The fast-growing Bridge Fire burning through the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California has destroyed 20 homes in the Mount Baldy area, officials confirmed in a news conference Wednesday morning.
The Bridge Fire exploded in size on Tuesday, growing from 4,000 acres to 34,240 acres in the course of several hours. As of Wednesday afternoon, the fire was 50,258 acres with zero containment.
“This is currently the largest active fire in the state of California. Our priority remains the protection of life and structure and infrastructure defense,” said Anthony Marrone, fire chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, in the Wednesday morning news conference. “Thankfully, we have no reported significant injuries and no deaths. However, unfortunately, we have approximately 20 homes destroyed in the Mount Baldy area.”
An additional 13 homes were destroyed in the Wrightwood area, and six cabins in the wilderness area were also destroyed, according to Marrone. A total of 2,500 structures remain threatened.
Mount Baldy village is a small unincorporated community tucked just below Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains, about a 15-drive minute north of the suburban city of Claremont east of Los Angeles. Firefighters have so far held the fire along the community’s western edge.
“Firefighters held the lines they had west of Mount Baldy Road, and they continue to prioritize securing contingency lines to the south,” according to a Wednesday news release from Angeles National Forest.
But the threat isn’t over yet.
“The Mount Baldy portion of this fire is backing down the slopes toward Mount Baldy Road right now, threatening structures in Baldy village, where structure defense mechanisms are in place,” said Jason Schillinger with California Interagency Incident Management 5. Schillinger added that “numerous structures” on the Wrightwood side of the fire have also been impacted.
“We are operating in a full suppression effort, which means we will keep this fire as small as possible. Even though we plan for that, we are preparing for large fire growth in respect to the structure threat,” said Schillinger.
An updated estimate of the total number of structures damaged and destroyed by the fire is expected later this evening, with Schillinger noting that Wednesday morning’s numbers were rough figures and not official totals.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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