SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—Lisa Gregory has kept a close eye on the weather since fleeing her home in the woods as a wildfire advanced in Southern California. She doesn’t know when she can return or whether her house was still standing.
The uncertainty “is an awful feeling,” Gregory said as she lounged in a lawn chair under a tree outside an evacuation center.
Firefighters made major gains Thursday against the wildfire that broke out Tuesday in the mountains and desert 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Driven by wind and low humidity, the fire chewed through tall grasses and drought-parched shrubs, torching an unknown number of homes and vehicles.
The 59-square-mile blaze was 22 percent contained, and a small number of evacuees on the fire’s east side where the containment line was were allowed to return home.
Some 82,000 residents were under evacuation orders at the height of the fire.
Crews fanned out across fire-ravaged zones to begin inspecting the damage, but many places were still too dangerous to enter.
