Smoke-Out

(Last update: Sunday 11:02 p.m.)

For the first time in three and a half years, fire threatened large numbers of Hesperians this weekend. Hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate as a brush fire consumed more than 4,000 acres.

Approximately six hours after their mandatory evacuations began, residents of homes south of Ranchero Road, between Farmdale and I Avenues were allowed to return home at 10 p.m. Saturday night. By 8 a.m. Sunday, all evacuation orders had been lifted and the evacuation center at Sultana High School was closed.

The fire burned more than 4,000 acres, according to Hesperia city spokeswoman Kim Summers. More than 150 firefighters continued to battle the blaze Sunday night, down from a peak of more than 300, working from the Incident Command Post in Mojave River Forks Regional Park. The fire was almost fully contained late Sunday night.

Miraculously, reported damage was minimal, and was officially limited to only a burned roof and a destroyed storage shed.

The blaze began Saturday morning in the future housing development of Rancho Las Flores, an area of the city once beloved by off-road enthusiasts but now destined to be the site of 16,000 additional homes. The development had been delayed following the real estate market's decline in the 1990s, but the developer, Rancho Las Flores LLC of Dana Point, has recently begun work on reviving the project, subject to upgrades to Highway 138.

Smoke blacked out the sky over southern and eastern Hesperia, and residents scrambled to get family members and pets from their houses, in response to urgent knocking on their doors by members of the San Bernardino County Fire Department and fire departments from communities as far away as Ontario. All the while, ash fluttered down from above.

Even before the evacuations began, fire officials closed most roads south of Ranchero Road, save for a few dead-end roads, which were crowded with spectators. Headlights were on east of Kingston Avenue, as smoke turned day into night and forced many residents to cover their mouths and noses with bandanas.

The last major fire to threaten Hesperia was in October 2003, when the Grand Prix and Old Fires merged together. Feasting on dead trees in the San Bernardino Mountains killed by a bark beetle infestation, the fire swept down on the city, forcing evacuations and turning the Hesperia Fairgrounds into an evacuation center for surrounding communities.

Residents with photographs of the Las Flores Fire may e-mail them to editor@hesperiastar.com for inclusion in the Hesperia Star's online photo gallery of images from this weekend's blaze.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.