VIDEO: A woman recounted how she and other evacuees entered Silverwood Lake as they fled from a fast-moving wildfire Saturday afternoon in San Bernardino County. In an interview with ABC7, Giselle Arguello said her family and dozens of other people found themselves trapped in a parking lot soon after the fire erupted. “Everybody else around us turned around and started looking, and everybody started saying, ‘Hey, we gotta go,'” she said. The conditions made it too dangerous to evacuate by car, Arguello said, with thick smoke and massive flames covering the roadway out of the parking lot. “We’re telling everybody, ‘There’s no exit. We are stuck in this lot. We have to get towards the water,” Arguello recalled.
News video from the scene showed tall flames burning alongside Highway 138 as emergency crews doused them with water. One family decided to take their chances by driving on the highway to safety. They survived, recording video of the burning fire as their vehicle sped past. Meanwhile, Arguello and other fled to the water, using kayaks, boats — seemingly anything that could float — to get away. “Kids were crying. People were coming on Jet Skis, getting people,” Arguello said. “We had to just say, ‘Whatever’s left is material things. It was intense.” Arguello and others carpooled home. No injuries were reported in the fire, whose forward progress was halted Sunday afternoon, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
