Peak Fire threatens homes in Azusa

Breaking news in Azusa, where firefighters gained ground on the peak fire. There were evacuation warnings, but we're hearing that might be lifted soon. Fire broke out around 1.15 this afternoon. It has since burned 50 acres. Firefighting crews aggressively attacked it, and they did slow that spread. Welcome to the Fox 11 News at 5, simulcast on Fox LA+. I'm Christine Devine. We go live out to Fox 11's Christina Gonzalez with the update on that fire. Christina. Yeah, we're at the end of San Gabriel Canyon Road and let me get out of the way because this is where the firefight really was serious. You can see the community and the houses that were threatened. As a matter of fact, let's go to the video that we have from earlier because you can really appreciate how they threw everything they had at it in terms of firefighters using their fire resources to save those homes because the flames got really close to that community. the mountain cove community which was had a mandatory evacuation until just a little while ago the fire started in the riverbed that is right beyond that and like i said it it quickly grew now what helped firefighters is that they have reservoirs right behind where this fire started right in the canyon and they had a source of water right there also the fire started near where firefighters had already cut a huge break a couple of months ago from another fire the zebra a fire, but they had the winds to deal with and they were erratic. At one point they were pushing the flames towards the homes and the next they were pushing them away. Let's hear from people who are talking to us about it. My adrenaline, I'm actually shaking right now because it was real scary. We had to evacuate some of the neighborhoods just north of here in the Mountain Cove area. I came out here and it was really deadly. So we concentrated on protecting those homes that are in the canyon right here but i do have good news it was contained to well it's stopped forward progress was stopped at 43 acres and we have 31% containment right now when you see wind like this picking up it's got to be scary yeah but it definitely worked in our favor this time fortunately where this fire started the wind was blowing away from the closest neighborhood The fire still grew towards the wind, actually, and then went up the ridge around the other fire, but it helped us make a break right there. We didn't know what to expect because the winds are very high today, and therefore that also adds another layer to our worriness of what's going to happen. And back here alive, she is one of the residents who's trying to get back to her home up there. I do believe those, I know the mandatory evacuations are no longer mandatory, but when are they going to let those people back? Probably within the next hour. What they have to do is to make sure that all, that the line is built, but especially those hot spots because there's a very deep canyon there and they have some hot spots they want to make sure are out before they start letting people in. Because again, we have the wind warnings that are continuing. As to the start of the fire, it started in the riverbed, very close to where the zebra fire started that was human caused they are still investigating the cause of this fire but neighbors here are telling me the residents that they've had a serious issue with encampments out there starting fires so we'll have to follow up on that as well but as of right now erratic winds are continuing they're telling people pay attention but things are looking much better i'm christina gonzalez live in azusa back to you in the studio we'll leave it at that with much better christina thanks so much