Woman saves pet cockatiel, but home burned in fast-moving brush fire

The fire seemed to come out of nowhere and spread rapidly Saturday in a San Bernardino neighborhood.

Resident Martha Hall told the San Bernardino Sun that she saw the flames rushing up the hill toward her home. She ran into her house, grabbed her pet cockatiel and fled. As she was leaving, she told the Sun, she could see flames burning the bushes around her home. She later learned her home was burned.

The small but fast-moving fire on Saturday burned five homes in San Bernardino, prompting evacuations and the rapid deployment of 120 firefighters.

The fire, which started at about 1:12 pm along West Kendall Drive, was burning south of Cal State San Bernardino and north of Interstate 215. The San Bernardino Fire Department estimated the size of the burned area at 8 to 10 acres, and by midafternoon, the fire appeared to be contained.

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“We do have structure defense still in place,” said a Fire Department spokesman at the scene in a video he posted on the department’s Facebook page at 3:20 pm. “We do have some structures threatened, however, you can see that there’s progress … significant progress on this vegetation fire.”

The video showed firefighters watering a hillside that had burned up to the edge of properties, but no flames in sight.

A department update at about 3:45 p.m. called the fire 50% contained with its “forward rate of spread stopped.”

Authorities established a local evacuation center at 3900 North Severance Ave.

Four homes were totally destroyed and another damaged, officials said.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries, and one civilian suffered from smoke inhalation. One of the firefighters had to be hospitalized after rescuing a homeowner, just before flames claimed the structure.

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