Residents Ordered to Evacuate as Southern California Wildfire Rages

Photo Credit: APAn out-of-control wildfire growing with great speed in Southern California mountains Wednesday night burned homes, forced the evacuation of several mountain communities and left three people including two firefighters injured.

The fire broke out about 2 p.m. near Banning and surge to at least 6,000 acres, or more than 9 square miles, within a few hours, state fire officials said.

One civilian was burned and airlifted to a hospital, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. Two firefighters were also injured and both were taken to hospitals by ambulance. Officials would give no further details on the injuries.

Fire officials said about a dozen structures were damaged or destroyed, but could not say how many were homes. Footage from TV news helicopters and photos from the scene showed several houses in flames.

They include the Twin Pines home of Dave Clark, whose parents were killed in a house fire in Riverside in April 2012 the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Prosecutors alleged Clark’s sister Deborah Clark set the fire, and she was awaiting a mental-competency hearing to see if she was competent to stand trial for her parents’ murder in a case that has received extensive local media coverage.

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