A drone temporarily halted air tankers that were fighting the Mill 2 fire north of Yucaipa on Sunday, July 12, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.
The fire burned 30 acres and is 10 percent contained, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Bob Poole said about 6 p.m. It is no longer spreading, fire officials have been saying via Twitter.
Highway 38 in the San Bernardino Mountains remains closed between Bryant Street and Lake Williams. About 5:30, the CHP said one eastbound lane was opening and traffic would be escorted through by a pilot car. It could be a few more hours before all lanes are open.
The Mill 2 fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. in Mill Creek Canyon, above the point where Bryant Street intersects with Highway 38 near the San Bernardino National Forest boundary.
Four homes on the west side of Yucaipa Ridge were evacuated as a precaution. No structures were damaged. One injury was reported, but Poole did not have details.
Seventeen engines, seven hand crews, two bulldozers, five helicopters and three air tankers were part of an aggressive response that helped put out the flames.
But the aircraft were hampered by a drone that was being flown in the area of the fire.
"We had to divert some of our aircraft," Poole said. "It was probably about 20 minutes."
Asked about what effect that had, Poole said, "It's always a big deal ... when you have a fire headed for some homes."
The fear is that an unauthorized craft could crash into a firefighting plane or helicopter, so they have to be grounded if a drone is spotted.
That has happened twice in recent weeks in the Inland area. On a crucial day in the fight against the Lake fire last month, the fleet was grounded after a drone passed 500 feet below one firefighting airplane and 500 feet above another.
The next day, planes fighting a smaller fire on the outskirts of San Bernardino were grounded because of a drone.
In response, state legislation has been proposed that would make it a crime to fly unmanned aircraft over a wildfire.
The Mill 2 fire is one of two that broke out around the same time in the mountains. Several miles up, about 2 miles south of Angelus Oaks, a vegetation fire started when a motorcycle crashed about 2:30 p.m.
According to a CHP incident log, the rider ended up 150-200 feet over the side and suffered minor injuries.
The Motorcycle fire was contained shortly after 4 p.m. and firefighters headed down to help with the Mill 2 fire.
Additionally, a brush fire scorched 70 acres in San Timoteo Canyon just south of the San Bernardino-Riverside county line on Sunday. And in a nearby but unrelated incident, firefighters responded to a fire on a train in the canyon Sunday morning. That fire did not spread to vegetation.
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