Most evacuations from the Sherpa fire in the Santa Ynez Mountains and Los Padres National Forest were lifted at 5 a.m. Wednesday as weather improved and firefighters increased containment, allowing crews to head south to fight newer brush fires in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, Santa Barbara County officials said.
More than 1,000 firefighters have been battling the Reservoir and Fish fires, which have burned about 1.5 miles apart in the mountains above Duarte and Azusa. The blazes, which broke out Monday as temperatures hit triple digits, raged in a tinderbox region of the forest that had not burned for many years.
On Tuesday, crews began managing the fires as a single 4,900-acre conflagration called the San Gabriel Complex, which was 10% contained, authorities said.
No structures have been lost, authorities said. But the fires had forced the evacuation of at least 770 homes, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities urged residents of Monrovia and Bradbury to keep an eye on the news and to prepare to flee. John Tripp, deputy chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, advised residents to evacuate early if the flames got close, warning of clogged roads if fire crews and evacuating residents used the same thoroughfares.
Authorities said they would reevaluate the evacuation notices Wednesday morning.
The Reservoir fire was reported first, about 11 a.m. Monday, at Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains, apparently ignited by a car crash that killed one person, authorities said. A vehicle went over the side of the road and plunged to the bottom of a canyon near Morris Reservoir, Tripp said.
The Fish fire erupted more than an hour later near Brookridge and Opal Canyon roads in Duarte. The causes of both fires remain under investigation.
By Tuesday afternoon, at least 168 horses had been relocated to the Fairplex in Pomona, evacuated from stables throughout the foothills, officials said.
Other crews from the Sherpa fire were headed to San Diego County, where a wildfire fueled by dry brush and sweltering temperatures has scorched 6,020 acres just north of the U.S.-Mexico border and prompted mandatory evacuations for the entire east county community of Potrero. The Border fire was about 10% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
About 25 homes south of State Route 94 and east of State Route 188, near where the fire was initially sparked about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, were also evacuated.
The Border fire has destroyed four outbuildings and left three firefighters with minor injuries. The cause is under investigation.
Staff writers Ruben Vives and Nina Agrawal contributed to this report.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.
———
©2016 the Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
