SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—A ferocious wildfire has swallowed up many homes across more than 49 square miles of mountain and desert east of Los Angeles. Exactly how many, however, and to whom they belonged, is uncertain.
Firefighters struggled to tally up the damage on Wednesday while still battling the huge, unruly blaze amid hot, dry and gusty weather that was expected to continue through Thursday evening.
It left evacuees in a cruel limbo, forced to spend another night wondering whether anything they owned is still intact.
Shawn Brady was told by a neighbor that violent flames had raged down their street. But he was still waiting for the official word.
“What I’ve been told is that flames are currently ripping through my house,” said Brady, a dockworker who lives on the outskirts of the evacuated town of Wrightwood with his mother, sister and a dog.
“I’m trying to remain optimistic,” Brady said as he sat outside a shelter for evacuees in Fontana. “It’s the not knowing that’s the worst.”
