Updated 6:47 p.m.
(AP) — Officials said they had no plans to re-open Interstate 5 on Thursday after the Delta Fire shut it down north of Redding a day earlier. They said they would re-evaluate early Friday — a decision that slowed or stalled truckers who rely heavily on the highway to transport goods along the West Coast.
Drivers were advised to take an alternate route adding 100 miles that could take at least six hours.
"If you don't need to make the trip, I wouldn't do it," Caltrans spokeswoman Denise Yergenson said.
The fire that erupted Wednesday afternoon and devoured timber and brush on both sides of I-5 north of Shasta Lake had expanded to 15,294 acres Thursday, prompting mandatory evacuations, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement. That's up from around 5,000 acres burning on Wednesday
Authorities did not say in the statement how many people were affected by the evacuation order, but the fire is in a rural area with scattered homes. An evacuation center has been set up at the Mt. Shasta Community Center at 629 Alder St. in Mt. Shasta, according to the sheriff's office.
The blaze was human-caused, fire officials said, but they didn't indicate whether it was arson or accident.
Truckers abandoned their vehicles Wednesday as flames roared up hillsides. In a video, a passenger in a vehicle screams: "Oh my God, I want to go!" as trees burst into flames and sheets of fire roiled on the side of the roadway.
About 17 big-rigs were abandoned and at least four caught fire, Lt. Cmdr. Kyle Foster of the California Highway Patrol's Mount Shasta office told the Los Angeles Times.
U.S. Forest Service workers helped the driver of one flaming truck to safety and other truckers, firefighters and others aided other drivers, he said.
Truck driver Amit Sekhri said he saw flames and slowing vehicles along the freeway on Wednesday but his big-rig was too large to turn around and he decided against parking and fleeing on foot.
He kept driving, with fire lapping at both sides of the highway and burning ash falling all around him. He felt the heat in his cab, despite the air conditioning.
"It was picking up so fast. It was behind me, in front of me, left, right. It was all fire. I was surrounded by fire," he said, still shaken by the experience.
When he finally saw daylight, he knew he had made it to safety.
"It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen and been through," he said.
David Steinberg and his partner Kim Mears were returning from a day hike when they came upon the wildfire and watched in awe.
Steinberg says they were mesmerized by the fire, but eventually realized the danger it presented.
"There's a moment when you're saying, 'This is really exciting.' Then you realize, 'Oh this could be really dangerous,'" he said.
The blaze also delayed Amtrak's Coast Starlight train service between Sacramento and Oregon.
Rural homes and cabins in and around the forest were under evacuation orders, from the community Lakehead north to the Siskiyou County line, Losi said.
"It isn't a lot of people," he said.
The fire was showing "critical" behavior — burning fiercely and moving rapidly — but was still far away from any large towns, he added.
The city of Dunsmuir, with about 1,500 people, was about 15 miles from the fire. Residents were issued an evacuation warning, urging them to be prepared to leave if the fire threatened.
The Carr Fire in the Redding area burned some 1,100 homes and killed eight people last month. It was only fully contained last week.
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