224 people airlifted from California’s ‘hellish’ Creek Fire. Now more must evacuate
“This is crazy. We haven’t even got into the October and November fire season, and we’ve broken the all-time record,” Cordova said.
“It concerns us because we need to get these firefighters off these lines and get them breaks from battling these wildfires.”
About 20 evacuees had injuries ranging from broken bones to burns. Two people had to be carried on a stretcher, Pogue said.
“The situation only can be described as just hellish conditions out there for those poor people,” Pogue said.
Juliana Park captured footage of the Creek Fire as she and several others fled in a car.
“A backpacking trip cut short by unforeseen thunder, ash rain, and having to drive through literal fire to evacuate #SierraNationalForest in time,” Park tweeted. “Grateful to the SNF ranger who led us down… wish we … got her name.”
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office ordered everyone in the community of Shaver Lake to leave immediately Sunday.
“There is an imminent threat to life and property due to the fast moving Creek Fire,” the sheriff’s office said.
On Saturday, campers at the lake were asked to shelter in place after the Creek Fire blocked the only way out of the area. The group at the lake received the warning from a helicopter’s public address system.
“Fire runs uphill, as does the road out,” Tune said. “We did not want to put campers attempting to caravan through an area where fire is likely.”
The California National Guard helped rescue those trapped by a fire that blocked the only road out.
By Sunday morning, Pogue said he believed everyone had been rescued from the Mammoth Pool area. But officials plan to keep looking Sunday for others who might be stranded in the remote wilderness.
An air tanker drops fire retardant on the wildfire in the Sierra National Forest.
The conditions have made firefighting exceptionally challenging. There have been a few instances of limited visibility due to the smoke, but firefighters have been able to battle the blaze from the air, Tune said.
“The column on a fire like this can be quite dangerous,” he said. “So the aircraft has had to back off for a time, and go back again once conditions change.”
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for the region, with high temperatures ranging from 107 to 112 degrees slated to last until Monday night.
On top of that, “this is in a river canyon, so in the afternoon you get up-canyon winds,” Tune said. Sustained wind speeds are about 10 to 15 miles per hour.
Meanwhile, some San Bernardino communities are being told to evacuate because of the El Dorado Fire, which has burned through 3,010 acres since it began Saturday morning.
An evacuation order has been issued for the Oak Glen, Mountain Home Village, Forest Falls and North Bench Yucaipa communities. The human-caused fire is under investigation, according to the San Bernardino National Forest.
CNN’s Justin Lear, Susannah Cullinane and Alta Spells contributed to this report.
