Calif. firefighters winning battle against wildfire

HESPERIA, Calif.�? Authorities on Friday ordered the residents of 1,500 homes to evacuate as a brush fire that erupted on the main interstate between Southern California and Las Vegas spread.

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Flames are near some large ranch homes in the Oak Hills area west of Interstate 15, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman said.

The fire began around 1 p.m. Friday and covered 500 acres in just two hours. It broke out in a median strip of Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass and quickly spread to scrub brush on both sides of the highway, authorities said.

It temporarily closed the heavily traveled freeway in the Cajon Pass area of the high desert northeast of Los Angeles, causing holiday weekend traffic to back up for miles.

Northbound lanes later reopened with escort by the California Highway Patrol as the fire burned away from traffic lanes.

"We are encouraging people to stay out of the Cajon Pass if at all possible, if they can postpone their trip," said San Bernardino National Forest fire information officer Carol Underhill. "There's a lot of traffic on the 15 right now."

The fire was burning chaparral in rolling hills that form the nearby San Bernardino National Forest and unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County, U.S. Forest Service spokesman John Miller said.

"There's million-dollar homes up there," Victorville resident Tom Woods told KCAL-TV.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said mandatory evacuation orders were issued for Oak Hills as well as neighborhoods in the high desert community of Hesperia.

The Oak Hills area contains hundreds of recently built luxury horse properties spread over the hills, Woods said.

Woods said he could see a huge plume of smoke from his home 10 miles away.

Dramatic television images showed flames licking at the edges of large hillside properties, pouring thick black smoke into the air northeast of Los Angeles, as fire crews and water-dropping aircraft sought to turn the fire back.

Underhill said a firefighter was injured in the so-called Hill Fire but not burned, but she didn't know the firefighter's condition.

About a dozen aircraft, including a DC-10 jumbo jet tanker, were called in to help fight the flames.

An evacuation shelter was set up by the Red Cross at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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