Brush fire destroys at least one home near border in San Diego County

A firefighter walks past flames burning in brush along a road

San Diego Union-Tribune

Aug. 31, 2022 Updated 10:20 PM PT

SAN DIEGO COUNTY — A fast-moving wildfire in a rural part of east San Diego County grew to 4,243 acres by Wednesday night, ripping through bone-dry brush, injuring two people and destroying at least four buildings as the region baked under extreme heat.

Residents around Barrett Junction, a few miles northwest of Tecate, Mexico, scrambled to clear out after the fire erupted around 2:15 p.m. near Barrett Lake Road north of State Route 94.

By late Wednesday night, the blaze was 5% contained as it continued to rage, threatening the communities of Barrett, Potrero and Tecate, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Smoke could be seen for miles.

Apolonio Gilbert said he was working in the Barrett Lake Mobile Home Park when he saw flames and smoke in a nearby canyon. Gilbert, 62, jumped into his truck and drove around the park, honking and warning people to get out. He and his wife grabbed their three dogs and fled.

The fire burned through the park, but no homes there were lost.

In the early hours of the fire, moderate winds fanned it eastward along the highway. Gusts reached 27 mph.

By 6 p.m., the fire jumped to the south side of State Route 94 and burned “very aggressively” in the direction of Tecate and Potrero, Cal Fire San Diego Capt. Thomas Shoots said.

“The winds have died down, but the fire remains very active,” he said just before 8 p.m.

Shoots said there were “multiple close calls” as residents rushed to evacuate. At least four structures, including at least one home, were destroyed, Shoots said.

“We had multiple 911 calls from folks unable to evacuate” because their homes were surrounded by the fire, Shoots said.

Two people suffered burns and were taken to hospitals. One was taken by ground. The other was flown in an air ambulance.

Nearly 600 people were ordered to evacuate, and almost 800 others were given evacuation warnings. More than 300 customers lost power.

Mobile home park resident Martin Ledezma was at work when his mother called to tell him about the fire. He drove home, grabbed some belongings and started to flee, but he stopped to help fire crews, using a shovel to help tamp down flames.

The park is a small community, he said, while he was covered in sweat and ash. “If one of us burns, we all burn.”

The fire broke out as an extreme heat wave grips the Western states and California’s electrical grid operator called for consumers to cut energy use. Campo reached a blistering 105, tying a record high for that date, according to the National Weather Service. The heat will continue into next week.

The blaze was reported around 2:15 p.m. near Barrett Lake Road north of State Route 94, Shoots said. By 4:45 p.m. it had roared past 1,400 acres as it pushed northeast toward the community of Potrero.

As the fire started to spread, the flames were racing toward homes in the Round Potrero Road area, Shoots said. Evacuations were ordered for residences along Barrett Lake Road, Coyote Holler Road and Round Potrero Road, according to Shoots and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

José Lopez and his wife were watching television inside their mobile home when they got alerts on their cellphones warning them to evacuate.

“We started preparing clothes and documents and things,” Lopez said. “Then the sheriff’s [deputies] began going through the park and saying, ‘You need to evacuate immediately.’”

As the couple drove away from the mobile home park, he said, the flames were coming down a hill toward it. He didn’t know whether his home would survive.

“It is what it is, you hope for the best,” said Lopez, who added that the flames had burned all the way to the edge of Barrett Lake Road as they fled.

Lopez’s wife went to an evacuation center at Jamul Casino, but Lopez stayed at a dirt lot on the corner down the road from the fire, hoping he’d be able to get home earlier.

David Galván lives about two miles up Barrett Lake Road off State Route 94 and said he waited until the last minute to evacuate with his dog Jack, who had crawled under Galván’s pickup. Galván, who works as a handyman, sprayed the roof of his home before he left.

“You could hardly breathe,” Galván said, his eyes still puffy and moist from inhaling the smoke a few hours earlier.

As neighbors who live along Barrett Lake Road — most of them from the Barrett Lake Mobile Home Park — gathered at the corner where their street meets State Route 94, a Cal Fire firefighter approached and told them it would be a “day or two” until they’d be able to go back home.

“It’s not over, but we’re doing well up there,” said the firefighter, who declined to give his name. The fire “was not over, but it has burned through, and there could be embers, but all the trailers were saved.”

Crews attacked the flames from the air and from the ground. “We’ve requested every wildland engine from Cal Fire in San Diego County,” Shoots said.

By 5:30 p.m., more than 200 firefighters were battling the fire and “many more” were en route, Shoots said. Six air tankers, seven helicopters and several fixed-wing aircraft have been deployed, he said. None of the aircraft was equipped to fly at night, but firefighters will remain on the ground overnight to protect structures.

Authorities shut down the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Tecate, and State Route 94, also known as Campo Road, is closed essentially from Campo to Dulzura. Barrett School Road is closed at State Route 94.

Caltrans San Diego said it was unknown when the highway would reopen.

The Sheriff’s Department said a temporary evacuation point was being set up at Jamul Casino on Campo Road south of Lyons Valley Road, to the west of the fire.

A second evacuation point was set up at Camp Lockett Event & Equestrian Facility at 799 Forrest Gate Road in Campo. The site is accepting large animals.

Families with pets and large animals can go to the San Diego County Animal Shelter at 5821 Sweetwater Road in Bonita.

San Diego Union-Tribune staff writers Karen Kucher and Teri Figueroa contributed to this report.