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LOS ANGELES — More than 3,000 people have evacuated as an intentionally set wildfire raced through dry Southern California mountain land, authorities said Thursday.
The so-called Cranston Fire grew to 7,500 acres in just 30 hours after an arsonist set it ablaze about noon Wednesday (3 p.m. ET) in the San Jacinto Mountains in San Bernardino National Forest, east of Los Angeles, according to the joint local-state-federal incident command team. About 3,200 residents were evacuated from more than 2,100 homes, it said.
The fire sent up a cloud of smoke so enormous that it created its own weather system, dotting the area with lightning, the National Weather Service said.
Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula, south of Los Angeles, was being held Thursday in the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of five counts of arson to wildland in connection with the Cranston Fire and an unspecified number of other fires, the National Park Service said. Jail records listed no attorney who could comment in McGlover’s behalf.
The incident command center said the Cranston Fire was at 7,500 acres late Thursday afternoon and was only 5 percent contained. At least two highways and numerous campgrounds and trails were closed off as almost 700 firefighters attacked the blaze, it said.
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Riverside County as authorities said about 600 homes were in immediate danger in harshly hot, dry conditions.
“We were all peeling out of there as fast as we could. It was apocalyptic,” William Blodgett of Idyllwild, a town of about 12,000 people that was under the most immediate threat, told NBC Los Angeles.
The local air quality management district issued a smoke advisory through Friday morning, warning of unhealthy levels of smoke and ash.
No injuries have been reported.