Firefighters continued to battle the Pilot Fire near Silverwood Lake Tuesday as three nearby school districts canceled classes due to air quality concerns.
Heavy smoke was being pushed by winds from the fire into Apple Valley and Hesperia, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.
The Apple Valley, Hesperia and Silver Valley school district websites announced that all schools were closed Aug. 9 because of the wildfire burning nearby.
“Due to the expected poor air quality and smoke caused by the nearby Pilot fire. We feel it is in the best of interest of safety that we keep our students and staff at home,” the Silver Valley Unified School District website stated.
Oro Grande School District will also remain closed on Aug. 10, due to poor air quality, according to a statement from late Tuesday.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District have issued smoke advisories for the Mojave Desert Area.
The fire had burned about 7,736 acres, or about 12 square miles, and was just 6 percent contained as of Tuesday evening, the federal InciWeb information page on the fire stated.
More than 5,300 structures were threatened, InciWeb stated. And some 5,200 homes had to be evacuated due to the fire, according to a tweet from the Sheriff’s Department Monday.
#PilotFire 4,700 homes impacted on mountain, mandatory and voluntary evacs; 500 homes in Hesperia impacted, mandatory and voluntary evacs
— San Bernardino County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff) August 8, 2016
Mandatory evacuations were in place for Summit Valley north to Ranchero Road, east to Arrowhead Lake Road and west to Santa Fe in the City of Hesperia, according to the InciWeb page.
In the mountains, Deer Lodge Park and Yukon Drive, Evergreen Lane, Aleutian Drive, and Klondike Drive in the Grass Valley area were also under mandatory evacuation orders.
In Hesperia, areas east of the Mojave River and south of Rock Springs Road to Kiowa Road, areas east of Santa Fe Road, south of Ranchero Road to Arrowhead Lake Road and north of the Spillway were reduced to a voluntary evacuation.
In Lake Arrowhead, the community of Grass Valley Lake, in addition to the area north of Peninsula and North Bay Roads to Hwy 173, and south of Hwy 173 from North Bay Road to Grass Valley Road were also under voluntary evacuation.
Highway 173 remained closed at North Bay Road and between State Route 138 and Arrowhead Lake Road.
A federal fire management grant was approved Monday for the Pilot Fire, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced on Twitter Tuesday morning.
Yesterday, a fire management grant was approved to support efforts to fight the #PilotFire in California. pic.twitter.com/Mc0LQslKc9
— FEMA (@fema) August 9, 2016
Nearly 1,000 firefighters were battling the blaze, which began about 12:10 p.m. Sunday near the miller Canyon OHV area off of Highway 138.
The Sheriff’s Department said 7,522 acres had burned Tuesday morning, but later said the correct figure was 6,963 acres and the acreage was upgraded to 7,736 by 6:30 p.m.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Shelters have been set up at Oak Hills High School, located at 7625 Cataba Road in Hesperia, and at Rim of the World High School, located at 27400 California 18 in Twin Peaks.
People with small animals can bring them to the Devore Animal Shelter, located at 19777 Shelter Way in San Bernardino.
Those with large animals were instructed to go to the Victorville Fairgrounds, located at 14800 Seventh St., in Victorville.
KTLA’s Melissa Pamer and Cindy Von Quednow contributed to this article.
