Cal Fire urged residents to stay vigilant as"the most devastating wildfires" normally occur in September and October.
Firefighters trying to contain hot spot flare ups
The Bobcat Fire had burned 103,135 acres and has been 15% contained as of Sunday night, based on an update from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is now one of the biggest wildfires in Los Angeles County history. The biggest, the Station Fire, torched 160,000 acres in 2009.
The cause of the Bobcat Fire, which began on September 6, is still unknown. Over 1,700 fire personnel are battling the blaze. Several flare ups were confirmed by fire agencies in the northeast and southwest quadrants of the flame on Sunday, with wind gusts up to 30 miles and very low humidity creating the chance of extreme fire behavior through Monday night, the National Weather Service Los Angeles office said.
One of the flare ups was Chantry Flat, above the foothills east of Los Angeles Sunday. The Angeles National Forest stated on Twitter"teams are en route to 1/4 acre spot at Chantry Flat, 1/4 kilometers over the construction site at Chantry Road."
A photo accompanying the tweet showed the mild green Forest Service crew van, or buggy as firefighters call it, transporting firefighters from the Mormon Lake Hot Shots from Northern Arizona toward that area. Los Angeles County Fire spokesman Sky Cornell told CNN Sunday there was a major push Saturday to place in containment lines around the fire. "They (fire crews) understood if they can push hard through the night it'd make a big difference on the flame. They were successful in a competitive fire attack through the night putting in containment lines in multiple places," Cornell said.
Cornell said a lot of the northern spread of the Bobcat Fire was into high desert flatlands, much easier terrain to combat wildfire than the steep hills and deep canyons of much of the Angeles National Forest, in which the blaze has burned.
"But we're never out of the forests. We let our guard down. We're seeing some end pick up now and that is our number one issue," he said. Nature centre closed after place burned. One hotspot that flared up was near the Devil's Punchbowl Nature Center, which closed until further notice due to the blaze.
"The region is still regarded as a hotspot rather than safe," the release said. "The centre will be closed until further notice."
Animals out of the refuge were evacuated earlier this week, according to the release.
