Update: The evacuation order was lifted at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The community of Cartago, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, was evacuated because of a wind-driven wildfire, the Inyo County sheriff’s department said.
The wind that contributed to the fire’s rapid spread Wednesday night continued into Thursday, and by noon all firefighting aircraft were grounded because of poor weather conditions, said the San Bernardino unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Four structures were confirmed destroyed, and one firefighter had been injured and taken by ambulance to a hospital, CalFire’s noon update said.
Citing the difficulty of assessment during the inclement weather, it did not revise the estimate of the burned area, which at 7 a.m. had been 101 acres with no containment.
The fire was reported around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, and an evacuation was quickly called for the community of Cartago, at the south end of the Owens Lake basin, and the nearby Crystal Geyser plant. The order was lifted at 5 p.m. Thursday.
A 4-mile stretch of Highway 395 was closed in the early hours of Thursday; the road reopened around 8:15 a.m., the California Department of Transportation said.
High winds and abundant fuel contributed to the vegetation fire’s rapid spread. Gusts of up to 45 mph are forecast in the area through Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
The wind conditions are similar to those during an early-season Inyo County wildfire two years ago: The Airport Fire, which started on Feb. 16, 2022, in Bishop, burned more than 4,000 acres and prompted mandatory evacuations in Big Pine.
