California mountain town hit by snowstorm now threatened by wildfire

RUNNING SPRINGS, Calif. — In the Southern California mountain town of Running Springs, residents live between two picturesque lakeside resorts—a seemingly serene place that’s also caught between the fluctuations of devastating winter snowstorms and menacing summer wildfires.

Niko Rynard is currently being evacuated from his home due to the line fire, which has burned 150 square kilometres since the weekend.

About a year and a half ago, the director of the Running Springs Chamber of Commerce drove down the mountains during a break in the relentless snowfall his neighbors dubbed “Snowmageddon.” Roads were blocked for days.

The 29-year-old, who moved to the area nine years ago from the East Coast, is now staying with friends nearby but said others are shelling out hundreds of dollars to cram into hotel rooms until it’s safe to return.

The fire is one of three major wildfires that have ravaged the mountains east of Los Angeles, destroying dozens of homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands. While California is still in the early stages of its wildfire season, the state has already seen nearly three times as much acreage burned as it did in all of 2023.

Rynard said it’s all “part of the territory” and part of living in a beautiful area. He added that longtime residents have told him that massive wildfires are cyclical, just like snow.

Adding to people’s nervousness, Southern California was rocked by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake Thursday morning.

Running Springs is known as the “Gateway to the San Bernardino Mountains” and is perched more than a mile above sea level. The town was among the communities snowed in when a blizzard hit the area in 2023. Now, the community has been doused in bright red retardant to protect it.

“It can be difficult to live in these environments,” said Dawn Rowe, a San Bernardino County supervisor whose district covers the mountain communities. “It’s beautiful — a lot of people come and visit and they realize they might want to move for one reason or another. I encourage everyone to take some time to do their due diligence.”

The wildfire is burning through dense vegetation that grew after two consecutive wet winters, with snowstorms that snapped tree limbs, leaving behind a lot of “dead and fallen fuel,” Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jed Gaines said. Another wildfire was threatening the mountain community of Wrightwood, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the west.

Fires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures in Southern California since they intensified during a triple-digit heat wave over the weekend. Cooler weather has helped firefighters gradually regain the upper hand in battling the blazes. No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mostly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.

In a daring rescue operation caught on video, Riverside County Fire Battalion Chief Mike Martinez saved a lone woman who was walking just yards from the airport fire in Orange County, driving his SUV to the edge of the burning flames so she could get inside.

“It’s one of those moments you hope you never have to witness,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years. We’re used to extreme behavior from firefighters, but to see a civilian walking down the middle of the street was surreal.”

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said Thursday that nine arson-related charges have been filed against a suspect accused of starting the line fire.

“This is particularly shocking in a community that, unfortunately, has had to deal with the scourge of wildfires over the last two years,” he told reporters, adding that the suspect’s vehicle had been linked to three areas where fires had been started.

The suspect is expected to be arraigned on Friday.

The exact extent of the damage caused by the wildfires remains uncertain. The three fires are:

— The Orange County Airport Fire, which has burned more than 36 square miles (93 square kilometers), was 5 percent contained Thursday morning and is believed to have been started by workers using heavy equipment in the area. Ten firefighters and two residents were injured in the blaze, according to Orange County fire officials. The fire was difficult to control because of steep terrain and dry conditions, and because some areas had not burned in decades.

— The San Bernardino National Forest fire, which was 18 percent contained Thursday, has threatened more than 65,000 homes. The blaze injured three firefighters.

— The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles, which has grown tenfold in a day to burn 80 square miles, has destroyed at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It was 0% contained Thursday.

In northern Nevada, the worst danger appears to have passed near Reno, where a wildfire on the eastern front of the Sierra forced 20,000 evacuations over the weekend. The fire closed all schools for four days and threatened to spread from the mountaintops to the Lake Tahoe basin.

A stretch of the Reno-Tahoe highway remained closed Thursday. Officials further eased evacuation orders after 600 firefighters held fire lines despite wind gusts of 70 mph the day before and increased containment of the 9-square-mile (23-square-kilometer) Davis Fire, now estimated at 37 percent. Most of the 8,000 residents who began the day under evacuation orders were downgraded to evacuation alert status, allowing them to begin returning home.

“All containment lines … are holding at this point,” Jason Clawson, operations section chief for the federal firefighting team, said at a briefing in Reno Thursday night. “Absolutely no concerns. We have crews, equipment and gear spread out around the fire.”

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Garcia reported from Wrightwood, Calif., Taxin from Santa Ana, Calif., and Rodriguez from San Francisco. Associated Press reporters Scott Sonner in Reno, Nev., Amy Hanson in Helena, Mont., Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed to this report.