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Article by Victoria Heerschap photos by Malia Dietz
Live broadcast of the video courtesy Malia Dietz and located here: Live Broadcast
At 6:56 p.m. on Thursday, June 13, emergency dispatch received multiple callers reporting smoke and fire visible in the desert, to the south of Lucerne Valley. The smoke was visible with fire on the north-facing slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains below the Mitsubishi Cement Plant on Highway 18.
Within minutes, mutual aid had been requested. Both Cal Fire and US Forest Service Fire crews were quickly enroute to the scene with multiple engines. The initial estimation of the size of the fire was a quarter acre, but only moments later, it had increased. At 7:20 p.m., Highway 18 was closed to traffic as the fire spread past three acres, at which point air support was called in. An air attack on the fire was undertaken by a helicopter and a fixed wing tanker.
By 8:30 p.m., officials reported that the Plant Fire had spread to 15 acres and additional CalFire crews were requested to stop the advancing flames. As the conflagration raged on, smoke from the fire was reported by residents in Landers and Western Yucca Valley.
As darkness fell, the air support was called off until the morning, while firefighters on the ground continued to battle the blaze. Water tenders from Big Bear and other areas hurried to supply water to the firefighters from San Bernardino County Fire, Big Bear Fire, CalFire, and the USFS, who toiled through the night to control the flames.
By 9:00 a.m. on Friday, June 14, the Plant Fire was at 60% containment. It was estimated that Highway 18 would be reopened by 12:00 pm. At 1:20 p.m., the Plant Fire was contained enough to reopen Highway 18 from Lucerne Valley at Camp Rock Road to Johnson’s Grade. Big Bear Sheriff Station recommends that drivers through this stretch of the highway continue to drive cautiously and to yield to any fire crews or equipment in the area.
According to various social media posts from the agencies responsible for fighting the Plant Fire indicate that the fire has burned through at least 15 acres of desert scrub terrain. However on Friday evening, officials publicly released the official acreage as 12.5 burned. At that time, the fire was reportedly at 90% containment
