Bush fire above Azusa closes Highway 39

Bush fire above Azusa closes Highway 39

by Josh Cain

A small brush fire in the San Gabriel Mountains above Azusa drew forest firefighters and several air tankers on Sunday, and led to a lengthy shutdown of Highway 39.

The fire started near the route at mile marker 31, according to the Angeles National Forest. Later in the day, Caltrans officials said the Los Angeles County Fire Department was asking to shut down the highway overnight as firefighters continued mopping up hot spots in areas the fire burned.

In a tweet, Caltrans said the “fire was under control” but that firefighters requested a “hard closure remain in place until Monday morning.”

California Highway Patrol units were closing the northbound side of the highway at Mountain Laurel Way, in a neighborhood in the foothills at the northernmost border of Azusa, far below where the fire was burning. CHP officials said there was no estimate for when the route would reopen.

The southbound side of Highway 39 was closed at Route 2 near Cedar Springs.

|New Incident| Your #AngelesNF is responding to a brush fire on HWY 39 MM 31. The fire is 5 acres. This will be the #BichotaFire pic.twitter.com/978dzY9FWY

— Angeles_NF (@Angeles_NF) July 12, 2020

The fire started at around 11:30 a.m. About an hour later, forest officials said in that crews had halted the fire’s progress.

Dubbed the Bichota fire, the blaze burned about five acres. Forest officials asked visitors to stay away from Highway 39 in the area of the fire as emergency vehicles responded to the fire.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department air rescue team was dispatched to the area to lift out an injured person. The nature of the person’s injury was not clear Sunday.

Forest officials were not immediately available for comment.

All credit goes to Josh Cain
Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com