A fast-moving fire in northern Los Angeles County appeared to be burning through Joshua trees, according to photos published by Cal Fire on Friday afternoon.
The blaze, dubbed the Summit Fire, ignited before 1:30 p.m. in the unincorporated community of Llano, between Victorville and Palmdale, consuming 1,600 acres by 4 p.m. Flames quickly spread south, fueled by wind gusts of up to 25 mph and temperatures around 100 degrees. Relative humidity was as low as 10%.
Hot, dry and windy weather was causing the fire to burn up a steep slope from the desert into the San Gabriel Mountains.
Photos published by Cal Fire showed flames burning what appeared to be Joshua trees and other desert plants. A California Department of Fish and Wildlife dataset shows the Joshua tree range extending into northern Los Angeles County, near the location of the fire. The plant is unique to the Mojave Desert, San Bernardino Mountains and Sonoran Desert, according to the National Park Service.
A photo from near 248th Street and Avenue Z in Llano, published by Cal Fire, shows burning Joshua trees during the Summit Fire in northern Los Angeles County on Friday. (Cal Fire)
The Summit Fire forced mandatory evacuations extending from Highway 128 to the north to Big Pines Highway to the south, near Mountain High ski resort. The resort barely escaped devastation in 2024 when the Bridge Fire tore through, but snow-making machines were used as firefighting equipment to protect some of the resort’s ski lifts.
If the Summit Fire reaches the terrain of the Bridge Fire, it will likely slow down, as much of the vegetation is charred. The Bridge Fire ripped through Angeles National Forest, including portions of the Pacific Crest Trail, burning 56,000 acres over two months.
A webcam captured the fast-moving Summit Fire from Table Mountain in the San Gabriel Mountains. Charred trees from the 2023 Bridge Fire are visible in the foreground. (Alert California/UC San Diego)
Joshua trees are protected under a 2023 California law that “prohibits the importation, export, take, possession, purchase, or sale of any western Joshua tree in California unless authorized” by the state. That same year, the York Fire torched thousands of Joshua trees in Mojave National Preserve. In 2020, more than a million Joshua trees died during the Dome Fire in the preserve.
Inmate crews from the Fenner Canyon Conservation Camp were quickly deployed to the scene of the fire, as the blaze ignited close to the camp in northeast Los Angeles County.
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This article originally published at Fast-growing Summit Fire tearing through California Joshua trees, photos show.