- Lakeview: Rabbit Fire rips through 7,000 acres of brush; evacuation orders in place CBS Los Angeles
- Rabbit Fire in Southern California causes dozens of evacuations, burns over 7,000 acres in hours Fox Weather
- Brush fire in Lakeview area burns 7,000 acres, 5% contained kuna noticias y kuna radio
- Riverside County: Reche Fire in Moreno Valley, Highland Fire in Beaumont, Rabbit Fire in Lakeview, Gavilan Fire in Gavilan Hills KABC-TV
- Blaze in Lakeview blackens more than 2,800 acres between Moreno Valley and San Jacinto The Press-Enterprise
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: brush
Bitcoin Regains $20K After $200M in Crypto Liquidations; Some Traders Brush Off USDC Fears – CoinDesk
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- View Full Coverage on Google News
The Internet Is Telling Everyone Not To Brush Your Teeth After Oral, So I Went To An Expert For The Truth
SpaceX Starship prototype ignites six engines, starts major brush fire
SpaceX has successfully ignited all six engines on its latest Starship prototype, taking a significant step towards ensuring that the upper stage will be ready for the rocket’s first orbital launch attempt.
Unfortunately, the same successful static fire of a Starship upper stage – potentially producing almost twice as much thrust as the booster of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – scattered superheated debris hundreds of meters away, igniting a major brush fire. It’s not the first major fire caused by Starship activities in South Texas, and it likely won’t be the last.
Starship S24 completed its first successful static fire on August 9th, igniting two Raptor engines. Several unsuccessful attempts to test more engines followed throughout the rest of the month, and SpaceX ultimately decided to replace one of Starship S24’s three Raptor Vacuum engines in early September before trying again. After workers installed the new engine and buttoned up Ship 24, the stars eventually aligned on September 8th.
Kicking off the test, SpaceX pumped several hundred tons of liquid oxygen (LOx) and a much smaller quantity of liquid methane (LCH4) fuel into Ship 24 in about 90 minutes, producing a crisp layer of frost wherever the cryogenic liquids touched the skin of the rocket’s uninsulated steel tanks. No frost formed on Starship’s upper methane tank, implying that SpaceX only loaded methane fuel into internal ‘header’ tanks meant to store propellant for landings. The hundreds of tons of liquid oxygen, then, were likely meant as ballast, reducing the maximum stress Starship could exert on the test stand holding it to the ground.
That potential stress is substantial. Outfitted with upgraded Raptor 2 engines, Starship S24 could have produced up to 1380 tons (~3M lbf) thrust when it ignited all six for the first time at 4:30 pm CDT. On top of smashing the record for most thrust produced during a Starbase rocket test, Ship 24’s engines burned for almost 8 seconds, making it one of the longest static fires ever performed on a Starship test stand.
Several brush fires were visible almost immediately after clouds of dust and steam cleared. More likely than not, the combination of the extreme force, heat, and burn duration likely obliterated the almost entirely unprotected concrete surface below Ship 24. Despite continuous evidence that all Starship static fire operations would be easier and safer with the systems, SpaceX still refuses to install serious water deluge or flame deflector systems at Starbase’s test stands and launch pads.
Instead, under its steel Starship test stands, SpaceX relies on a single middling deluge spray nozzle and high-temperature concrete (likely martyte) that probably wouldn’t pass muster for a rocket ten times less powerful than Starship. In multiple instances, Starships have shattered that feeble martyte layer, creating high-velocity ceramic shards that damage their undersides or Raptor engines, requiring repairs and creating risky situations. With essentially no attempt at all to tame the high-speed several-thousand-degree Raptor exhaust, static fire tests at Starbase thus almost always start small grass fires and cause minor damage, but those fires rarely spread.
Ship 24’s first six-engine test was not so lucky, although the Starship made it through seemingly unscathed. Most likely, eight long seconds of blast-furnace conditions melted the top layer of surrounding concrete and shot a hailstorm of tiny superheated globules in almost every direction. Indeed, in almost every direction there was something readily able to burn, a fire started. In several locations to the south and west, brush caught fire and began to burn unusually aggressively, quickly growing into walls of flames that sped across the terrain. To the east, debris even made it into a SpaceX dumpster, the contents of which easily caught fire and burned for hours.
Eventually, around 9pm CDT, firefighters were able to approach the safed launch pad and rocket, but the main fire had already spread south, out of reach. Instead, they started controlled burns near SpaceX’s roadblock, hoping to clear brush and prevent the fire (however unlikely) from proceeding towards SpaceX’s Starbase factory and Boca Chica Village homes and residents.
The nature of the estuary-like terrain and wetlands means that it’s very easy to stop fires at choke points, so the fire likely never posed any real threat to Boca Chica residents, SpaceX employees, or onlookers. It was also unlikely to damage SpaceX’s launch facilities or return to damage Starship S24 from the start, as both of are surrounded by a combination of concrete aprons, empty dirt fields, and a highway.
Still, the “brush” burned by the fire is a protected habitat located in a State Park and Wildlife Refuge. While fire is a natural and often necessary element of many habitats, including some of those in Boca Chica, this is the second major brush fire caused by Starship testing since 2019, which may be less than desirable. At a minimum, fighting fires around Starbase generally requires firefighters to walk or even drive on protected wetlands and salt flats, the impact of which could ultimately be as bad for wildlife and habitats as the fire itself.
SpaceX’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), which fully greenlit the company’s existing Starbase Texas facilities and launch plans earlier this year, only discusses fire [PDF] a handful of times. Repairing and preventing future damage to wetlands, however, comes up dozens of times and is the subject of numerous conditions SpaceX must meet before the FAA will grant Starship an orbital launch license.
Ultimately, given that the FAA approved that PEA in full awareness of a 2019 brush fire caused by Starhopper (an early Starship prototype) that may have been as bad or worse than 2022’s, there’s a chance that it will play a small role in the ongoing launch licensing process, but the odds of it being a showstopper are close to zero. Still, it would likely benefit SpaceX at least as much as the surrounding Boca Chica wilderness if it can implement changes that prevent major brush fires from becoming a regular ‘accidental’ occurrence.
Your first brush with coronavirus could affect how a fall booster works
As omicron-specific boosters near, scientists debate how ‘original antigenic sin’ will influence immune responses
When it comes to viral infections, past is prologue: The version of a virus to which we’re first exposed can dictate how we respond to later variants and, maybe, how well vaccines work.
It’s a phenomenon known by the forbidding name of original antigenic sin, and, in the case of the coronavirus, it prompts a constellation of questions. Are our immune systems stuck still revving up defenses against a version of the virus that has vanished? Will updated booster shots that are designed to thwart variants be much better than the original vaccine? How often will we be reinfected? Is there a better way to broaden immunity?
The answers to those questions will influence our long-term relationship with the coronavirus — and the health of millions of people. But more than two years into the pandemic, the quest to unravel these riddles underscores the seemingly unending complexity of the battle against a new pathogen.
When the virus emerged, no one had encountered SARS-CoV-2 before, so our immune systems started in pretty much the same vulnerable spot — what scientists call “naive.”
Now, people have been infected, vaccinated, boosted, reinfected and boosted again — in varying combinations. People’s immune systems are on slightly different learning curves, depending on when they were infected or vaccinated, and with what variants or vaccines.
“There are no cookie-cutter answers here,” said John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “An omicron infection after vaccination doesn’t mean you’re not going to get another one a bit further down the road. How long is a bit further down the road?”
Scientists are watching in real time as original antigenic sin plays out against the coronavirus — and debating how it will influence future vaccine strategy. Contrary to its biblical thunderclap of a name, the phenomenon is nuanced — more often beneficial or neutral than harmful.
It helps explain why vaccines based on the original virus continue to keep people out of the hospital, despite challenging new variants. But it may also mean that revamped fall boosters have limited benefits, because people’s immune memories are dominated by their first experience with the virus.
“We may have gotten about as much advantage out of the vaccine, at this point, as we can get,” said Barney Graham, an architect of coronavirus vaccines who now focuses on global health equity at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Graham emphasizes that the vaccines are doing exactly what they were designed to do: keep people out of the hospital. Retuning them will have benefits, albeit limited.
“We can tweak it and maybe evolve it to match circulating strains a little better,” Graham said. “It will have a very small, incremental effect.”
More than 60 years ago, a virologist named Thomas Francis Jr., observed that influenza infections in childhood had lifelong repercussions. For decades after, people’s immune systems carry an imprint from their first flu, activating defenses primarily against the original version of the virus they encountered. He called it “the doctrine of original antigenic sin.”
The same thing is happening with the coronavirus. A growing number of studies show that when the omicron variant infects, it causes the immune system to rapidly activate immune memory cells that are already on standby, created by previous vaccinations or infections.
“People are now walking around with different immune-imprinted covid responses, depending on what vaccine schedules they’ve had — one, two or three doses — and what infections they have had in the past,” said Rosemary Boyton, a professor of immunology and respiratory medicine at Imperial College London. “Imprinting is different according to where you live in the world, what vaccines you received — and that’s determining the subsequent immune response.”
In flu, the immunological echoes of original antigenic sin have real consequences: When flu strains are similar to the ones encountered in childhood, people are better protected against severe illness. The 1918 flu pandemic was caused by an H1N1 strain, which continued to circulate for decades afterward. When the 2009 H1N1 pandemic occurred, older people who were exposed to H1N1 in childhood had stronger immune responses than younger people who had been infected with other strains. When a flu strain is a more distant relative of that initial exposure, people may be more susceptible.
There’s not a consensus on how original antigenic sin plays out with the coronavirus — and it’s a touchy subject among immunologists. Many quarrel about whether “sin” is the appropriate word for a phenomenon that undergirds our immune system’s ability to provide partial protection against changing viruses.
But time is of the essence: Companies are already manufacturing fall boosters based on a new recipe. Many scientists think that, in the absence of certainty, moving forward with retuned boosters is the best strategy — even if they may offer short-term protection, mostly against severe illness.
“Maybe 10 to 15 years from now, we live in a world where the vaccine is birth-year specific or make strain selection decisions that take into account different immune histories in the population,” said Katelyn Gostic, a researcher at the University of Chicago. “I think we need and are actively developing better technologies and better techniques to try to work at the science fiction frontier here, of figuring out these imprinting questions.”
How the immune system learns
to recognize a virus
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
Once matched, an activated helper
T cell then locates
B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory
B cells.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
How the immune system learns
to recognize a virus
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
Once matched, an activated helper
T cell then locates B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory B cells.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
How the immune system learns to recognize a virus
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
Once matched, an activated helper
T cell then locates B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory B cells.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
How the immune system learns to recognize a virus
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory B cells.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper
T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
Once matched, an activated helper T cell then locates B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
Antibodies attached
to virus
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
How the immune system learns to recognize a virus
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate
to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
Once matched, an activated helper
T cell then locates B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory B cells.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
How the immune system learns to recognize a virus
After a virus invades, dendritic cells grab pieces of virus.
The dendritic cells then look for helper T cells that match features of the viral pieces.
The activated B cells turn into plasma cells that churn out virus-blocking antibodies to fight the infection. Some become memory B cells.
Once matched, an activated helper T cell then locates
B cells that also match the virus’s distinct features.
Antibodies flood the body and latch on to the virus to block it from infecting more cells.
Antibodies attached
to virus
Memory B cells remain in the body after the first infection is cleared. They can then quickly reactivate to produce more antibodies if the same virus is encountered again.
The most gloomy interpretation of original antigenic sin holds that the immune system is stuck fighting an old war. Each new infection leaves behind no useful immune memory, instead summoning defenses against antiquated versions of the virus.
“Your coronavirus immunity repertoire is such a dog’s dinner it might actually enhance immunity to past variants a little bit, in ways that aren’t useful anymore,” said Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London.
Antibodies match and latch on to the original virus.
Antibodies
to original virus
But the older antibodies are not a good match for newer variants.
Antibodies match and latch on to the original virus.
Antibodies
to original virus
But the older antibodies are not a good match for newer variants.
Antibodies match and latch on to the original virus.
But the older antibodies are not a good match for newer variants.
Antibodies
to original virus
Antibodies match and latch on to the original virus.
But the older antibodies are not
a good match for newer variants.
Antibodies
to original virus
He and Boyton published a Science paper in June that suggested people who were infected with the original version of the coronavirus and later vaccinated and reinfected with omicron mustered subpar immune responses to omicron. Their interpretation: People’s immune systems were locked into a fight against older iterations of the virus.
Not so fast, say others, who think there may be explanations other than original antigenic sin.
An essential element of how the immune system works is memory, the ability to recall viruses that have infected people before. Although virus-fighting antibodies naturally drop over time, memory B cells kick into action and churn them out on demand when a virus intrudes.
When viruses evolve, as is happening with the coronavirus variants, this memory can still be quite useful. Viruses typically swap out only bits of their costume. Parts of the spike protein of omicron look very different, but other bits look the same.
Antibodies to the original virus may still be able to attach to some parts of a newer variant that have not changed.
Antibodies to the original virus may still be able to attach to some parts of a newer variant that have not changed.
Antibodies to the original virus may still be able to attach to some parts of a newer variant that have not changed.
Antibodies to the original virus may still be able to attach to some parts of a newer variant that have not changed.
“What our immune system likes to do best is recognize things it already has seen. It responds very quickly to these parts of the virus that haven’t changed,” said Matthew S. Miller, a viral immunologist at McMaster University. “The vaccines are still doing an exceptionally good job in preventing us from getting severe illness. The reason is that is, essentially, original antigenic sin.”
This hair-trigger immune response isn’t fine-tuned to block the new virus; people can still get infected. But a suboptimal response that’s ready to go, many scientists think, is better than waiting for the body to create one from scratch.
“Essentially, original antigenic sin is often a very good thing,” said Laura Walker, chief scientific officer of Adagio Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing monoclonal antibody drugs. Walker recently published a paper showing that vaccinated people who came down with an omicron infection had an initial immune response driven by the immune cells created by their original vaccination.
This burst of antibodies capable of recognizing a new variant is not surprising to experts. It’s Immunology 101. And in the case of the coronavirus, it helps.
“It’s not a sin. It’s a natural progression of our immune response,” said Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We should not think of it as a glitch.”
What scientists don’t know yet is what happens in the weeks and months after an infection or new vaccine.
One possibility: The immune system creates a new memory of the new variant. The next time a descendant of omicron comes along, the body can draw from an expanded memory bank to mount its next defense.
Another, more worrisome scenario: The fast-draw immune response interferes with the creation of new memories. The next time a version of the virus comes along, the body simply reactivates the existing response — and eventually, a variant comes along that is so changed it is unrecognizable.
“The question is: Is that memory pool going to get broadened, or is it going to get fixated?” said Wayne A. Marasco, an immunologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Food and Drug Administration asked companies in June to update coronavirus boosters for the fall, to a shot that includes two components: one that targets the original strain; and the other tailored to fight the most recent variants, BA.4 and BA.5.
Companies showed preliminary data that vaccines containing those versions of the virus can trigger stronger immune responses in the weeks after vaccination. But the advantage of a switch was modest, and long-term effects of those vaccines will depend in part on whether they help create new memories. If they simply provide a short-term boost of the existing memory response, many scientists are debating a change in vaccine strategy.
“This is not in my mind going to be the dramatic change to limit symptomatic omicron infection,” said Robert Seder, chief of the Cellular Immunology Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Seder showed in a primate study this year that an omicron booster did no better than an additional shot of the original vaccine. He has focused his efforts on a change in tactics, such as a nasal vaccine that could help block infections and spread of the virus.
Even though a revamped vaccine is unlikely to be a game changer, many scientists favor an update. Rafi Ahmed, an immunologist at Emory University, argues that an omicron-based booster is urgently needed.
“There is no point continuing to vaccinate someone with a strain that is not circulating,” Ahmed said. Even if a new omicron-specific memory does not coalesce, the variant-specific vaccine will recruit and rev the part of the memory response capable of recognizing omicron.
Some scientists think a new memory response will also develop over time. Others think it might take an additional shot. Ahmed’s work on influenza showed that while a first shot against the H5N1 strain primarily activated an existing memory response, a second shot recruited new B cells targeting the strain.
But not all “sin” is created equal. For a virus like dengue, original antigenic sin can be harmful. For flu, it may help in some scenarios and hinder immunity in others. The limited data has left experts in a familiar place during this pandemic: watching what happens next.
“I’m struggling to say: Is this a good thing or a bad thing?” said Christian Gaebler, an assistant professor of clinical investigation at the Rockefeller University. “If someone says they fully understood this, they would be lying.”
Balch Springs brush fire burns 26 houses, leaving dozens homeless
BALCH SPRINGS — A large grass fire spread Monday afternoon into a Balch Springs neighborhood where it burned 26 homes — destroying nine of them — and leaving dozens of people homeless.
The fire started as workers mowed a nearby field at the northwest corner of Interstate 20 and South Belt Line Road, according to Balch Springs Fire Marshal Sean Davis, though officials are still investigating whether anyone is at fault. A row of homes along Broadview Drive, not far from Mackey Elementary School, caught fire. By Monday evening the grass fire had been contained and the house fires were out. There were no injuries, and officials said they were investigating whether someone was at fault.
Some neighborhood residents tried to stave off the fire with garden hoses. Others had just minutes to get out of their homes, leaving everything behind.
“Lost everything. Just everything,” said homeowner Miguel Quinonez, who had lived in the house with his wife for almost 14 years. He said he’d just bought a new truck that burned in the garage.
The fire in Balch Springs, a town of about 25,000 people just southeast of Dallas, came as firefighters across North Texas are battling fires that have destroyed dozens of homes, with drought and unseasonably high temperatures creating dangerous conditions. The fire marshal said the Balch Springs field tends to have a few fires a year that are put out quickly.
“It’s happening in a lot of places, just people out cutting hay or grass or something, and they’re clipping something they didn’t see, and it’s starting a fire and then traveling like crazy,” Davis said.
Officials don’t have an exact number of those displaced. They will give an update at 9 a.m. Tuesday to let residents know when they can return.
“We’re in unique weather conditions right now,” with hot weather and dry ground.
Wanda Blanchette-Ware said she barely had time to wake up her son Jacoby Ogunniyi and two dogs, Bella and Lola, to get out of their Balch Springs house as the fire approached.
Her son works during the day and had slept through the police knocking on the door. She said she went and banged on his window.
“Honey there’s a fire, please get up!” she said, awakening him.
Blanchette-Ware said she saw her neighbors watering their grass but the fire was too strong.
”Then the wind came and blew the fire all the way down the street,” she said.
As the fire spread, the fire marshal called for an evacuation of all homes and structures on Broadview Drive and Bell Manor Court, which also backs up to the field where the grass fire started.
Balch Springs City Manager Susan Cluse said the city is working with the Red Cross to set up an overnight shelter at a city recreation center, and some local hotels will put up residents and their pets for a longer period of time. The Red Cross will help displaced residents get essentials, find temporary housing and start insurance documentation. Residents whose homes weren’t damaged can stay in them.
“Right now, we don’t know where we’re going to spend the night tonight,” said Roberto Pinero, whose home of 13 years, that he had recently remodeled, was destroyed. He said his son called him about the fire, and “when I went and opened the back door the fire hit my face, and I take my family out.”
Fire crews from Dallas and other nearby cities assisted Balch Springs crews.
Residents said there have been several recent fires in the area. Some expressed concern that the grass in the field where the fire started had been allowed to grow too tall.
“That area has been undeveloped for so long, it’s just like kindling out there,” said Joe Perez, a homeowner who lives about four houses away from the fire.
Figures from the Dallas Central Appraisal District showed that the homes were built around 2005 and appraised in the mid-$200,000s.
Michael Jaramillo was at work when he got texts alerting him that his home was on fire. It was among the destroyed houses.
“It’s just sad. I don’t really care about the things, all the clothes and stuff,” he said. “I’m thinking about the things I can’t get back, the photos of my brothers and sisters and everything like that.”
Resident Wendy Reppond was searching the neighborhood Monday afternoon for her cat, Miss Kitty. Reppond said she was able to grab her two dogs and bird, but she didn’t have time to find the bird cage.
“The third house down from me, that one’s gone,” she said. “I can’t find my cat. They won’t let me back in to find my cat.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
LAFD ground crews and water-dropping aircraft battle brush fire in Hollywood Hills
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Over 100 firefighters prevented a brush fire in the Hollywood Hills from spreading to homes after a fierce firefight Monday night.
The fire quickly burned at least one acre as it was being fueled by medium-to-heavy brush, according to officials.
The Coyote Fire was first reported at about 9:30 p.m. in the 3600 block of N Barham Boulevard, above a dog park near the Ava Apartment complex.
At least four water-dropping helicopters helped battle the blaze from the air. Los Angeles County Fire Department crews also joined the firefight as part of mutual aid.
At one point, the fire began burning toward Coyote Canyon and further away from any structures, according to LAFD.
There were no evacuation orders issued and no homes damaged. No injuries were reported.
Crews will remain in the area overnight to put out any hot spots.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
Sheep Fire: Brush fire near Wrightwood area burns at least 990 acres as firefighters work to put out flames
WRIGHTWOOD, Calif. (KABC) — Firefighters on Monday continued to battle a wildfire in the Wrightwood area that burned nearly 1,000 acres over the weekend and forced some people from their homes.
The fire, dubbed the Sheep Fire, broke out Saturday amid scorching temperatures and bone-dry brush, and strong winds continued to fuel the flames. By Sunday afternoon, the fire had grown to at least 990 acres and was only 5% contained.
Mandatory evacuations were issued for Desert Front Road, Wild Horse Canyon Road and the community of Wrightwood — the evacuation order is for Highway 2 to Mesquite Street, from Highway 138 to Sand Canyon, and from Wright Mountain Road to Lone Pine Canyon Road.
Additionally, there is an evacuation warning in place for all of Wrightwood, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.
By Monday morning, weather conditions had improved significantly, allowing crews to establish a more solid containment line around the blaze, assisted by helicopter water drops.
The Red Cross opened an evacuation center at Serrano High School located at 9292 Sheep Creek Road in the unincorporated community of Phelan.
Small animals and livestock can be taken to the Devore Animal Shelter located at 19777 Shelter Way in San Bernardino.
Highway 2 was shut down from Highway 138 to the Sheep Creek area, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
Longtime residents in the area said they are concerned because they have not seen fire burn in this area before.
“When you have fires that comes through the south, through Lytle Creek, up through that area, they’re accustomed to it and although they are not less scary, it’s a known,” Wrightwood resident Scott Berg said. “And this being an unknown, we don’t have fires that you’re looking at on this side very often and that’s what’s concerning for most of the residents.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
DEVELOPING: We will add more details to this report as they become available.
Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
1 man dies, 3 firefighters are injured after fireworks explode during a brush fire
Firefighters arrived and attempted to extinguish the large fire when an explosion occurred Friday, Lenoir County Emergency Services said in a press release.
A civilian who was fighting the blaze before firefighters arrived was fatally injured and pronounced dead at the scene, the release said.
The dead man was identified as a Randy Herring, the owner of the property in La Grange where the fire took place, Lenoir County Emergency Services said on Facebook.
Three La Grange Volunteer Fire Department Firefighters were injured in the explosion and taken to hospitals for treatment, the release said. Two of the firefighters were released, and the third was taken to a burn center.
Fire departments worked through the evening to contain the fire and “fully extinguish hot spots,” Lenoir County Emergency Services said Saturday.
The incident remains under investigation.
Napa County brush fire: Old Fire at 570 acres, 20% contained; evacuation orders lifted for residents, CAL FIRE says
NAPA, Calif. (KGO) — Containment for the Old Fire in Napa County has grown to 20% and remains at 570 acres, CAL FIRE said Wednesday afternoon.
#OldFire Napa County UPDATE: Firefighters continue strengthening containment lines and putting out hot spots. Fire is holding at 570 acres with 20 percent containment. pic.twitter.com/DixjVt2VJ7
— CAL FIRE LNU (@CALFIRELNU) June 1, 2022
Residents were able to return to their homes after evacuation orders were lifted in Napa County overnight on Wednesday as a brush fire continues to burn, CAL FIRE says.
The Old Fire was first reported at 2300 Old Soda Springs Road at 4:01 p.m. on Tuesday.
Officials say crews continued to work through the night to contain and control it.
Firefighters held the Old Fire in Napa to 570 acres overnight, announcing Wednesday morning it had not grown in size.
“Overnight, the winds were favorable, we were able to make significant progress. Luckily this morning acreage hasn’t increased, that’s a good sign,” Cal Fire Spokesperson Erick Hernandez said Wednesday.
He said it wasn’t just the wind that helped, but also the fire’s afternoon start time.
“Obviously at 2, 3 in the morning, like the Atlas Fire back in 2017, we couldn’t deploy any of our air resources.”
This time they could, launching 10 planes and helicopters as part of their aggressive attack.
No structures were damaged in the fire, but Napa resident Todd Walker watched as it burned the hillside across from his home on Soda Springs Road.
“There was no wind. It was burning very slow, you could watch it. The wind was actually blowing away, as fire was burning downhill you could see flames lapping in the other direction,” Walker said.
His home is brand new. It’s a rebuild. His original home burned down in 2017’s Atlas Fire. But he built back smarter and this time, he wasn’t too worried.
“I think we have done a lot to make the area somewhat fire proof. The side of the house is hardy board, the roof is steel, we have lots of defensible space, so I felt pretty confident.”
He even bought an old fire truck. He started to get it ready Tuesday afternoon but didn’t need it. Soda Canyon Road served as a good fire block, the weather cooperated, his home is fine.
Hernandez also pointed to a roadside clearing project as helping in this firefight. A grant from Cal Fire paid for the clearing of vegetation along Soda Springs Road, the road used by emergency vehicles and for residents who were evacuating.
“It’s important to us to have those roads open, fully open, where no embers are creating spot fires (in the vegetation) and at the same time we can evacuate everyone as we did yesterday,” Hernandez said Wednesday.
He also said Cal Fire offers one-on-one consultations for residents wanting advice on home protection and evacuating.
VIDEO: Napa residents remember 2017 blaze as Old Fire continues to burn
Fire officials say the cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
Jacob Schwarz lives in the area and believes he saw the fire begin. He tells ABC7 News he was sitting outside as the wind began to pick up.
“We heard a pop and then a spark just fly out of it looks like a telephone box or a power box,” Schwarz said.
Schwarz says a few moments later, he noticed flames spreading from that location.
But this isn’t the first fire to burn in this area. Both firefighters and residents alike say it’s in the same spot as the Atlas Fire back in 2017. That fire, which was a part of the Northern California firestorm, burned tens of thousands of acres and lasted for weeks.
VIDEO: Couple recalls watching home saved from Atlas Fire live on TV
An experience, says nearby resident Tom Bird, that prompted him and his neighbors to take extra steps to help reduce the threat of future wildfires.
VIDEO: Napa Co. brush fire prompts evacuations
“Everyone that I know around here, since the ’17 fire, has been working pretty hard to clean up vegetation, clean up brush, but some events you just can’t predict,” Bird said.
But even as this fire continues to burn just feet from Bird’s house, he says he’s not worried. Instead, placing his trust, in the people fighting it head on.
“We know the hard working men and women at CAL FIRE will keep these fires under control,” he said.
Video is from a previous report
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