Person apprehended for arson accusations as wildfires wreak havoc beyond containment in Southern California, prompting additional evacuation notices.
Trabuco Canyon, California (AP) — An individual was apprehended on arson charges yesterday as three significant wildfires in California produced catastrophic-looking columns of smoke that filled the sky east of Los Angeles during a scorching heatwave, endangering tens of thousands of homes and structures.
Evacuation orders were expanded Tuesday night as the fires escalated and encompassed parts of the famous ski resort town of Big Bear and the entire town of Wrightwood, with around 4,500 residents. Authorities urged people to abandon their residences.
“There isn’t a single material possession that justifies risking your life,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated.
Over the past few years, wildfires have frequently torched the vicinity of Wrightwood, a picturesque mountain town 60 miles east of Los Angeles renowned for its 1930s cabins. Authorities voiced exasperation in 2016 when only half of the population heeded the evacuation orders.
Janice Quick, the president of the Wrightwood Chamber of Commerce, received a text message from a friend stating that her friend's home had been engulfed in flames, while another friend watched through her doorbell camera as embers rained down on her house.
Quick recalled having lunch with friends outside in the late afternoon, and they were showered with embers the size of her thumbnail that hit the table and made a ringing sound.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like this, and I’ve dealt with fires before,” said Quick, who has been a Wrightwood resident for 45 years.
In the San Bernardino National Forest, approximately 65,600 homes and buildings were under threat by the Line Fire, which included those under mandatory evacuations and those under evacuation warnings. This number nearly doubled compared to the previous day.
Residents along the southern edge of Big Bear Lake were instructed to leave the area Tuesday night, as per the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. It remains unclear how many people were impacted in the area, which is a popular destination for anglers, cyclists, and hikers.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, 34, was detained Tuesday on three arson charges in relation to the Line Fire, according to the department and prison records. Halstenberg is being held on a $80,000 bond, as reported by the department. It's uncertain whether he has secured legal representation.
The inferno had burned over 51 square miles of grassland and shrubbery and shrouded the area in a thick cloud of dark smoke. The acrid air prompted several schools in the area to close until the end of the week due to safety concerns. Three firefighters have suffered injuries since the fire was reported on Thursday, as per fire managers in the state.
In Orange County, firefighters employed bulldozers, helicopters, and airplanes to tame a rapidly spreading blaze called the Airport Fire, which started on Monday and spread to approximately 3 square miles within a few hours. The fire was ignited by a spark from heavy machinery used by public workers, officials stated.
By Tuesday night, it had consumed over 30 square miles and was heading over mountainous terrain into neighboring Riverside County with no containment, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. The fire had burned some communication towers on top of a peak, although, as of now, officials reported no disruption to police or fire communication signals in the area.
Concialdi stated that the fire was moving away from homes in Orange County, but there are 36 recreational cabins in the vicinity. He said authorities have yet to ascertain if the cabins were damaged or destroyed by the blaze.
Two firefighters who suffered from heat exhaustion and a resident who experienced smoke inhalation were hospitalized and later released.
Sherri Fankhauser, her husband, and her daughter set up lawn chairs and watched as helicopters dropped water on a blazing hillside a few hundred yards away from their Trabuco Canyon home on Tuesday. Despite their street being under a mandatory evacuation order since Monday, they chose not to evacuate. A neighbor helped Fankhauser’s 89-year-old mother-in-law evacuate, she revealed. The flames subsided last night, but they flared up again this morning.
“You can see the fire spreading over the ridge now,” Fankhauser stated Tuesday afternoon. “It’s becoming a little more unsettling now.”
She expressed trust in the crews' abilities to get the situation under control and that the firefighters kept them informed.
In Northern California, a fire measuring less than a square mile that started on Sunday destroyed at least 30 homes and commercial buildings and destroyed 40 to 50 vehicles in Clearlake City, 110 miles north of San Francisco, as per officials. Around 4,000 people were forced to leave due to the so-called Boyles Fire, which was about 50% contained by Tuesday night.
Other major fires were raging in the West, such as in Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada, where around 20,000 individuals had to flee a blaze outside Reno. The uncontained Davis Fire had burned at least one house and threatened dozens more. It started in the Davis Creek Regional Park within the Washoe Valley and was rapidly spreading through dense vegetation, as per firefighters.
An emergency declaration issued for Washoe County by Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo on Sunday stated that around 20,000 individuals were evacuated from neighborhoods, businesses, parks, and campgrounds.
Over 600 firefighters in the area were active on Tuesday but were gearing up for worsening weather conditions on Wednesday, which could see dangerously strong winds and dry conditions. The National Weather Service in Reno stated that it was the first time in five years and only the sixth time in history that they had labeled the warning as a “particularly dangerous situation.”
All off-duty firefighters in the Reno area have been ordered to return to work on Wednesday.
"For the past twelve years serving as the fire chief, that's never been part of my routine, Charles Moore mentioned Tuesday."
CNN's Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.
US authorities expressed concern in 2016 when only half of Wrightwood's residents heeded the evacuation orders during wildfires. The detained individual, Justin Wayne Halstenberg, is from 'us', as he was apprehended in California on arson charges related to the Line Fire.
