Blue Cut fire burns into 3rd day, south 15 Freeway reopened

Mandatory evacuation orders for an area of south Hesperia and Oak Hills will be lifted at 1 p.m., the Sheriff’s Department said at 12:45 p.m. Thursday.

The area extends east of the 15 Freeway to Santa Fe and Summit Valley Road and south of Ranchero Road to Highway 138.

The Blue Cut fire has left about 967 customers without power as of noon Thursday, according to Southern California Edison.

• LIVE UPDATES: Latest on the Blue Cut fire from our reporters and photographers in the field

Areas with fire-related outages include Hesperia, Oak Hills, Pinon Hills, Phelan, Rancho Cucamonga and Victorville, SCE said on Twitter.

“We’re currently staging additional persoel & materials (poles, wires, transformers) in impacted #BlueCutFire areas,” the utility company said.

The fire -- which officials most recently said was 31,600 acres -- has also led San Bernardino County officials to activate their Mass Care and Shelter Plan, county spokesman David Wert said in a news release.

Cots, food, showers and restrooms are available in the shelter at 14800 7th Street in Victorville, Wert said.

Evacuees who have been sheltering in recreational vehicles may park their RVs at the fairgrounds and receive services while continuing to shelter in their RVs. Utility hookups for RVs will most likely not be available, so RVs must be self-sufficient.

An animal shelter and counseling services are available, according to Wert.

The southbound 15 Freeway through the Cajon Pass opened at 10:45 a.m., with the exception of the left-most lane from Oak Hill Road to Highway 138, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Traffic has begun to flow, the CHP confirmed in a tweet.

• PHOTOS: The Blue Cut fire burns for a third day

The southbound lanes were closed Tuesday at Ranchero Road in Hesperia as the Blue Cut fire spread.

All off-ramps will remain closed, the CHP said in an earlier tweet.

The northbound lanes of the 15 Freeway were reopened late Wednesday night.

The Blue Cut fire grew slightly overnight, reaching 31,600 acres with 4 percent containment Thursday morning as firefighters battled it for the third day.

That’s only slightly larger Thursday morning than the night before, with the same percent of its perimeter contained.

• INSIDE THE FIRE: What made the Blue Cut fire so relentlessly fast

“This is still a raging wildfire,” said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

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More resources -- equipment, firefighters and fire managers -- were on the job Thursday, with more on the way, Martinez said. More than 1,500 people are involved in fighting the fire, and the cause has not been established.

The fire has destroyed about a dozen homes since Tuesday, though no official numbers have been provided.

Stranded motorists trying to get to the High Desert and beyond were able to get back on the road. However, highways 138 and 2 remain closed.

• MORE PHOTOS: The Blue Cut fire - Day 2

The fire did not damage the 15 Freeway itself, but it did damage guardrails that need to be repaired, said Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga. Throughout the evening, flatbed trucks delivered concrete K-rails, which were being set up as barricades in areas where the guardrails had been burned.

Winds were expected to push flames up through the Lytle Creek and Lone Pine canyons, according to the incident commander’s fire behavior forecast. Ridge-top winds are blowing from the south-southwest could spread flames into the Wrightwood area through Slover Canyon at the top of Lone Pine Canyon.

Flames could also spread to the west, north of Highway 138.

Crews will be spraying fire-resistant gel on homes that are potentially in danger, just as they did in 2015 during the Lake fire in the Big Bear area. Then the practice was credited with saving 15 to 20 buildings.

• FIRE MAP: Where the Blue Cut fire is burning

Also Thursday, teams are assessing damage to property. That information will help San Bernardino County decide what services, such as assessors, tax collectors and insurance companies, need to be brought to the neighborhoods that burned, Martinez said.

The teams also will note which properties had defensible spaces around them that would limit the likelihood that homes would burn. Martinez said even if some homes burned despite clearing brush and flammable property, “Defensible space has been proven to save lives and save property.”

On Wednesday, crews were able to prevent flames from jumping some fire breaks dug by bulldozers.

“They definitely saved the communities of Wrightwood and Lytle Creek,” Martinez said.

As firefighting efforts continued into Thursday, the mountain communities of Lytle Creek and Wrightwood remained threatened amid a forecast of gusty winds and low humidity.

• MORE PHOTOS: The Blue Cut fire - Day 1

Firefighters were able to protect those mountain communities as well as the West Cajon Valley, San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said in a tweet Thursday.

Many seasoned firefighters had never seen a fire behave like the Blue Cut fire, U.S. Forest Service supervisor Jody Noiron told them at a briefing Thursday morning.

“Some of you have been doing this 30 years,” she said.

The fire was first spotted on the west side of the 15 Freeway near Kenwood Avenue late Tuesday morning. It quickly exploded from a few acres to 300 and continued to grow at an alarming pace.

Several veteran fire officials commented on the rapid pace of the fire, which may have been aided by a combination of dry brush and erratic winds.

Cal Fire Capt. Gretchen Gonzales said the “winds have been awful” Wednesday as her Thousand Palms crew worked to successfully protect the communities in Lytle Creek, where Sheep Canyon and Lytle Creek roads meet.

BNSF said in a statement Thursday that while two of its main lines between San Bernardino and Barstow re-opened Wednesday evening, a third would remain closed.

Shipments moving through that corridor could be delayed 36 to 48 hours, the statement said.

More coverage:

• LATE WEDNESDAY: Blue Cut Fire in Cajon Pass downgraded; 25,626 acres burned, 4 percent contained

• RISKY: Fire evacuation orders ‘not a joke,’ authorities say, but some stay anyway

• FREEWAYS: Northbound I-15 through Cajon Pass reopens, southbound still closed from Blue Cut fire damage