By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Hundreds of residents of
three small communities in the high desert east of Los Angeles
were evacuated on Wednesday as an out-of-control wildfire headed
toward them.
The fire broke out shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday near a
back-country road south of Banning, about 90 miles (145
kilometers) outside Los Angeles in Riverside County.
Within hours it had blackened more than 5,000 acres (2,025
hectares), California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
spokesman Daniel Berlandt said.
Poppet Flats, Twin Pines and Silent Valley were under
mandatory evacuation orders, and Highway 243 had been closed,
Berlandt said. A shelter has been set up at a high school in
nearby Hemet.
Berlandt said several structures had been destroyed by the
flames, but it was not immediately clear if any of them were
homes. Local TV images showed what appeared to be single-family
residences in flames.
He said some 500 firefighters assisted by water-dropping
aircraft were working to protect homes and other buildings, and
more crews were on the way.
Authorities have not yet determined how the fire started.
Berlandt said conditions were “extremely dry” in the area and
across California and the West.
The fire is the latest to break out during what experts say
could become one of the worst U.S. fire seasons. Already, a
Colorado wildfire ranked as that state’s most destructive on
record ravaged more than 500 homes and killed two people.
In Arizona, 19 members of an elite “hotshot” firefighting
crew died while battling a wildfire on June 30.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Xavier Briand)
