The Lanes Fire, burning in the Auberry area of the Fresno County foothills, is 20% contained.
Road crews have reopened the section of Highway 168 to go up and down the Four Lane after shutting it down to traffic from 12:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
However, only two lanes are open and there are crews out walking along the road, so drive slowly.
As of Saturday night, close to 400 crew members are working around the clock to try and get full containment of the fire that’s burned 150 acres.
“Firefighters are facing a lot of challenges today. The heat has been really hard on them and the steep terrain has been really tough to get in there and fight the fire aggressively,” said Adan Orozco of Cal Fire.
Medics treated about a half dozen workers who suffered some form of heat exhaustion. They are said to now be in good shape.
Investigators believe it was in the area where you drop down the Four Lane that someone flicked a cigarette out their window sparking this fire.
“If the person is tracked down and caught they could face misdemeanor charges and they can be charged for the cost of fire suppression,” said Orozco.
As helicopters and air tankers made continuous water dumps on the face of the mountain. Firefighters issued warnings to some people living in specific areas and they must continue to be on alert throughout the night.
“Beal Fire Road in the middle of the four lanes is currently under mandatory evacuations and the meadow lakes subdivision up at the top of the four lanes is under advisory evacuation,” said John Dominguez of Cal Fire.
As many as 200 homes stood in the fire’s path. However, none have been burned.
“Firefighters worked really hard to stop that fire from getting to those homes and so far they’ve done a really good job,” said Orozco.
