The nature center at the Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area was destroyed by the growing Bobcat fire, and flames were still menacing homes in foothilll communities of the southern Antelope Valley on Sunday, fire officials said.
By Sunday evening, the U.S. Forest Service reported the fire grew to 103,135 acres, with the fire still posing a threat to Juniper Hills, Valyermo and Big Pine. Containment remained unchanged through the day at 15%. Containment is when firefighters create and hold a fire break around the perimeter of a wildfire. Saturday night, the fire was measured at 93,842 acres.
The fire, which has been burning mostly out of control since Sept. 6, reached the Antelope Valley in recent days after starting almost 30 miles away near the Cogswell Dam in San Gabriel Canyon north of Azusa, deep in the Angeles National Forest.
What caused the fire remains under investigation.
Already seeing critical fire weather conditions near the #BobcatFire this morning. PLEASE avoid use of anything capable of sparking a fire today!! #SoCal #CAwx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/sYhKpLuSK4
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) September 20, 2020
Winds were still pushing the fire to the northwest and northeast, but were less powerful than in previous days, said Larry Smith, a Forest Service spokesman. Regardless, fire crews were setting up in both Littlerock and Wrightwood, on opposite ends of the fire area, anticipating flames spreading close to those communities by Sunday night.
“The winds are actually in our favor today,” Smith said. “It’s all gonna depend on the strength of the winds, the fuels, and the location … our intent is to the keep the fires footprint as small as possible.”
Firefighters were working feverishly Sunday to protect homes in Juniper Hills. Smith said all homes in that community had fire engines dedicated to them to try to ward off flames.
“Some homes are being treated with fire suppressant, fire retardant,” he said. “Any time we can get out in front of the fire to protect homes, we’re going to do that.”
Still, fire officials said residents could expect to find damaged structures across this part of the Antelope Valley, said Vince Pena, the unified incident commander with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Sophia Mavrolas, a senior at Cal State Northridge and a resident of Juniper Hills, returned home Sunday after evacuating on Friday. Some of her family and neighbors stayed to protect the neighborhood, and they “could see large flames with the naked eye at first, and it only got worse the closer it came,” she said. “We could even hear propane tanks exploding at the top of Juniper Hills from my house, and it was so terrifying.”
She came back to see the damage.
“From my house you can see upper Juniper Hills, and in a lot of areas it looks really burnt, as well as parts of my area as well,” she said. “…the fire line stops within just walking distance of my neighbors.”
“A lot of trees and shrubbery are all gone,” she added. “My neighborhood was extremely lucky to get out of this okay, but my heart aches so bad for my neighbors in upper Juniper Hills.”
Fire crews inspecting burn areas for damaged or destroyed structures hadn’t been able to get into communities near the fire area to complete that work Sunday, Smith said — the flames and firefighter activity were still too intense. So there was no update in the number of structures burned.
Officials from the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation confirmed the Devil’s Punchbowl Nature Center was destroyed.
“It was truly a gem of education for our youth, local community, and residents of the county,” said Parks and Recreation Director Norma Edith García-Gonzalez in a statement.
The animals in the sanctuary had already been safely evacuated, including Ruth the barn owl and Twig, a screech owl, along with snakes and tortoises, the department said. A separate staff office building on the property apparently survived, along with surrounding pinyon pines, junipers and manzanita trees.
The site and its structures will be assessed when it is safe to do so, the department said.
The fire remained active overnight due to stubborn low humidity and spotting continues to present challenges, according to the Forest Service, but progress was reported on the south end of the fire in the San Gabriel Valley area.
“Progress was made on holding containment lines on the south end of the fire. Heavy fire activity took place to the north end of the fire,” officials said.
The Forest Service said crews were were working on “indirect lines”– a method in which fire lines are cut well away from the fire, and the intervening area is either control-burned or lined with retardant from the air.
New evacuations were ordered for a huge swath of remote mountain areas northeast of Hidden Springs that could end up in the fire’s path. The area has few towns, but campgrounds and other facilities dot the region’s mountain routes.The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that anyone out in areas north of Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road, south of Mount Emma Road, east of the Angeles Forest Highway and west of Pacific Mountain needed to evacuate.
A Red Cross evacuation center has been set up at Palmdale High School in the Antelope Valley, while the earlier evacuation point at Santa Anita Park for those in the San Gabriel Valley was closed. Anyone still needing assistance was urged to call the Disaster Distress Hotline at 800-675-5799.
Staff writers Jennifer Iyer, Eric Licas and City News Service contributed to this story
