Lake Fire Flares Up Over Night, Containment Reduces to 21%

Photos courtesy of the San Bernardino County Fire Department and the San Bernardino National Forest

The Lake Fire was active overnight, reducing containment to 21 percent and forcing the evacuations of the communities of Burns Canyon and Rimrock, officials say.

The fire has charred 23,199 acres and was active overnight in West Pipes Canyon and Rainbow area. Firefighters were able to save structures threatened by the fire and none were lost.

At Thursday morning news conference, forest official said two drone incidents were hindering their efforts to fight the fire. Late Wednesday afternoon, a pilot saw a drone flying between his plane and another aircraft fighting dropping retardant on the south side of the fire.

Once the drones entered the airspace over the fire, all planes that were dropping water and fire retardant were grounded for pilot safety.

“The big part of it, is that we had to shut down subsequent missions that could have contained, possibly, that south side of the fire,” said Mike Hawkins of the U.S. Forest Service. “So the fire continues to burn, and we’ll get back at it (Thursday).”

The south side of the fire is in rugged, rocky terrain, hard to reach on the ground so the firefighting efforts were led largely by air.

The bottom line is, “if you fly, we can’t,” Hawkins said.

The fire on the south side is spreading by trees and grass igniting, rolling downhill and burning.

Additional crews have been inserted into the Ten Thousand Foot Ridge and will proceed toward the eastern Forest Boundary.

Because of the increase in personnel on the incident, a second camp will be set up in the Big Bear Mountain Ski Resort in Big Bear.

Highway 38 continues to be closed from Angelus Oaks to Lake Williams, Jenks Lake Road and Maple Lane in Big Bear Lake.

All hiking trails into the San Gorgonio Wilderness and Pacific Crest Trail from Whitewater Preserve to Onyx Summit are also closed.

As are campgrounds in Barton Flats, San Gorgonio, South Fork, Skyline, Council, Heart Bar, Oso, Lobo, Heart Bar Equestrian, Wildhorse Equestrian, Coon Creek Cabin, Coon Creek Yellow-post Sites, and Mission Springs PCT Trail Camp.

Evacuations are in effect for all areas east of Angelus Oaks including: Barton Flats, Seven Oaks, Rainbow Lane, Heart Bar, and all cabins and campgrounds in the South Fork area.

Pioneertown is under a voluntary evacuation.