Fires burn as triple-digit temperatures heat up Southern California

The dry heat on Wednesday — the first day of fall — prompted heat advisories and set the stage for a host of fires that sprouted across Southern California.

And as temperatures climbed, so did the number of fire emergencies.

First came a small brush fire around 11 a.m., burning near baseball fields and several schools at Perris Hill Park in San Bernardino, said the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Fire crews were able to hold the blaze to five acres. Temperature: 93 degrees.

Around 11:30 p.m., just two miles north, sparks from a vehicle with a flat tire landed in some vegetation, igniting the University fire, which forced residents of more than 100 San Bernardino homes and businesses to flee the oncoming flames, authorities said. Temperature: 94 degrees.

Over the next several hours, the fire grew from two acres to 100 acres with flames creeping closer toward the foothill neighborhood, county fire officials said. Some flames leapt just behind some houses as their owners pointed garden hoses into the dry, yellow grass. Temperature: 97 degrees.

Around 1 p.m., another fire sparked on a rooftop of a California State University, San Bernardino building. The blaze ignited as roofers worked atop the campus’ visual arts building. A fire engine crew extinguished the fire before flames entered the structure. Temperature: 98 degrees.

East into Riverside County in San Jacinto, a pile of cardboard boxes caught fire at a commercial intersection in the city, said April Newman, spokesperson for the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department. The temperature had reached 99 degrees around the time of the small trash fire. The cause of the blaze was still under investigation.

Elsewhere in the region, in Los Angeles County, National Weather Service officials warned of elevated fire conditions in areas with high temperatures and gusty winds like the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and San Gabriel valleys.

Just before 4 p.m. in the San Fernando Valley, where temperatures had reached 101 degrees and winds gusted at 20 mph, a brush fire broke out in a grassy hills near Chatsworth Park South, said the Los Angeles Fire Department. The blaze would go on to burn nine acres.

Weather was far less intense in the region’s coastal areas in Orange and Los Angeles counties. But temperatures remained finnicky: on the beachfront, people felt 70-degree weather; move just one mile inland, temperatures spiked into the 80s.

The hottest city in the region was Palm Springs, which saw temperatures rise to 108 degrees in the afternoon. No temperature records were broken in the region.

As temperatures dipped to the lower 90s in San Bernardino late Wednesday afternoon, fire crews were able to gain control of the University fire, allowing residents to return to their homes.

While most fires were expected to be snuffed out by Wednesday evening, the heat was expected to stick around on Thursday. However, a weather system blowing in from Idaho will bring slight cooling into the weekend, said Philip Gonsalves, meteorologist with the National Weather Services’ San Diego office.

Real respite from the heat isn’t expected to arrive until early next week, when a weather system from Alaska blows in, down along the West Coast, Gonsalves said.

By the middle of next week, even the hottest areas of the region aren’t forecast to see temperatures beyond 80 degrees, he said.