Fire erupts in forest northeast of Los Angeles

Evacuations were ordered Monday afternoon as firefighters battled two brush fires burning in the Angeles National Forest above Azusa and Duarte, amid a record-setting heat wave, fire officials said.

The two fires appeared to be burning toward each other, prompting fears that they would merge. That fire burned 2,000 acres and was zero percent contained as of 6 p.m. Monday, fire officials said.

“The trends are good, but it’s still not going to be a pleasant fire day”, Rorke said.

The first fire erupted around 11:15 a.m. on Highway 39 near the Morris Reservoir dam north of Azusa, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire was apparently ignited by a fatal auto crash.

Firefighters from both the county and USFS were battling the fires amid soaring temperatures and bone-dry conditions, the USFS said, adding that overnight crews were using aircraft water drops to quell the flames.

The fire has charred just a few acres, but officials with the Santa Fe National Forest are considering some youth camps and campgrounds threatened. There are no evacuation orders at this time.

Most mandatory evacuations will be lifted Wednesday morning and almost all by Saturday, authorities said Monday night.

As of late Monday afternoon, the Reservoir Fire had covered about 1,200 acres, according to the Incident Information System website.

A Fire Department spokesman said earlier that one home had burned. Crews were also working to prevent damage to power lines on hilltops.

The fire has not had any impact on either patients or staff at City of Hope, the Duarte-based cancer treatment and research center, according to a statement posted on Monday on the center’s Facebook page.

An evacuation shelter was set up at 1600 Huntington Drive in Duarte.

Valerie Kiernicki, 59, had been sewing at her home near Fish Canyon about 1:30 p.m. when she heard helicopters overhead and went outside to see what was happening.

The summer wildfire season in Southern California has barely begun and already hundreds of homes have been evacuated as flames have engulfed thousands of acres of San Gabriel Mountain foothills about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

She and her husband grabbed their computer and safe deposit box, and she brought her two cats to the evacuation center.

Evacuations were underway in San Gabriel Canyon as 300 firefighters worked to get control of the wildfire.

Highway 39 in the mountains above Azusa was closed due to the fire. “The flames were right there”. I can see the smoke from my office.

The fires triggered a smoke advisory from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The fire is about half a mile to three quarters of a mile north of the dam, between San Gabriel and Morris dams, along the San Gabriel River, according to Lee.

Another wildfire was growing near Potrero, a small desert town close to the Mexico border.

PJTC executive director Beryl Strauss said she was not now aware of any PJTC families affected by either of the fires, however.