California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in the wake of a Riverside County wildfire on Friday that has burned more than 19,000 acres over the last three days.
Since the Silver Fire wildfire began Wednesday afternoon, it has consumed 28 square miles of dry, mountainous terrain in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, reports NBCLA. The blaze has destroyed 30 structures--mostly homes--injured six firefighters and severely burned one civilian.
"It hit here really fast. That wind started, started pushing the fire over that ridge line. Before they knew it, it was upon the community," Julie Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told NBC News.
According to the Riverside County Fire Department, more than 2,000 personnel were on the scene Saturday morning, including 68 fire crews.
A local resident named Dave Matthews said he had lived in his house for a decade until the flames swept up and devoured it within minutes.
"I talked to a couple of the firefighters and they said the house across from me, next door to me, was fully engulfed," Matthews told NBC News.
Firefighters told Matthews that there was nothing they could do to save his home, he said.
Another area resident, Dave Clark, said, "I got here and the house was already half burned." Clark said he scrambled to save what he could as the flames swallowed his home.
"I knew where a bag of legal documents were, so I ran in and grabbed them and ran out," Clark said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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