US: Fierce wildfires force evacuations in California
By Christopher WeberSun Aug 30 03:54:36 EST 2009
Sat Aug 29 17:54:36 UTC 2009
LOS ANGELES, Aug 29 AP - A growing wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles has spread over nearly 23 square kilometres of bone-dry forest, forcing evacuations and sending up massive billows of smoke that are hampering air operations, officials say.
"It's difficult for water-dropping aircraft to get in there, but they're still trying," Forest Service spokesperson Jessica Luna said on Saturday.
The blaze in the steep San Gabriel Mountains above La Canada Flintridge continued to spread out in all directions throughout Friday night, Luna said. The fire is creeping slowly toward the city of Altadena, but no homes are immediately threatened, Forest Service spokesman Stanton Florea said. The fire is five per cent contained.
Hot, dry weather is expected all day Saturday, but crews are hopeful that winds will remain light, Luna said.
A major goal is to keep the fire from spreading up Mount Wilson, where many of the region's broadcast and communications antennas and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory are located, officials said.
Authorities issued a mandatory evacuation notice early on Saturday for 150 homes located within a 13-square-kilometre area and on the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. An evacuation centre has been set up at La Canada High School.
Hundreds more residents are packed and ready to move at a moment's notice.
Firefighters are making good progress against a fire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that roared to life on the south Los Angeles County coast on Thursday night. As many as 1,500 people were forced to flee at the height of the fire, but calm, windless conditions allowed water-dropping helicopters to extinguish much of the fire. It was 90 per cent contained late on Friday, officials said. Six homes received minor exterior damage, and the only structures destroyed were an outbuilding and gazebo. No injuries were reported.
Elsewhere in the Angeles National Forest, more than 1,600 firefighters have achieved 85 per cent containment of a blaze in a canyon above the city of Azusa. No structures were threatened or damaged.
To the north in the state's coastal midsection, a fire threatening Pinnacles National Monument has kept 100 homes under evacuation orders near the Monterey County town of Soledad. The blaze, only 15 per cent contained, was started by agricultural fireworks used to scare animals away from crops.
In the southern part of Monterey County, firefighters have 100 per cent containment of a 13-square-kilometre fire that had threatened 20 ranch homes.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency on Friday in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.
A nearly nine-square-kilometre fire in Yosemite National Park is 10 per cent contained, staff member Erik Skinrud said.
In San Diego County, three fires covering a total of 400 hectares are burning on the Camp Pendleton Marine base but pose no threat to buildings, Corporal Gabriela Gonzalez said.
