‘In tears’: Chino Hills residents debate evacuating during fire

Strong winds brought the Blue Ridge Fire north of Yorba Linda to Chino Hills, causing the evacuation of at least 8,000 households. Photos by JASMIN SANI, Editor-in-Chief

The hillsides near Rex Wheeler’s home in Chino Hills, California, were ablaze in pinpricks of angry red and orange flame. But Wheeler, his arms draped over his backyard fence, paid little mind to the wail of nearby sirens and the broadcasts of the San Bernardino Police Department to evacuate immediately. 

Instead, he pointed at a ridge of tall trees about a quarter mile away from his home, roughly in the middle of him and the fires. If those trees caught fire, Wheeler said, that’s when he would leave. 

“I’m very concerned, but we knew if we had to get out quickly, we could,” Wheeler told The Panther, gazing out at a largely deserted neighborhood. “The only thing that really matters is my wife, my kids and my dog. Everything else can burn to the ground.”

The Blue Ridge Fire continued to burn away acres of land Oct. 27 in the mountains above Chino Hills, threatening to spread down to neighborhoods below – destroying one structure and damaging seven. At least 5,900 homes in Chino Hills were forced to evacuate as of midday Oct. 27. That number only grew into the night, as over 1,800 firefighters in Orange County worked to keep outbursts of flames from reaching homes.

About a mile away from Wheeler’s residence, Kamren Sherman was working a shift at Nonno's Pizzeria. Sherman, a student at California State University, Northridge, told The Panther around 4 p.m. that the restaurant wasn’t worried about the fire’s threat. Sherman’s attitude changed just a few hours later when the scent of smoke wafted into Nonno’s. 

“You can look outside and just see the panic,” Sherman said. “My boss was talking about, ‘Are we going to cover shifts tomorrow?’ I was like, ‘You should be worried if this place is going to be open.’”

While Sherman and his family are still deciding whether to evacuate, Chino Hills sisters Natasha Barnett and Jordan Huel have already fled. Like Wheeler, they initially resisted orders to evacuate from their house off Butterfield Ranch Road, which has the now-burning Chino Hills State Park as its “backyard,” Barnett said. 

The hillside next to Los Serranos Ranch in Chino Hills, California, contributed to the 14,344 acres lost in the Blue Ridge Fire.

Every 30 minutes throughout the night of Oct. 26, police would announce the need to evacuate with a loud banging on the front door, Huel said. It wasn’t until 8 a.m. the next morning, when their neighbors implored them to leave, that they chose to pack up. 

“It was really sad because one of our (other) neighbors next door, he’s really old and he didn’t know what was going on,” Huel said, the roar of a firefighting helicopter circling overhead. “He was just sitting in his house.”

The two grabbed what they could – photos, clothes, birth certificates – and relocated to a nearby hotel, not wanting to stray far from the area because of their work.

“I broke down in tears when I came back and saw my backyard on fire – what it’s going to do to my community and the loss that’s going to be happening,” Barnett said. “We haven’t experienced something like this in a very long time … It’s never that close to home.”

With specks of ash cascading from the sky and the sun’s reddish hue projecting an eerie glow behind layers of smoke, evacuation orders continue to spread through Chino Hills, with the Blue Ridge Fire currently at 16% containment. About 10 miles away, the Silverado Fire in Irvine is 25% contained.

Helicopters and planes flew overhead to drop fire retardant on the flames.

Southern California Edison has shut down power to communities near the fires, as the electricity supplier has said their equipment may have sparked the Silverado Canyon fires. 

In total, the two fires have devastated over 27,000 acres and have forced at least 90,000 to flee. Time will tell if Wheeler and Sherman will join Barnett and Huel among those evacuating.

This is a developing story. Follow The Panther on social media and at www.thepanthernewspaper.org for updates.