CAJON PASS >> A fire sparked by a crash on the 15 Freeway caused major traffic backups Saturday and burned a CHP officer and firefighter, officials said.
A motorcycle rider suffered injuries in a collision involving his 1985 Harley Davidson, a tour bus and two other cars on the northbound 15 about 12:40 p.m., according to Brian Alvarez, a CHP spokesman.
A CHP officer and a firefighter were tending to the 46-year-old motorcycle rider when an oxygen tank caught fire and burned them. The officer’s face and hands were burned, and she was taken by an ambulance to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. A fire official didn’t know the extent of the firefighter’s injuries.
The motorcyclist had serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville.
The burning oxygen tank likely ignited brush off the side of the freeway between the truck scales and Highway 138.
Multiple lanes of the 15 Freeway were closed, causing severe congestion on the northbound 15 and 215 freeways.
The blaze, dubbed the Scales fire because it was near the truck scales in the pass, burned a ditch on the side of the freeway, jumped a road and started meandering up a hillside toward Highway 138. A McDonald’s restaurant and Chevron gas station were evacuated and ordered to close as firefighters worked the spotting fire, according to Justin Correll, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.
“Once we got to a point where we felt this fire was wrapped up, we saw smoke overhead,” he said.
Floating embers had ignited vegetation on the north side of Highway 138 and, aided by the wind and dry brush, the fire made a run northeast through the hills.
At least three helicopters and two planes were dropping water and retardant on the blaze, while hand crews and dozer operators cut lines.
By about 9 p.m., 350 firefighters had the blaze 60 percent contained. Roughly 25 acres had burned, according to Correll.
• Photos: Scales Fire burns in Cajon Pass
No structures were threatened, he added, and the fast-food restaurant and gas station reopened.
