Little by little, firefighting crews in Southern California are gaining control over three wildfires that have destroyed dozens of buildings, burned more than 100,000 acres and kept countless residents out of their homes for days.
On Friday, containment of the 51,884-acre Bridge fire increased to 3% after days of marching its way north over the Angeles and San Bernardino National forests with crews unable to contain any of its perimeter. More than 5,000 structures remain threatened by the flames and dozens of buildings destroyed.
Firefighters there and to the east fighting the Line fire and south at the Airport fire in Orange and Riverside counties have been counting on a break from days of extreme heat and low humidity as an opportunity to start to corral the out-of-control blazes.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, containment of the Line fire inched up to 21%. Overnight into Friday morning, the fire grew by less than 200 acres, to 37,743 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website.
Robert Rice, with the Department of Forestry, keeps a watchful eye on remnants of the Bridge fire in Mt. Baldy on Thursday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The Airport fire’s containment also increased Friday morning, climbing to 8% from 5% a day earlier. The blaze was listed at 23,494 acres. Teams there are assessing how many homes were destroyed in an isolated town tucked in the Santa Ana Mountains after the fire jumped Ortega Highway earlier in the week and ran through the town.
On Thursday, authorities there started to scale back evacuations as the weather turned in their favor.
By the weekend, firefighters could be fighting the fires with temperatures hovering in the 70s in some places, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
“It’s certainly a little less windy and a little bit higher humidity,” said Bryan Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard, on Thursday. “It should translate to better firefighting conditions, for sure.”