Storm Forces Evacuations For El Dorado Fire Burn Area Around Yucaipa

YUCAIPA (CBSLA) – The risk of flooding and mudslides from a powerful incoming storm Thursday forced officials to issue mandatory evacuations for several communities in the El Dorado Fire burn area in San Bernardino County.

Evacuation orders were issued for Mountain Home Village, northeast Yucaipa and Oak Glen just before 10:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

The storm arrived in the Southland Thursday afternoon and continued into Friday morning.

The National Weather Service has warned that recent wildfire burn areas -- such as the Bobcat Fire burn area near Monrovia -- are particularly vulnerable and could see dangerous mudslides because of loose and unstable hillsides scorched by the wildfires.

A Red Cross evacuation center is being set up at Redlands East Valley High School. For more information people can call 211 or 909-355-8800.

The El Dorado Fire broke out Sept. 5 at El Dorado Ranch Park in the 37000 block of Oak Glen Road in Yucaipa. It was started by a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device during a gender reveal party.

It burned more than 22,680 acres, destroyed at least four homes and forced thousands of people to flee.

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