Firefighters got the call about a brush fire near state Route 18 shortly after 1 a.m. local time, said Chris Prater, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Strong winds have pushed the blaze into northern San Bernardino. Hundreds of homes there have been evacuated.
The highway, which connects San Bernardino to the mountains north of the city, was also closed because of the fire, according the California Highway Patrol.
“It’s very fast-moving,” Prater said of the blaze, known as the Hillside fire. “We do have very strong winds coming out of the north-northeast, facilitating the fire spread.”
Another fire in Jurupa Valley, just southwest of San Bernardino, grew to cover 75 acres Thursday morning, damaged at least two residential structures and prompted evacuations, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
Firefighters in Northern California believe they have “turned the corner” in battling the Kincade fire and are expecting more good news Thursday and in coming days.
At a Wednesday night news conference, authorities listed several positive signs: The fire was 45% contained, up from 30% on Wednesday morning. Air quality was improving. Strong, gusty winds had subsided. And most of the roughly 190,000 residents who were evacuated had been cleared to return to their homes.
“We believe that most of the threat is now in our rearview mirror, and we are moving forward here,” said Mark Essick, the Sonoma County sheriff.
The fire burned 76,825 acres, destroyed 266 structures and damaged 47 others as of Wednesday night. More than 4,200 firefighting personnel were still on the scene, some of whom worked through the night. Authorities cautioned that despite the good news, the fire could still behave unpredictably, as humidity remained low and there was no rain in the forecast.
In Southern California, a fast-moving brush fire that began early Wednesday — and burned its way 100 yards from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum — was still raging.
As of Wednesday night, that fire, known as the Easy fire, was 5% contained and threatened 7,000 structures.
This article originally appeared in
.