Crime & Safety
Update: Lightning Fires Burn Nearly 20,000 Acres; 70% Contained
Cal Fire has reported that the Vallecito Lightning Complex has cost more than $5 million in suppressions costs.
Updated at 10 p.m. Aug. 16
Residents in Ranchita and San Felipe were under mandatory evacuation orders for the second consecutive day Thursday as the Vallecito Lightning Complex continued to threatened about 400 structures in the rural communities and burn more than 19,500 open acres.
By early Thursday afternoon, the progress of air and ground crews allowed
the county to reopen State Route 78, which had been closed between Scissors
Crossing and Borrego Springs due to the blazes, which have sent suppression cost up to more than $5 million.
Find out what's happening in Ramonawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A new fire, the Shoots Fire, was reported by Cal Fire Thursday and burned briefly, scorching less than an acre before being halted, according to the state firefighting agency.
The group of now six fires has been burning since Sunday night, including two that were only partially contained as of Wednesday night, according to Cal Fire. The other three were 100 percent contained by Tuesday night.
Find out what's happening in Ramonawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
By 9 p.m. Thursday, the Vallecito Lightning Complex, which consists of the , Wilson, Stewart, Cooper, Shoots and Wynola fires, had burned 19,625 acres and was 70 percent contained, Cal Fire Capt. Mike Mohler said. Suppression costs were calculated up to $5.47 million with one more mile of containment line to construct.
The spread of the Vallecito Fire, southeast of Julian, was stopped at 519 acres.
was called in by Cal Fire Wednesday to help fight the blazes.
Residents from Ranchita and San Felipe were given a mandatory evacuation order, but the state of California cannot enforce the order. Large animals were for safe keeping.
San Felipe Valley Road, which runs south and west of the site of the
Stewart Fire, was off-limits to the public as of 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Though no structure losses were reported as of early Thursday, Cal Fire reported three firefighters were injured. One of the firefighters suffered from heat exhaustion, another a foot problem and one had minor injuries, according to Cal Fire.
Residents with questions about the fires are encouraged to call Cal Fire's incident information line at 619-590-3160 or follow the agency on Twitter.
–City News Service contributed to this report.
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