 homes in Wrightwood, Mt. Baldy Village and other mountain hamlets — and more than 1,000 structures are still threatened by the fire, officials said Wednesday night.

The fire broke out Sunday in Angeles National Forest and exploded from 4,000 acres to more than 50,000 acres between Tuesday and Wednesday. It had blackened 51,167 acres by Thursday morning with no containment.

Firefighters were focusing their efforts to protect the communities of Wrightwood, Pinon Hills, and Mount Baldy Thursday. After battling the fire for days in temperatures that reached into the triple-digits, crews will carry on the fight with temperatures hovering in the mid- to low-70s into the weekend, with the possibility of drizzle on Sunday, Lewis said. The weekend weather will also bring a light breeze with 10 mph gusts steering the fire east, he said.

"It's certainly a little less windy and a little bit higher humidity," he added. "It should translate to better firefighting conditions, for sure."

Despite the improving weather, firefighters will still have to grapple with steep and rugged terrain, as well as an abundance of fuel beds and vegetation from back to back wet winters. The region charred by the Bridge fire has a long history of fires and has trees stressed by historic drought, so a few days of increased humidity isn't enough to significantly reduce the landscape's ability to catch fire.

In the two other major Southern California fires — the Airport fire and the Line fire — at least 13 people, including several firefighters, have been injured.

By Thursday morning, the Airport fire had charred 23,410 acres in Riverside and Orange counties and was 5% contained, and the Line fire in San Bernardino County had burned 37,207 acres and was 18% contained. Neighborhoods east of both fires remained under evacuation orders.

Orange County Fire Authority Incident Commander Kevin Fetterman said the Airport fire has been hard to mitigate because of dry weather conditions and terrain.

Depending on where crews are located, the conditions around the fire can be very different. Humidity levels on the Airport fire's west and east flanks are upwards of 55%, while on the northern edge in Riverside County near Lake Elsinore it is as low as 25%, setting the vegetation there up to readily burn. Temperatures around the fire were in the 60s Thursday, a huge improvement from the extreme heat when the fire first made its run from Orange to Riverside County.

There's even the potential for rain around the Airport fire on Monday, Gonsalves said.

"I don't think it will put the fire out but it will certainly help," he added.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the three fires, which frees up additional state resources to respond and allows the impacted counties to recover more funds from the firefight.

Eight firefighters and two civilians were injured and sent to hospitals for treatment Monday and Tuesday as a result of the Airport fire, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Sean Doran told The Times. Two of the victims sustained burns.

The agency did not provide information on the status of the patients or the severity of their injuries.

Cleveland National Forest District Ranger Darrell Vance warned during a news conference that the Airport fire could burn toward the location of the Holy Fire, which scorched more than 23,000 acres in 2018 and destroyed more than a dozen structures.

"Obviously, we don't want to make predictions on what we think it's going to do, but we have high hopes that that's gonna assist us with the prior burn scar," Vance said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .