Airport, Bridge, Line fires torch SoCal amid California heatwave

And good good evening. Welcome to. Welcome to Fox seven News at ten. I'm Alex Michaelson and I'm Christine Devine. Three major wildfires currently raging amidst a severe heat wave. We have live team coverage. Chelsea Edwards is covering the Lion Fire, which is blazing through mountainous terrain in San Bernardino County. Alaska's is covering the airport fire, which has consumed nearly 2000 acres in Trabuco Canyon. But let's begin with Fox Eleven's brand new chief meteorologist, Adam Krueger, with a look at our forecast. Adam. Hey there guys. Well, let's start with what we see right now. It is still really warm out there. I know people coming in from their dinner breaks here at Fox 11 talking about just how warm it is outside. It is 91 degrees in downtown L.A. after a record high today of 104 degrees. I want to talk about the winds real quick, too, because, as you said, we've got those wildfires burning in several spots. Winds overall have been calming down this evening, but the next couple of days, those Sundowner winds are likely to pick up a little bit more could aggravate the fire situation just a little bit more. And now for tomorrow. We do have a heat alert. We have another excessive heat warning, but not for everybody as we come in a little bit closer notice right along the coast, we don't have an excessive heat warning for most of the coastal areas, but a lot of Los Angeles and a lot of inland spots. Still, for one last day, we have that excessive heat warning. And I also want to mention this. We have air quality alerts stemming from the smoke from those wildfires over a large area as well, mostly just east and far southeast of Los Angeles. Quick look at our temperatures for tomorrow. If you're wondering how hot it's going to be. Well, not as hot as it's been for a while, but still hot enough for some excessive heat warnings like we talked about. But overall, most locations cooling down about 5 to 10 degrees. That cooling trend continues. We'll talk more about that later on. But right now let's go live to Christine Edwards or Chelsea Edwards as she is live right now for what we have going on with the Highland in the Highland area, with the line fire. Chelsea, I'll turn it over to you now. Adam, thank you so much. Yeah 23,000 plus acres have burned so far. Just 5% containment at the line. Fire here. This is still a very active fight. You can hear a water dropping helicopter overhead right now. And if you look in the back, you can see that ridge. We're in the Highland area now that was covered with active flames just about ten minutes ago. But these water drops have been coming consistently for the last maybe 30 minutes. And you can see they've made a big difference. That orange glow really subsiding in that area. Now we're standing in one of the mandatory evacuation zones. But a lot of the residents in this area have returned to their homes as these flames move forward toward Big Bear. Today the fire is moving northeast, and we're concerned with the citizens of Big Bear now burning through steep, rugged terrain in the San Bernardino National Forest. The Line Fire is expected to grow even larger as it moves towards Big Bear. It's been very active today. Firefighters have been working around the clock in the sweltering heat to keep the flames from destroying tens of thousands of structures in their path. Many are still under evacuation orders. Once we've evacuated an area, we'll be placing the National Guard in those areas to maintain security, along with law enforcement units. Officials say the work doesn't stop with fire protection. Please know that all the law enforcement officers in the National Guard are going to treat your homes just like we treat our own homes. I can you can be rest assured that if anybody comes out attempts to loot in this county, they will be arrested and they will be prosecuted. Though flames are burning away from communities in Highland, residents in and around the evacuation zone are on high alert. It was like right there. So we had to evacuate, but it was like we came back, but we don't know if we have to evacuate again. Nerve wracking. Just like picturing or imagining your house just burning down and like not coming back. Could be the last time you hear kids in one Highland community gathered on the sidewalk for an impromptu fire watch party after flames came dangerously close to their neighborhood over the weekend. We've just stayed inside. Either one of the houses because it's been smoky outside. It's been kind of like hard to breathe at night because it kind of went to the house, so we had to buy air purifiers and stuff. Like, all I see is just like destruction, like the mountains were like, burn down. And the fire was close to our house. It was kind of scary. Now, hopefully those kids are back inside right now because this air quality has really changed over the last hour or so since these water drops started. I can tell you the smoke is thick in the air. We can see ash kind of swirling about sticking our eyes. You can taste it in the back of your throat. Now, we do have another evacuation warning. That was announced a little bit earlier. That is the area of Big Bear Valley from the dam to Cactus Road. Again, that is just a warning, not an order. But officials, of course, warning everybody in the vicinity of the wildfire to be ready to go at a moment's notice. Reporting live from Highland, I'm Chelsea Edwards, Fox 11 news. I'll send it back to you in the studio much? Let's talk about other fires. Several areas are evacuated tonight as the bridge fire in the San Gabriel Canyon continues to rage unabated. The fire, now at about 3000 acres, zero containment. Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for Camp Williams and the adjacent river community, as well as the Mount Baldy area residents north of the San Antonio Dam. That fire started yesterday afternoon near East Form and Glendora Mountain roads. No structures have yet been lost and no injuries reported. More breaking news now in Orange County. A brush fire quickly scorched about 2000 acres, prompting evacuation warnings in the Trabuco Canyon area. Fox 11 Ed Laskos is near there tonight. Editor and night operations continue here this late hour with fire command up and flying their water, dropping helicopters using their their night vision. Their target. Joe, give you a look. There it is up there, the western flank of the airport. Fire. Those flames burning along that ridge. Look at the smoke and the way the flames are moving. Burning up, up the canyon. Why that good is why is that good news? Because it's burning away from all the homes below. Watch fire fight in the OC. The airport fire burning out of control. But now not a burning threat. And I want to start off with good news. The airport fire is burning away from the community of Robinson Ranch. The fire now burning up canyon. The intense heat, the dry brush, and it's uphill path all fueling the fire that starts small in Trabuco Canyon and then quickly explodes into a large major incident so quickly from a half acre. The fire escalated to 300 acres and now sits at 1900 acres. And in perspective, that's 1900 football fields that brings urgent water drops and Fosse checks the fire retardant drops down on the front lines. Strike teams rush into the canyon, while others rush out. You know, it started right there at the hill. So right, right where the horses were at. So, you know, I just got to get them out of here and get them to a safe place right now. The fire threat striking nearby Robinson Ranch, a community under mandatory evacuation orders. Many here left watching the burning hillside and the direction of all the thick smoke. If they didn't get it to go to the right side, then we would have been like out of our homes and stuff. So it would have been not fun and were you ready to go if you had to go? I mean, yeah, it's scary, but we're prepared. We're used to it. And just looking up there and hoping it keeps going in the opposite direction. Yes, we are following everything online. Tense moments as the fire makes a run at Santiago Peak. That's the mountain top with all its sensitive communication towers. It is not damaged water drops save the towers as the massive fire. We now know started by OC Public Works employees using their heavy equipment. After placing a load of boulders, the operators began seeing smoke coming from the area of the loaders basket. The operator and his supervisor used multiple fire extinguishers and the loaders to attempt to extinguish the fire. Now you're looking live the airport fire through Sky Fox two update moments ago from Cal Fire and Fire Command, saying the numbers here have jumped dramatically. 5400 acres burned since this fire lit up mid afternoon. It just exploded up that canyon. You know, flames always roar uphill, if you will. The air is charged, heated above it and that's why it just spreads so quickly. Fire command also saying as you look at this and how threatening it is, the good news here also, it's not a Santa Ana condition. As the captain said, if it was a Santa Ana's that were blowing, my goodness, we would be in a lot of trouble as we come back out here again, burning on that Western ridge. It's also burning into the burn scars of the 2018 fire, the holy fire. Remember that one? So that's good news also, because it means, as it burns in that direction, the fuel there was burned a couple of years ago. One other quick point on those mandatory evacuations, the Robinson Ranch community. Yes. Still mandatory evacuations there. The also volunteer evacuations in some of the roads, the canyons along the canyon, deep inside Trabuco Canyon. They still remain in effect. Fire command saying it's not an immediate threat right now. But if the winds change quickly overnight, then