Shannon Anderson of Blue Mountain Farms horse ranch in Phelan had to load up and evacuate 40 horses as the fire approached. "It's raining ash," Anderson said, breathing hard.
They were among more than 82,000 people from over 34,000 homes were under evacuation orders, said Eric Sherwin of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
The fire erupted in a landscape ready to burn after years of drought and amid hot, dry and windy weather — conditions not expected to begin easing until late Thursday or Friday.
Devouring ranchlands 60 miles east of Los Angeles, the blaze surged west to the Los Angeles County line and north to the Mojave Desert. The damages were likely to be vast and serious once they could be properly measured.
Sherwin confirmed Tuesday night that it had burned at least a dozen buildings, some of them homes. He said he had seen all kinds of things burn, including the Summit Inn, a historic diner near I-15, he said.
"I'm looking up here and I'm seeing buses, I'm seeing outbuildings, I'm seeing houses," he said.
It was among several large fires burning up and down California, from Shasta County in the north to Camp Pendleton Marine base in San Diego County. It came after several steady weeks of major fires around the state, even though the full force of fire season has yet to arrive.
But even longtime observers were surprised by the staggering speed of the Southern California fire.
It prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in the area within hours of it breaking out, a move that more often comes after a blaze has done several days of destruction.
The fire forced a shutdown of part of Interstate 15, leaving commuters and travelers stranded for hours.
Six firefighters were briefly trapped by flames at a home where the occupants had refused to leave, forcing the crew to protect the house, fire officials said.
"We were fully engulfed in smoke," county firefighter Cody Anderson told KCBS-TV. "It was really hard just to see your hand in front of your face."
"We just hunkered down and sat there and waited for the fire to blow over," he said.
Anderson and another firefighter were treated for minor injuries.
As that fire surged, the Clayton Fire in Lake County quieted down, and about 4,000 people in the town of Clearlake were allowed to return home.
Their relief, however, was tempered with anger at a man authorities arrested for setting the blaze that wiped out several blocks of Lower Lake.
Investigators in Northern California said Tuesday they had been building a case against the suspected arsonist, 40-year-old construction worker Damin Anthony Pashilk, for more than a year. But they did not have enough evidence to make an arrest until the weekend blaze.
An attorney listed as representing Pashilk did not return a call requesting comment. Pashilk is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
Associated Press writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles, Sudhin Thanawala in Lakeport, Christine Armario in Wrightwood, Kristin J. Bender in San Francisco and Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report.
