Second fire reported at Angeles Crest Highway

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- A wildfire stoked by an unrelenting heatwave burned its way up Azusa Canyon Road Wednesday blackening more than 750 acres and a "rapidly moving" second fire threatened to close the Angeles Crest Highway several miles north of Morris Dam.

Officials late Wednesday ordered mandatory evacuations for dozens of residents along the East Fork of the San Gabriel River, and could offer no estimate as to when the blaze might be contained.

"It definitely has the potential to grow," said Pam Bierce, a spokeswoman with the Southern California Incident Management team, a federal government agency that is coordinating the firefighting effort.

As of 3:30 p.m. the fire was 10 percent contained but a second blaze threatened homes as far north as the Angeles Crest Highway, officials said.

An evacuation center has been set up at El ROble Imtermediate School, 665 North Mountain Avenue in Claremont has been established for those residents who are being escorted down from the canyon by deputies with the Los Angeles COunty Sheriff's Department.

A disptacher with Angeles National Forest Fire Service said the second blaze is west of the Morris Fire and that they have "full brush" on it and LA County Fire responded as well.

The second fire was reported at Mile Marker 29 on the Angeles Crest Highway. It was reported at 3:23 p.m. as a brush fire, a Los Angeles COunty Fire Department inspector said.