20 Major Wildfires Burning in West

A fast-moving brush fire forced the closure of Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass for several hours Wednesday as at least 20 major wildfires continued to burn out of control in the West.

The Cajon Pass fire, which had blackened about 250 acres by nightfall, broke out shortly after noon as Gov. George Deukmejian was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the arsonist or arsonists who started the 3,000-acre blaze that led to the death of a firefighter near Big Sur.

The California Department of Forestry said 170 firefighters, 8 air tankers and 3 helicopters were deployed against the blaze that shut down Interstate 15 when flames swept westward across the northbound lanes near California 138, about 15 miles north of San Bernardino.

Main Highway

The California Highway Patrol said the closure of the interstate, one of Southern California’s main links to the east, backed up traffic in both directions for miles.

The road, closed at about 2 p.m., reopened at 5:30 p.m. as coastal winds pushed the flames back to the east. Department of Forestry officials said they hoped to contain the blaze by dawn, but there was no estimate for full control.

The cause of the fire was not immediately determined.

At Big Sur, firefighters said they hoped increasing fog and cooler temperatures would help them contain the blaze in and around Molera State Park by 6 p.m. Friday. Full control was expected sometime Monday.

An investigation continued into the death of Antonio Hernandez, 26, a convict-firefighter killed when a fire-weakened, 175-foot-tall redwood tree toppled onto the conservation camp crew that was cutting a fire break. The accident injured six others.

‘Busy Work’

One injured member of the crew said the accident resulted from “busy work” designed to impress a state forestry official, but a Department of Forestry spokeswoman discounted the suggestion that firefighters were endangered needlessly.

In San Diego County, firefighters said they had been able to cut lines around 80% of a fire that had blackened about 4,700 acres of brush and timberland in the Cleveland National Forest near Mt. Laguna. Control of the blaze, apparently started Sunday by a carelessly discarded cigarette, was expected sometime tonight.

In northeastern California, firefighters were still struggling to control a 4,500-acre blaze in Plumas County that was contained late Tuesday. Officials said it was still too early to predict when the fire would be extinguished.

Rain was helping firefighters make headway against blazes in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, but federal fire officials said the rain will also bring thousands of lightning strikes that could kindle new fires.

Rain Provides Assist

Half an inch of rain poured down on the 2,000-acre Boulder Canyon fire in central Colorado before dawn on Wednesday, helping about 180 firefighters contain about 90% of the blaze that had damaged or destroyed dozens of homes since the weekend. There was no estimate of when the fire will be controlled.

A blaze in Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado was contained after buring about 2,600 acres, and officials said control was expected by the weekend.

In Nebraska, planes dumped fire retardants on a blaze that had blackened vast areas of ranch and parklands. The rugged terrain made precise estimates of the size difficult, but officials said between 40,000 and 100,000 acres of brush, grasslands and timber had burned. The officials said the fire was fully contained, but it was still too early to predict when it would be controlled.

Blazes Contained

In Arizona, fires that had burned more than 63,000 acres since last weekend were all reported contained, and control of most of them was expected sometime today.

In Utah, nine fires that had blackened a total of more than 35,000 acres were still burning, but eight of them were contained and all were expected to be controlled by the weekend.

In Wyoming, four fires were still active after blackening a total of more than 4,000 acres. There was no estimate for control.