BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK/KBFX) — A fast-growing brush fire near Gorman brought traffic on Interstate 5 through the Grapevine to a standstill for hours Friday, forcing drivers to change plans and search for alternate routes.
The Ridge Fire started just before 3 p.m. near Gorman Post Road and quickly spread across the dry hillside.
At one point, the fire jumped across the interstate, forcing traffic to be diverted. Drivers who were already on the road faced hour-long delays.
“We were looking at our maps and all of a sudden it’s like, oh, there’s like a three-hour delay, and we’re like, what the heck?” Janessa Allen said.
Joshua, who was driving from the Bay Area to meet family in Huntington, said he was turned around after the road closed.
“I’m supposed to be there right now. So I don’t know what time I’m going to get there. But yeah, it’s going to be pretty late. I might not get there until midnight or something,” Joshua said.
With I-5 closed, Martin Iscovic said he was looking at a detour that could add hours to his trip.
“We’ll try to change our way and maybe by Lancaster, and we don’t know if it will be okay, but it will be maybe three or four hours and not two hours or one and a half hours,” Iscovic said.
By Friday night, the California Highway Patrol said all lanes had reopened, and traffic on I-5 was slowly moving again in both directions after being closed for hours because of the Ridge Fire near Gorman.