California Wildfires Destroy Dozens Of Homes, Ski Resort

Three Southern California wildfires have torched dozens of mountain homes and have also tore through a ski resort and forced thousands to evacuate in towns and cities east of Los Angeles on Wednesday, 11th of September, 2024.

Around 40 homes and cabins burned in the villages of Mount Baldy and Wrightwood and flames damaged lifts at the nearby Mountain High ski resort, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported.

According to Reuters, the San Bernardino County blaze, named the Bridge Fire, exploded to over 48,000 acres (19,000 hectares) in 48 hours, becoming the largest in the state. By Wednesday afternoon the three fires had blackened over 105,000 acres of scrub, brush and forest, an area a third the size of Los Angeles.

“In recent history, this is the fire that has been the most dramatic over a single day period,” LAFD spokesman Fred Fielding said of the Bridge Fire, as flames burned on a nearby hillside.

The Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties destroyed dozens of homes in El Cariso Village and Decker Canyon as it grew to over 22,000 acres, according to authorities and local news reports.