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Brush fire jumps southern California freeway, burning cars

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Stay safe, Cali-Gaf. Didn't see a thread.

golem said:
All the local stations are covering it live, some pretty crazy video of people getting out of their cars and booking it away from the fire

http://ktla.com/on-air/live-streaming/

http://abc7.com/live/
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A swiftly moving brush fire in Southern California forced the closing of all lanes of a crowded freeway, stranded some motorists and spurred others to abandon their vehicles as flames engulfed roughly a dozen cars and trucks.

Live video broadcast by a local CBS affiliate showed firefighters moving between empty vehicles on Interstate 15 in Cajon Pass, Calif., as motorists filed down the shoulder of the freeway in San Bernardino County.

A black pillar of smoke rose into the sky as cars, pickup trucks, a tractor-trailer and a car carrier loaded with empty vehicles burned.

The fire information line, to which the National Forest Service directed media requests, said that the blaze began at 2:33 p.m., and that all lanes of Interstate 15 were closed.

The San Bernardino County Fire Department posted on Twitter that the flames had “jumped” Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass and had spread across at least 500 acres of land. It warned motorists to remain in their vehicles because water dropped from fire-fighting aircraft “can severely injure you,” although local media reported that some people were fleeing their cars.

It announced a mandatory evacuation for the town Baldy Mesa, where it said “multiple homes” caught fire.
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F

Fenderputty

Banned
I thought that looked like the pass. It's pretty warm, but not blazing. It's cooler at night and marine layers have still been coming in. Hopefully it's not gonna be a bad one.
 
S

SwiftDeath

Member
Well that's going to make for some interesting insurance calls

Doesn't look like there are any reported injuries from this? Which would be something at least
 
B

blankempathy

Member
The cajon pass is a pretty busy road that cuts through a narrow valley connecting the 15 with other roads like the 138. Its basically in the middle of no where but people take it because its a shorter drive then taking the highway all the way down to victorville. Gets extremely busy during the holidays and truckers frequently pass through there. Pretty scary as i travel through the cajon pass on a regular basis. Also gets pretty bad when the weathers acting up. Those people probably didnt have a lot of places to run. Fuck if they got caught at certain parts you can only try to climb up the mountain or go down an extremely steep mountain side.
 
K

Kevtones

Member
Oh damn. I hiked San Bernardino peak last month. Was going to do Gorgonio but that place is closed :(



Hope nobody got hurt.
 
N

norm9

Member
Yikes. These guys were thinking about getting to Vegas and having a great time and then a fire gets them.
 
B

bryehn

Member
Damn, I've never seen anything like that. Though that one shot looks like something you'd see from a middle eastern war. Wow.
 
S

StopMakingSense

Member
DrForester said:
How the hell was the road not closed if the fire was anywhere near it?
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It was closed. It's a major artery in a steep mountain pass, so closing the road is one thing, getting the cars gridlocked by the closure out is a totally different thing. Brush fires in mountain areas are very unpredictable as well, and can move extremely fast.
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
StopMakingSense said:
It was closed. It's a major artery in a steep mountain pass, so closing the road is one thing, getting the cars gridlocked by the closure out is a totally different thing. Brush fires in mountain areas are very unpredictable as well, and can move extremely fast.
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I live in Colorado, I know well how fast they can move, and I've never heard of anything like this happening here.
 
J

Jopie

Member
Thats terrifying. Thats a freeway I will be driving every day when I move next month.

Never seen anything like this before.
 
M

mollipen

Member
So, yesterday, I drove from LA to Las Vegas for EVO. Google Maps suggested the better route was to go the opposite direction from the 15, head up north a bit, then east to meet the 15. Didn't seem like the most logical route, but it was saying it was the faster option, so I trusted Google.

As I was driving the route, I ended up thinking I'd made a mistake. How could this crappy little highway be better than taking a major freeway (210) to hit the 15 earlier and go up the Cajon pass?

As I got closer to the 15, I saw this HUGE column of smoke in the distance. At a certain point, I was driving under the huge clouda of smoke it was putting into the air, and it turned everything a hazy orange color for what had to be a mile or two.

I was really wondering what the smoke was coming from, and now I read this thread. Uhhh... I'm sorry I doubted you Google Navigation Lady.
 
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