Stuart Palley / EPA
A long exposure of the Mountain Fire as seen from Highway 74 on Monday night in Mountain Center, Calif. The fire grew from 4,700 to 8,000 acres overnight.
By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News
A "very aggressive" fire in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains grew to 8,000 acres Tuesday, damaging several structures, forcing mandatory evacuations and spreading heavy smoke into the Coachella Valley, officials said.
"There's a disaster area in there. It's devastating," Scott Visyak, a spokesman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told NBC Los Angeles?on Tuesday.
"There's several homes lost. There's several homes standing. The fire had just gone through there very aggressively," Visyak said.
The so-called Mountain Fire, which ignited at 1:43 p.m. (4:43 p.m. ET) Monday, was burning Tuesday afternoon near the Idyllwild Pine Cove, according to the joint state and federal incident report.?Visyak said it was headed over Palm Canyon and into Andreas Canyon.
About 650 firefighters were battling the fire, which nearly doubled in size, from 4,700 acres to 8,000 acres, in just a few hours overnight. The incident report said it was only 10 percent contained.
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With an "extreme" potential for further growth, the fire was being upgraded to a Type 1 incident management response ? the biggest there is ? the report noted.
The flames are spreading through chaparral, or shrubland, and timber that are highly flammable because of the dry winter, officials said. Ninety-plus-degree temperatures, humidity in the single digits and shifting winds approaching 15 mph have also presented fire crews with a challenging task.
"With the heavy fuels we've got and the temperatures we're experiencing, it's making it a very aggressive, hot fire right now," Visyak said.
At least one home was destroyed, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Tuesday, along with another building that was under renovation. Clouds of smoke hung over the mountains as airplanes and helicopters made water drops, it reported.
Mandatory evacuations were in effect for about 50 homes in the area, as well as the Living Free Animal Sanctuary and the Zen Mountain Center.?
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