JULIAN, Calif., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A tenacious wildfire in the mountains of Southern California continued to defy control Tuesday as it branched off in two directions, burning east toward the town of Borrego Springs and north into explosively dry forests that stretch for miles.
The Pines Fire had been as much as 80 percent contained until the winds in eastern San Diego County picked up Monday and sent the fire leaping over containment lines and surging to nearly 48,000 acres while forcing fire crews to fall back and regroup.
"There is still plenty more fuel out there," said California Department of Forestry spokeswoman Lynette Lydick. "The fire has hit a lot of areas that haven't burned in 50 years, so you have an accumulation of a lot of fuel combined with our dry, drought conditions."
More than 2,600 firefighters have been plugging away in a seesaw battle against the stubborn blaze that began July 29 when a National Guard helicopter looking for clandestine marijuana patches severed a power line that ignited the dry, parched vegetation.
Nineteen homes and 25 outbuildings have been lost to the stubborn fire since it began and nearly 600 structures were considered threatened Tuesday as the Ranchita subdivision and a nearby Boy Scout camp remained evacuated.
Huge clouds of smoke were visible around much of inland San Diego County as floating embers caused parched trees and heavy underbrush to violently explode into flames.
"There's a huge mushroom cloud that's all black, and the top of it is pure white," John Cassell, a resident of the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday. "The old people used to call that a 'taq-quish.' That's a spirit that eats souls."
Lydick informed United Press International that the fire was burning in two directions, north into the Cleveland National Forest and east into the desert valley where Borrego Springs, a popular resort community, was poised to evacuate and firefighters faced the prospect of slugging it out in 100-degree temperatures.
Despite its location in the Anza-Borrego Desert, the Borrego Springs area has plenty of vegetation for fires to feed on, including the highly flammable creosote bush.
"It can definitely burn down there," said Lydick.
The other branch of the fire was encroaching north into mountain forests thick with "brush, heavy timber and chaparral all the way into Riverside County," Lydick added.
On another front, damp, cool conditions Tuesday morning in Oregon favored firefighters battling the massive Florence and Sour Biscuit Fires that have been burning in the smoke-filled Illinois River Valley for nearly a month. Firefighters continued digging fire lines around the small town of O'Brien ahead of an expected warming and drying trend that was to kick in Wednesday and last into the weekend.
"We are going to see a little more wind and temperatures in the 90s," said Fire Information Officer Deryl Jevons.
Weary firefighters assigned to the 241,282-acre Florence Fire were reinforced by a large contingent of skilled firefighters from north of the border Tuesday. Five of western Canada's elite "Type 1" fire crews arrived on the scene along with two-dozen fire line managers.
Crews continued Tuesday to reinforce the 40 miles of fire lines that have been dug to keep the Florence blaze and the 44,000-acre Sour Biscuit Fire out of the valley where more than 17,000 residents have been on notice to be ready for evacuation for more than a week.
While the danger to the populated areas of the valley has diminished and the fire's expansion has slowed to a virtual crawl, Jevons told UPI that the fires would likely be burning for a long time.
"The fire is still moving," Jevons said. "This thing is not over yet. There is a tremendously long way to go."
Southern Oregon and the Sacramento area were under a fire-weather advisory Tuesday while the more urgent red flag was up in parts of South Dakota, Utah and the upper Yukon region of Alaska. The annual plague of huge fires was well under way in Alaska, where four fires totaling more than 280,000 acres were burning and dry thunderstorms threatened to spark additional fires in remote pine forests that often can only be reached by smokejumpers or crews transported by helicopter.
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)
