LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. _ As flames flickered behind Ana Tran's McVicker Canyon home, she and her friend rushed to their car and sped past firefighters who were heading toward the blaze. Thick black smoke billowed above homes and cars blanketed in pinkish fire retardant.
The residents, like many others, made a frantic escape Thursday after winds picked up in Lake Elsinore and pushed the raging Holy fire within feet of homes. The blaze had ravaged more than 18,000 acres in the Cleveland National Forest and had spread into Riverside County as on Friday morning.
While the U.S. Forest Service said that no additional homes had been lost _ at least 12 structures were destroyed earlier _ the wildfire was only 5 percent contained.
The firefight continued Friday morning, as more firefighters and aircraft poured into the area. Officials are expecting another hot day, with temperatures in the 90s. More than 20,000 residents were urged to leave their homes.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Orange and Riverside counties.
When Tran returned to her neighborhood, she found her home _ still standing _ under a smoky sky.
"It feels like a war zone," she said, ash collecting on her forehead as she snapped photos of flames igniting behind a row of homes on Woodbridge Street near Crest Drive.
"I don't even recognize the neighborhood," added her friend, Bao Vinh.
A mile or so away, Apolonio Escalante and his wife walked around scanning the aftermath of the fire that had swept through their Rice Canyon neighborhood. Hundreds of homes sit across from the canyons; some are snuggled deeper in the terrain. The fire left trees stripped bare, everything black. Street signage was damaged.
Escalante said he was at his construction job when his wife called with an urgent request: Get home, flames are nearby.
The couple loaded valuables and corralled their 6-year-old German shepherd, Muneca, into a dog crate and put her onto the bed of their truck. Then they got the hoses out, watching flames rise 40 to 100 feet high.
"We were watering everything," his wife, Josefina Escalante, said. "It looked like someone had poured gasoline on the fire. ... It took off."
The fire burned close to Rice Canyon Elementary School, but the campus did not appear damaged. The Escalantes said their home has water, power and gas, so they won't have to find shelter elsewhere.
"Tomorrow," Apolonio Escalante said, "I go back to work."
Josefina chimed in: "Me, too."
Thursday evening, fixed-wing planes were temporarily grounded because of poor visibility. Soon, air quality improved and they took off again. While homes in and around Little John Way were under threat after dusk, many residents on the east of Grand Avenue hadn't left their homes as the fire began coming down the mountain. Most were shooting photos and videos as air tankers dumped fire retardant.
As hundreds of firefighters and 10 water-dropping helicopters worked to douse flames and stop them from spreading, prosecutors Thursday filed several charges against a man suspected of setting the blaze.
In an interview with a reporter before his arrest, Forrest Clark, 51, said he had no idea how the fire started. "I was asleep. I had two earplugs in," Clark said, according to a video obtained by KABC-TV Channel 7.
Authorities did not say how or why Clark ignited the fire. The Trabuco Canyon resident faces one felony count each of aggravated arson of five or more inhabited structures, arson of inhabited property, arson of forest and criminal threats, and two felony counts of resisting an executive officer.
If convicted, Clark faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison.
Meanwhile, the Lake Elsinore Unified School District announced that all schools would be closed Friday.
In Los Angeles County, two men were charged with setting a separate brush fire near the Morris Dam, a reservoir in the San Gabriel Mountains. Christopher Paul Ortega, 20, of Glendora, and Santino Francisco Gnaulati, 21, of Covina, each face one felony count of arson of a structure or forest.
Sheriff's deputies and prosecutors say the men, who have pleaded not guilty, started the fire near Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Glendora early Tuesday. Firefighters quickly got a handle on the blaze, which burned a quarter of an acre.
If convicted, Ortega and Gnaulati face up to six years in state prison. They are due back in court later this month.
