UPDATE 8/27: Kern County Fire Crews continue to make progress against a wildfire burning near Frazier Park.
The Post Fire is now 76 percent contained and has burned 1,312 acres.
At this point, the fire is mostly burning away from homes and outbuildings.
Fire crews hope to have it completely contained by tomorrow.
A community meeting is planned tonight at 6:30 in Lebec at the Lebec Community Church. The address is 2350 Lebec road.
Meanwhile, several fires sparked by lightning in Tehachapi are out.
Fire crews say some 50 lightning strikes ignited at least three fires there Thursday and ten separate fires in the Lake Isabella area.
The largest burned about 50 acres.
UPDATE 8/26: More than a thousand firefighters ganged up on the Post Fire near Lebec Wednesday and put a break around more than 60 percent of it, drastically slowing its spread and easing concerns the fire might reach the community of Frazier Park.
But as crews fought near-record-high temperatures near the Grapevine, a flash flood warning was issued as thunderstorms appeared near Tehachapi, and lightning started three new blazes near where a devastating firestorm destroyed two dozen homes last month.
As the sun set Wednesday, the county said 1,029 personnel were fighting the Post Fire between Lebec and Frazier Park. It had been estimated 1,300 acres were blackened, but a closer inspection put that figure at about a thousand acres.
View Post Fire in a larger map
Hundreds of people were evacuated from homes near Lebec Tuesday afternoon when the wind-driven wildfire spread through mountainous canyons, burning brush and trees in a spectacular blaze that threatened hundreds of homes.
Aircraft from throughout Southern California converged on the fire to steer it away from the homes that stand among the tall pines in the mountains west of Interstate 5. The trees burned in towering flames that created a huge plume of smoke visible from Bakersfield.
The fire started shortly after 1 p.m. near the Lebec post office. It spread down one hill, up another, then took off. It grew from 30 to 750 acres in three hours. Unable to immediately extinguish the fire, crews tried – and succeeded – to keep the flames away from structures.
That battle seemed to be paying off Wednesday night.
Near Tehachapi, a thunderstorm hit around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The lightning that came with it started several fires. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, three were burning in an area east of where the July fires were. Much of the smoke seemed to be coming from near where the wind generators were, one resident said.
Only 30 firefighters were on scene, but more were on the way, said Engineer Anthony Romero of the Kern County Fire Department. A helicopter and an airplane were helping with the fight.
