Island of Respite for Crews Battling Big Southern California Blaze

As firefighters struggle to save thousands of homes threatened by the Blue Cut Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, crews from around the state are arriving to help out. More than 1,500 fire personnel are already there.

The blaze has burned more than 31,000 acres, or nearly 50 square miles, and is 4 percent contained, according to fire managers. More than 32,000 structures are threatened and an undetermined number of homes have been destroyed by the fire, which started Tuesday morning and grew amid scorching, dry conditions.

And at the command post at Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore, crews spent Wednesday preparing the camp for firefighters who will live there during their off time.

Cal Fire spokesman Jeff LaRusso came to this fire from neighboring Riverside County.

“The biggest challenge is obviously just the fact that we have a large fire being pushed the way it's being pushed, and it's spreading in different directions," LaRusso said. "It's not a fact of not being able to get firefighters in there. It's just the fact that Mother Nature is battling us and you know, it's very hard to beat Mother Nature.”

Inmate fire crews rested in the shade of trees as others put up tents with swamp coolers to fight the heat and allow hand crews to recover from long, difficult shifts.

Over the coming days, this park will transform into a mini-city to support the firefighters. Crews will set up showers, sleeping quarters, a cafeteria, briefing tents, a medical trailer with EMTs, radio communications staff quarters, a kitchen and mess hall.

Every few minutes, water-dropping helicopters fly low over the operation to dip into a nearby pond to refill and head back to the fire. Ducks in the pond continued to swim, oblivious to the activity and to the giant plume of smoke from the fire nearby.

LaRusso surveyed the scene: “We're seeing things now in August that are burning like what we would typically see in a Santa Ana wind event," which would typically occur later in the year.

"That's just kind of one of those things that is the new norm in California with the drought that we've had over the last several years," LaRusso said. "What we're seeing now is explosive fire growth everywhere. And, you know, it's kind of the perfect storm right now.”

The Blue Cut Fire is one of eight large wildfires burning in California. In all, about 10,000 personnel are battling the fires.