3 Southern California Wildfires Destroy Dozens of Homes, Scorch More Than 100,000 Acres

Firefighters took advantage of cooler weather on Wednesday as they battled three wildfires in Southern California — the Bridge Fire, the Airport Fire and the Line Fire — that have destroyed dozens of mountain homes and a ski resort and prompted tens of thousands of evacuations. 

By Wednesday afternoon the fires had burned more than 105,000 acres of brush, scrub and forest over an area one-third the size of LA.

Tammi Wormsbecker, a longtime resident of Big Bear Lake, went to an evacuation shelter Wednesday afternoon to take refuge from the wildfires, saying that, while she knew fires could benefit the land, it was difficult when they came so close.

“That’s my home. I’ve lived there forever. And going back after such devastation and seeing everything that’s so familiar not be the same, it’s a hard thing to cope with,” Wormsbecker told The New York Times.

As California heads into the thick of wildfire season, the state has already seen three times the acreage burned as in all of 2023, reported The Associated Press.

There have been no reported deaths from the recent fires, but a dozen or more people — mostly firefighters — have received treatment for injuries primarily related to the heat, authorities said.

Residents of Wrightwood, about 90 minutes from LA, were fleeing the Bridge Fire, which had already destroyed more than a dozen of the area’s residences.

“It’s absolutely scary,” said Erin Arias, whose home was still standing. “We’re really lucky.”

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist from University of California, Los Angeles, said the Bridge fire raced across complex terrain, surprising fire officials and giving residents an unusually short window to evacuate.

Swain said the Bridge Fire “had to go up mountain sides, burn down slope, jump across valleys, burn across new ridges, and then make it down slope again at least two other times in effectively one burning period.”

As of Thursday morning, the Bridge Fire in LA and San Bernardino Counties had scorched 51,167 acres — nearly 80 square miles — and was zero percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The massive wildfire had destroyed 33 or more residences and six cabins, with 10,000 people evacuated. The cause of the Bridge Fire was not currently known.

Kevin Fetterman, incident commander of the Orange County Fire Authority, said the Bridge Fire had been hard to get under control due to dry conditions and difficult terrain, with some areas not having been affected by wildfires in decades.

The Airport Fire burning in Orange and Riverside Counties was reportedly started by the operation of heavy equipment in the area and fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and blistering heat. The fire had burned 23,140 acres — more than 36 square miles — including several El Cariso Village homes and was five percent contained. One resident suffered burns and another smoke inhalation.

More than 19,000 Riverside County residents were under evacuation orders, with several structures, including vacation cabins, damaged in Cleveland National Forest.

The Line Fire had charred 37,207 acres — more than 58 square miles — in the San Bernardino National Forest. Approximately 65,600 structures were being threatened by the fire, with residents of Big Bear Lake’s southern edge told to evacuate on Tuesday. The wildfire had injured three firefighters and was 18 percent contained. One suspect was arrested after being accused of starting the blaze in Highland.

National Guard troops were sent in by Governor Gavin Newsom to assist with evacuations.

The full range of the damage the fires have caused was not yet clear.

Joe McLean, whose house and car were destroyed in the Airport Fire, has spent his entire life living in the Southern California hillside neighborhood of El Cariso Village.

“My dad bought the place back in ’72 and I was born in ’81 and lived up there my whole life,” McLean, who works as a carpenter, told The New York Times. “Never thought it would happen. They’ve always taken care of us, you know. We have a very good Fire Department.”