Los Angeles, August 30: A growing wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles surged north Sunday, forcing more evacuations and threatening some 10,000 homes.
Residents of the small town of Acton were urged to evacuate as the 4-day-old blaze headed into the Antelope Valley. The fire spread in all directions, leaving three people burned, destroying at least three homes and forcing thousands to flee.
“The leading edge, the one they’re really focused on, is that northern edge. It’s moving pretty fast up in that direction,” said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Randi Jorgenson. “But the fire’s growing in all directions. All fronts are going to be areas of concern today.”
A slight drop in temperatures and an influx of fire crews from around the state were expected to bring some relief Sunday. Some 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze.
Mandatory evacuations were in effect for neighborhoods in Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon.
The flames crept down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite mild winds blowing predominantly in the other direction.
“Essentially the fire burned at will; it went where it wanted to when it wanted to,” said Captain Mike Dietrich, the incident commander for the Forest Service. Dietrich said he had never seen a fire grow so quickly without powerful Santa Ana winds to push it.
At least three homes deep in the Angeles National Forest were destroyed, and firefighters were searching for others, Dietrich said.
Evacuation centers were set up at two high schools and an elementary school in the area.
More than 55 square miles of the western edge of the Angeles National Forest was scorched. The blaze was only 5 percent contained. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
The fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon, was the largest and most dangerous of several burning around southern and central California and in Yosemite National Park.
At least three people were burned in the evacuation areas — two in the Big Tujunga Canyon area and one off Highway 2 near Mount Wilson, Jorgenson said. They were airlifted to local hospitals. Jorgenson had no further details on their injuries.
A massive plume of smoke could be seen for miles and bits of ash descended on cars as far away as downtown Los Angeles. The air quality for cities surrounding the San Gabriel Mountains was deemed unhealthful by the regional air-quality agency.
Air crews waged a fierce battle against the southeast corner of the fire, burning dangerously close to canyon homes. Spotter planes and tankers dove well below ridge then pulled up dramatically over neighborhoods.
The fire was burning in steep wooded hills next to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in northern Pasadena.
In La Vina, a gated community of luxury homes in the Altadena area, a small group of residents stood at the end of a cul-de-sac on the lip of a canyon and watched aircraft battle flames trying to cross the ridge on the far side.
At one point, the flying circus of relatively small propellor-driven tankers gave way to the sight of a giant DC-10 jumbo jet unleashing a rain of red retardant.
“We see a drop, we give a big cheer,” said Gary Blackwood, who works on telescope technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We’ve watched it now for two days hop one ridge at a time and now it’s like we’re the next ridge.”
A major goal was 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. Flames were within 5 miles of the towers early Sunday, fire officials said.
A second fire in the Angeles National Forest was burning several miles to the east in a canyon above the city of Azusa. The 3.4-square-mile blaze, which started Tuesday afternoon, was 95 percent contained Sunday. No homes were threatened, and full containment was expected by Monday.
A wildfire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the south Los Angeles County coast was 100 percent contained, according to county fire officials.
Southeast of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a 3.6-square-mile fire in a rural area of the San Bernardino National Forest was 30 percent contained as it burned in steep, rocky terrain in Beeb Canyon. No structures were threatened.
To the north, in the state’s coastal midsection, a 9.4-square-mile fire threatening Pinnacles National Monument kept 100 homes under evacuation orders near the Monterey County town of Soledad. The blaze, 60 percent contained, was started by agricultural fireworks used to scare animals away from crops. The fire destroyed one home.
In Mariposa County, a nearly 6.8-square-mile fire burned in Yosemite National Park. The blaze was 50 percent contained Sunday, said park spokesperson Vickie Mates. Two people sustained minor injuries, she said.
Park officials closed a campground and a portion of Highway 120, anticipating that the fire would spread north toward Tioga Road, the highest elevation route through the Sierra.
About 100 residents from the towns of El Portal and Foresta were under evacuation orders, said Brad Aborn, chairman of Mariposa’s Board of Supervisors.
–Agencies