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Source: Reuters -
Related
The five-day-old wildfire
burning out of control in the Los Angeles
foothills and forest claimed its first victims - two fire fighters
whose vehicle plummeted off the side of a road.
The fire scorched 2,832 hectares since day break for a total burned
area of 17,199 hectares.
The flames threaten 10,000 homes and are encroaching on the region's telecommunications nerve centre.
At least 18 homes have been destroyed.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rushed back from Senator
Edward Kennedy's funeral to survey the state's worst fire, warning
residents to heed evacuation orders for the very dangerous
blaze.
Flames could be seen stretching 24 km above the heavily populated
foothills, where an estimated 2,000 homes were under
evacuation.
Smoke mushroomed into huge clouds, some 20,000 feet high and
visible from hundreds of miles away.
"What we have seen today was extreme fire behaviour once again,"
Fire Commander Mike Dietrich said.
"But there were excellent saves made in the foothill
communities, some darn good fire fighting."
The two dead fire fighters were from Los Angeles County Fire and
had been working deep in the Angeles National Forest Sunday
afternoon when their vehicle careened down a slope.
At nightfall, fire fighters focused on Mount Wilson, the site of
transmission towers for television and radio broadcasters and
emergency services.
Planes dumped water in the area, but Dietrich said the fire
could reach the towers late Sunday or early Monday.
More than 2,800 fire fighters were on the ground, coming from as
far away as Wyoming and Montana, trying to build more than 160 km
of fire protection lines.
The fire that started on Wednesday above the exclusive community of
La Canada Flintridge is only five percent contained and officials
expected that, with hot temperatures and low humidity, it would
grow larger.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
An inferno
In the suburb of La Crescenta, 25 km north of downtown Los Angeles,
the streets were deserted Sunday afternoon except for a few
residents fleeing with their suitcases and other belongings on
foot.
Brothers Vince and John Bollier looked out onto the mountains in
front of their parents' house, where the fire had left only gray
ash on the slopes.
"Last night was an inferno," said Vince Bollier. "It was close, but
it wasn't life threatening, although a lot of people would have
characterized it as dangerous."
Four other fire fighters have been injured and three civilians have
suffered burns, including two who were badly burned on Saturday
after they tried to ride out the fire by sitting in a hot
tub.
The saving grace in the Station fire has been the absence of high
winds, but much of the brush in the area has not burned in 60
years, terrain is difficult to access and humidity is low.
Although the fire had spread, many homeowners who
were evacuated Friday and Saturday returned on Sunday, after an
aerial assault with water and fire retardant saved their homes,
many of them worth millions of dollars.
Utility Southern California Edison said the blaze has cut power to
about 250 customers.
Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County
last week in response to four fires in the area.
On Sunday, he said, there were eight huge fires burning
state-wide.
In total, 22,257 hectares have burned, he said.
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