Apple Fire Update: communities under evacuation warnings

As of Friday the Apple Fire continued its siege in the canyons west of Morongo Valley. The blaze is now at 35 percent containment. Evacuation warnings were issued for Forest Falls, Morongo Valley, Pioneertown and Rimrock.

Some residents of the high desert headed out on Thursday night, despite not having an official order. Many worked to transport their cattle livestock out.

Meanwhile, some evacuation orders have been lifted today in San Bernardino County.

The evacuation order for all areas east of Oak Glen Road, including Potato Canyon and Pine Bench north of the Riverside/San Bernardino county line, is no longer in effect.

The Evacuation Warnings for the following areas in San Bernardino County remain in effect:

• Forest Falls, Rimrock, Pioneertown and the community of Morongo Valley

The Evacuation Warning for the following areas of Riverside County remains in effect:

  *   all areas east of Potrero Road, north of Morongo Road, and west of Whitewater Canyon
  *   the area east of Whitewater Canyon, north of Interstate 10, West of Highway 62, and south of the San Bernardino County line

Forest Order No. 05-12-00-20-12, the closure order for the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area remains in effect.

On Friday San Bernardino National Forest confirmed that fire officials set a controlled fire on the eastern end near where the Apple Fire burned. "This is a planned event and has adequate aerial support and ground resources in the area. The smoke is a result of crews doing a burn out operation to remove fuels in front of the fire," the agency said.

Low visibility and falling ash persisted.

"Right now we’re looking probably anywhere from probably 5-7 miles. It’s probably west of Whitewater Canyon still," CalFire Battalion Chief Michael Martinez said.

Residents of Morongo Valley said depending on the winds and the time of day, they saw more smoke blow through the area as the fire progressed. Many have been vigilant in staying informed with the latest evacuation information.

"Everything’s packed up that needs to be so I can get out quickly," Morongo resident, Jeff Clark said. "I have dogs and cats-- their cages are lined up and ready to go."

Officials told News Channel 3 that if the fire were to jump over the mountain range where it's burning, that could potentially force the shut down of Highway 62.

"... we created a contingency branch through the incident management team here and so we’re currently out here in the Morongo Valley area putting up ideas of where we can put dozer lines, bringing in edges to protect the structures, making sure people have enough time to get out, get their livestock out and so forth," Chief Martinez said.

Martinez said in the event that the fire crosses what they call a "trigger point" a full blown evacuation would go into effect.

"We’re not even close to that yet," said Chief Martinez.