On the evening of Aug. 16, Lesley McConnell, a teacher in Barstow, was rushing home here from work, drawing closer to carnage with each mile logged on southbound Interstate 15. Less than two hours later, shortly before 7:47 p.m., the ravaging Bluecut Fire, which began that morning in the Cajon Pass, would swallow the iconic Summit Inn restaurant. In a desert shack east of Oak Hill Road, not far from the diner, lived McConnell's mentally ill father-in-law.
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