SUMMIT VALLEY — The Victor Valley joined Southern California's wildfire disaster Tuesday night as fire officials ordered a man-datory evacuation of Summit Valley.
"We now have the first evacuation in my district," reported First District Supervisor Bill Postmus shortly after the anounce-ment of Summit Valley's mandatory evacuation late Tuesday.
Also, voluntary evacuations were issued for Oak Hills and the southwest corner of Hesperia. The voluntary evacuation area is east of Interstate 15 to Summit Valley Road and from Highway 138 to Ranchero Road.
At 8:30 p.m., San Bernardino County Sheriffs deputies and California Highway Patrol officers were warning residents in Summit Valley's scattered ranch houses that they should voluntarily leave.
Just an hour later, residents were told they had to get out.
"I didn't think I'd have to leave so soon," said Tony Corral, who lives in the west end of the valley. "I got home from work about five (p.m.), and I went to see a friend around Silverwood Lake, and he was already packed up. That's when I thought the fire was getting close."
Corral and his wife, Joan, and their two children packed everything they could fit into a truck and a car trailer, and headed out about 10 p.m.
As he left, Corral held out hope that his home wouldn't burn like the hundreds of others destroyed by the wildfires in the past week.
"I'm still too much of an optimist," Corral said. "You always say, 'It's not going to be me.' "
Firefighters stationed at the west end of Summit Valley weren't so sure.
Capt. John Goss of the U.S. Forest Service said the fire was only a half mile south of Highway 138, the road that bisects Summit Valley. He said there were at least 150 firefighters along the road waiting to make a stand against the fire.
Summit Valley resident Tim Ellis kept his gas station/mini-market open for firefighters and fleeing homeowners. His shop, called Silverwood Bait, Beer and Country Store, is on the highway.
"If we can get gas to these people, we'll do it as long as we can," Ellis said.
Former Hesperia Mayor Bill Jensen also was in the Summit Valley area and called the Daily Press just after 11 p.m.
He reported that among the fire crews setting up along Highway 138 was Hesperia Fire Chief Tom Pambianco and his men, ready to defend the city's southern border.
He noted that Mark Eagleton's Summit Valley Ranch has a 1-acre lake that could provide valuable water to fight the approaching flames.
"Ash is falling like snow on the Hesperia Airport," Jensen added. "It's an inch thick on the wings of the planes."
At press time, Hesperia officials were unsure how the looming fire threat and associated air quality hazards would affect today's municipal operations. Parents are urged to listen to local radio broadcasts to find out if schools are open, or to call their child's school.
Tuesday night's evacuations capped off a day in which tens of thousands of people fled mountain communities in San Diego and San Bernardino counties.
Flames destroyed 20 structures on Strawberry Peak and several homes in Rimforest, while threatening an estimated $3 billion worth of houses in the Crestline, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear areas, said Bill Peters, a CDF spokesman.
On Tuesday, thousands of people streamed out of Big Bear, forming a 28-mile traffic jam on Highway 18 down to Lucerne Valley. About 80,000 full-time residents have been evacuated from the San Bernardino Mountains since Saturday.
Authorities announced two more deaths in San Bernardino County, bringing the death toll from the fires to 16. The number had been at 17, but San Diego County authorities lowered their figure by one.
Throughout Southern California, nearly 1,600 homes have been destroyed and 10,000 firefighters were on the front lines. Gov. Gray Davis estimated the cost at nearly $2 billion.
"You couldn't have written anything worse than this," said Gene Zimmerman, supervisor of the San Bernardino National Forest, the area in which two of the most destructive fires began last week. "You can dream up horror movies, and they wouldn't be this bad."
A TV news van was overrun near Rim Forest but its two-man crew escaped.
Flames pushed upward and eastward, threatening the two largest populations in the forest, clustered around Lake Arrowhead on the west and Big Bear Lake on the east.
"Right now we're defensive. We're trying to build lines around the communities," said San Bernardino County fire Battalion Chief Sid Hultquist at Rim of the World High School, 11/2 miles outside Lake Arrowhead.
The fire's eastward push also threatened Running Springs and other small communities where there was no backfiring. The fear there was that fire could spread into a major drainage that would funnel it directly into the heart of Big Bear. The Santa Ana Wash is also home to 30 summer camps.
"If it gets in there, it's got a straight shot up to Big Bear. That's a major concern," Hultquist said.
Similarly, a drainage to the west of Lake Arrowhead was a possible route for fire to climb into that community.
San Diego's worst blaze, the Cedar Fire, had burned more than 206,000 acres and destroyed around 900 homes in a 45-mile long front, ranging from Scripps Ranch to Julian.
Thus far, the worst hit community has been Scripps Ranch, where more than 300 homes have been leveled by fire.
The Associated Press and Knight Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report.