garypoterxy: California wildfire forces 6,000 from homes

By The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, July 18, 2013, 8:42?p.m.
Updated less than a minute ago

IDYLLWILD, Calif. ? Artist Lewis Millett didn't need much more than an order to leave his longtime Idyllwild mountain home after seeing 100-foot flames aiming toward the mile-high hamlet that draws tourists, summer campers and students to a year-round arts and music school.

Millett and his wife scooped up the precious things that matter most from their three-story Southern California home: their two cats, his paintings and sculptures and one of his family's prized heirlooms ? his father's Medal of Honor.

Millett was among the 6,000 residents and tourists told to evacuate the community in the San Jacinto Mountains about 100 miles from Los Angeles as the wildfire grew to more than 35 square miles on Thursday, wreathing a ridge about 2 to 3 miles from town, fire officials said. The blaze also was 2 miles from Palm Springs, but no homes were threatened there.

It had destroyed at least six houses and mobile homes and several cars when wind shifted on Wednesday and sent the blaze roaring toward Idyllwild.

?It's never been this bad, and it's never been this close,? Millett, 61, said as he sat on a cot in an evacuation center in Hemet, a nearby community. ?I have high anxiety.?

Fire officials said the blaze was just 15 percent contained and had been growing in an atypical manner.

?Usually it cools down at night, and we get more humidity. That hasn't happened,? said Tina Rose, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. ?It's been burning like it's daytime for 72 hours in a row.?

Fire officials were worried about the weather during the late afternoon when temperatures peak and the blaze can move more rapidly.

?What we're concerned about is what you see right here,? said U.S Forest Service fire Chief Jeanne Pincha-Tulley, pointing to a hazy sky. ?When you get a column that puts out this much smoke, embers get into the column and can drop anywhere.?

The column was expected to go right over Idyllwild for the next two days, she added.

While authorities said only 5 percent of the town rebuffed evacuation efforts, they cautioned they might not be able to help those who remain if conditions worsen.