JUNIPER HILLS, Calif. - The death of a firefighter on the lines of a wildfire east of Los Angeles was under investigation Friday as another blaze to the north burned homes in a small community on the edge of the Mojave Desert.
The death occurred Thursday in San Bernardino National Forest as crews battled the El Dorado Fire about 75 miles east of LA, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement.
The fire erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby's gender, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said.
The name of the firefighter was being withheld until family members are notified.
"Our deepest sympathies are with the family, friends and
fellow firefighters during this time," Forest Service spokesperson Zach Behrens said in the
statement.
No other information was released about the firefighter, the agency the firefighter worked for, or the circumstances of the death. The firefighter's body was escorted down the mountain in a procession of first-responder vehicles.
A Cal Fire statement said it was the 26th death involving wildfires besieging the state.
More than 18,500 firefighters were battling more than two dozen major wildfires in California on Friday as a cold front moving through the western states was causing gusty winds.
In northern Los Angeles County, winds were gusting at more than 30 mph as the Bobcat Fire moved into the community of Juniper Hills and threatened nearby Paradise Springs after burning all the way across the San Gabriel Mountains to the desert.
"We have aircraft, crews and equipment doing everything they can to slow the spread," Angeles National Forest tweeted.
Wyatt Stephenson helped his friend evacuate his home at the top of Juniper Hills.
"We were waiting for the fire to come over the ridge. When it
finally came over, we got him out
of there," Stephenson said. "We found out later that his house burned. The fire just burned everything."
It wasn't immediately clear how many homes were burned.
On the south side of the fire, firefighters continued to protect Mount Wilson, which overlooks greater Los Angeles and has a historic observatory founded more than a century ago and numerous broadcast antennas serving Southern California.