Three wildfires were burning in Southern California Tuesday night, with one moving from Orange County into the Inland Empire, one in San Bernardino County, and the others near the mountain communities of Mt. Baldy and Wrightwood.

The bridge fire took a dangerous turn Tuesday night when it exploded from 4,000 acres to 34,000 acres in a matter of hours, growing eight times its size as it raced toward Mountain High Ski Resort and Wrightwood. There was video of possible structures lost, but officials have not confirmed that.

Video from Mountain High Resort showed flames tearing through a ski lift area.

Other videos showed wind-fed flames leaping across the slopes and eating away at the terrain.

The bridge fire broke out in the Angeles National Forest and fire activity has increased in the northeast part of the state, the Angeles National Forest reported Tuesday afternoon.

The fire danger has been raised to “very high” for visitors to the area, including the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. The fire has prompted mandatory evacuation orders for communities in the area.

In Orange County, the airport fire has grown to more than 10,000 acres and was 0% contained as of Tuesday afternoon. The fire started Monday afternoon amid a persistent heat wave that has fanned fires across the region, brought winds that have poisoned the air with smoke and ash, and forced schools and businesses to close until conditions improve.

In the first hours, the fire raced up Trabuco Canyon and away from the foothill neighborhoods like Robinson Ranch.

But on Tuesday morning, a thick, gray plume of smoke hung over the hill.

A woman walking through the neighborhood waved to firefighters as they raced up the hill toward the inferno. “Thank you!” she shouted as they passed.

Michael Bernardin, 62, was not home at Robinson Ranch when the fire broke out Monday.

When he tried to go home, the road to the neighborhood was already blocked. He parked in a shopping center and walked the half-mile to his house in the heat. He packed two suitcases—all he could carry—and gathered his dogs, Pepper and Honey Noodles. He went back a second time to get more things, unsure of when his family would be home.

“One of the suitcases was so full I don’t think we could have checked it on a plane,” he said. “It was hot and I was struggling.”

On Tuesday morning, Bernardin and his wife, Roseann, made the trek back to their home after staying with a friend in San Clemente. They plan to stay unless the wind shifts, he said.

In the 27 years they’ve lived in the area, there have been a few fires, but this is the first time they’ve had to evacuate.

“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he said.

The proximity to nature and open space makes Trabuco Canyon an attractive community for residents, but it also makes it vulnerable to major fires.

Resident Marilynn Reideler drove through the neighborhood in her Ford F-150 truck to help residents walking up the hill with heavy suitcases and bags.

“It’s still hot and it’s a long walk,” she said.

Despite orders to evacuate, many residents, including Reideler, decided to wait before actually leaving.

Robert McCoy happily accepted a mid-morning ride as temperatures soared into the 80s Tuesday. He and his wife had left Monday out of an abundance of caution, but now felt safe returning.

“The firefighters are working on it,” said McCoy, 61. “I wanted to stay (Monday), but (my wife) was nervous.”

According to investigators with the Orange County Fire Authority, the cause of the fire was a spark from heavy equipment workers were using to place large boulders on Trabuco Creek Road. The fire was ruled accidental.

Two firefighters were injured by the heat while extinguishing the fire, and one civilian was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.

About 1,000 firefighters are battling the blaze as helicopters dump thousands of gallons of water on the flames and planes cover the hills with pink fire retardant in an attempt to block the road. The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency over the fire on Tuesday.

Steve Kilgore stood watch with binoculars outside his home on Raintree Lane as flames consumed the brush on the ridge above his neighborhood.

Kilgore and the neighbors who stayed behind are working in shifts through the night, monitoring the fire and determining when and if they should leave. His truck is packed with family photos and supplies in case the wind shifts.

“There’s something about leaving your house in this situation — it’s horrible,” he said. “It defies logic. I’ve never had to do a 20- to 30-minute assessment of every valuable thing in our lives.”

Wayne Nelson, who also lives in Raintree, whose property borders the Cleveland National Forest, stood in their driveway with his wife as a helicopter dumped thousands of gallons of water onto the burning ground.

He said fire trucks remained in their area throughout the night to monitor the fire.

“Firefighters saved these homes,” he said. “It was literally an air show here last night. We are so grateful.”

People watch the rapidly growing airport fire raging in Trabuco Canyon on Monday from the Coyote Canyon trail in O’Neill Regional Park.

(Don Kelsen)

As temperatures near the fire rose above 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, the blaze reached the Santa Ana Mountains and then moved north and east toward Riverside County.

Authorities expect the fire to continue to spread; there is no immediate threat to homes in Orange County.

“That’s the ultimate goal of any fire,” said Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority. “It’s OK to burn in the natural vegetation, but we don’t want to burn homes or businesses.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department encouraged residents of Rose Canyon Road, Trabuco Creek Road, Trabuco Canyon Road, Trabuco Oaks Drive, Joplin Loop and Cook’s Corner to evacuate. Homes in the communities of Robinson Ranch and Trabuco Highlands were under mandatory evacuation orders. The Highlands apartment complex was also under mandatory evacuation orders.

A long-term shelter was set up in Rancho Santa Margarita and large animals could be taken to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The airport fire is one of several that have burned since last week in California’s record heat, limiting the amount of help available across Southern California, Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

In San Bernardino County, the Line fire that started Thursday has burned 27,974 acres and was only 5% contained as of Tuesday morning, Cal Fire said. Evacuations have been issued for several communities southwest of the fire in case the wind shifts.

Another wildfire broke out Tuesday morning in Fairmont, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The Apollo fire had spread to 800 acres within the first five hours, but is now 100 percent contained, officials said.

Officials are working to reallocate resources from smaller fires in the area to where they are needed most, as well as bring in resources from out of state through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact program, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Todd Hopkins said during the news conference.

“We’re getting resources released from fires like the Roblar Fire or the Boone Fire,” he said, both of which are more than 50 percent contained. “Resources are being reallocated to (the Airport Fire) or some of the other fires that are going on to the south.”

The unusually warm weather should be over by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, but not before firefighters face even more challenges from the heat and wind.

Firefighters are expected to face another day of temperatures around 95 degrees Fahrenheit and wind gusts of 20 mph (32 km/h) on Tuesday, according to Philip Gonsalves, a meteorologist with the San Diego weather service.

“It will literally fan the flames,” he said. “It increases the speed at which the fire spreads. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the direction of the spread becomes a little more predictable.”

According to the weather service, winds from an incoming low-pressure area will carry smoke from the fires at the bridge, the line and the airport to southern Nevada and Arizona in the coming days.

Nicole Bennigsdorf, 40, has lived in the foothills of Trabuco Canyon for more than 12 years, where she has experienced about five fires in the area. But never has a fire come so close to her home in Rancho Santa Margarita that she has seen flames.

“I see the red-orange amber color on the ridge, which I’ve never seen before,” she said as she stood outside her home about seven miles (11 kilometers) south of the fire.

After reading the news about the fire on social media platform X on Monday afternoon, Bennigsdorf went outside around 3 p.m. She saw the warm, stuffy air and a large plume of smoke in the distance.

“It was a very clear plume, very dark, and it was much windier outside than it was at 2 p.m., and the base (of the fire) was getting wider and wider,” she said.

At 4:00 p.m., the sound of helicopters flying in and out of the smoke was heard. She saw three or four planes at a time, dropping water and fire retardant on the fire.

“This is the biggest (fire) I’ve ever seen, and it’s absolutely the hottest, most humid weather we’ve ever had, and it’s just made it brutal here,” she said. “I’m drenched in sweat just standing outside.”