Camp Pendleton Partly Evacuated Due To Wildfire
Camp Pendleton has been partly evacuated due to wildfires in California. The Marine base has apparently been deemed a danger as hospital patients and nearby residents were evacuated to other locations.
As the California wildfire grows past its initial 1,000 acre burn, some of the patients at Camp Pendleton‘s 61-bed hospital have been moved, 17 to San Diego and five to Tri-City. The reason for the hospital evacuation is really a blackout caused by the fire rather than the fire itself, as a power outage 12 miles from the base’s main gate threatened the facility. New patients were redirected elsewhere during the initial evacuation.
Camp Pendleton has been reopened, but the patients moved are remaining where they are, most likely as a precaution.
The wildfire began around 1pm near the Lake O’Neill area, also causing the evacuation of 230 residents from the housing complex to the Paige Fieldhouse. There have been no injuries, though four houses have suffered minor damage.
More than 200 men from the Camp Pendleton Fire Department and California Forestry and Fire have been battling the wildfire which caused the Camp Pendleton evacuation. Six air tankers and five helicopters were on the scene, and the blaze has now been partly contained.
Wildfire near Camp Pendleton, Calif., grows from 250 acres to 1,000 – @NBCLA
— Deon Guillory (@Deonguillory) October 6, 2013
No cause has yet been determined for the blaze which can be seen from Interstate 5 and currently poses no threat to Fallbrook. Hot dry weather and high wind conditions have been partly to blame for the spread of the deadly Camp Pendleton wildfire, and the wind conditions are predicted to continue through Sunday evening. The freeways around the wildfire were closed for around an hour and a half.
A truck driver said that the winds (measuring up to a peak of around 90 mph) were a factor in the accident which sent his big rig into a nearby car dealership, setting several vehicles on fire.
The weather conditions are being called the “most significant fire weather threat in the past five years.”
The wildfire which caused the Camp Pendleton evacuation could continue into the coming week, but until then try to avoid the area.
