California fires ... again

[okarol]

I saw the flames as I flew in, returning from Las Vegas.

Crews Battle Wind-Whipped Fires

LOS ANGELES  -  Powerful winds stoked three major wildfires on Tuesday morning after destroying dozens of homes, forcing thousands to flee and killing two people.

The fires have charred more than 20 square miles in suburban Los Angeles and northern San Diego County in three days, with the fiercest blazes burning in the San Fernando Valley.

More than 2,000 firefighters and a fleet of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft battled fierce flames Tuesday morning. Intense winds caused a fire in the west end of the valley to double in size from 5,000 to nearly 10,000 acres overnight, fire officials said.

A second fire at the northeast end of the valley was 70 percent contained on Tuesday, Inspector Paul Hartwell said. Officials reduced the acreage to 4,800 acres from 5,300 acres.

About 3,000 homes remain evacuated and winds could return in the afternoon, Hartwell said.

Santa Ana winds were gusting at 50 mph in parts of the valley Tuesday morning, county fire officials said.

Authorities lifted an evacuation order for about 1,000 homes threatened by a wildfire on Camp Pendleton Tuesday but said another 500 homes sitting on the border with the Marine base are to remain vacated.

On the base, Marine Cpl. Priscilla Vitale said the fire has scorched more than 3,000 acres and was about 25 percent contained Tuesday. The fires that started Monday on the base's training ranges were not caused by any type of military training, Vitale said.

``The fire wants to make its way to the coast, and we're going to do our level best to stop it,'' said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. ``Two-thirds of our department is on the line.''

Traffic was snarled when the 118 Ronald Reagan Freeway closed in both directions for the second time as flames and smoke approached the roadway, the California Highway Patrol said. It reopened after about an hour Tuesday morning.

The freeway was the scene of a fatal wreck Monday when a tow truck rear-ended a car and killed the driver. California Highway Patrol Officer Leland Tang said traffic stalled because firefighters were going by as fire neared the route.

A second fatality was discovered Monday in the rugged canyonlands below the mountainous Angeles National Forest. The victim was a man who appeared to be a transient living with a dog in a makeshift shelter, officials said. Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa said it would take some time to identify the victim.

Authorities confirmed more than three dozen mobile homes burned in the west end of the valley and 19 structures - some of them homes - were destroyed at the northeast end. Commercial sites burned in both fires.

Fire officials alerted other communities to the west in the Ventura County city of Simi Valley and south to Malibu, 20 miles away, as an ominous plume streamed over neighborhoods and far out to sea.

A fire broke out near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County Tuesday morning and forced the evacuation of about 300 homes in the town of Campo, said Sheriff's Lt. Anthony Ray. It had burned about 150 acres on both side of Highway 94 but no structures have been burned and no one has been injured, Ray said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and urged residents to be prepared for anything.

``Winds are causing fire conditions to change by the hour, which is why it is so important that residents in the areas surrounding these wildfires heed warnings from public safety officials to evacuate,'' Schwarzenegger said.

Residents were not allowed to drive into one of Porter Ranch's gated communities, so they parked their cars, ran to their homes and carried out whatever they could carry in pillow cases, in their arms, sacks and suitcases. Some ran out clutching paintings.

In nearby Twin Lakes, a neighborhood of narrow streets perched above the 118 Freeway, the fire raced through the community of about 95 homes, destroying at least four.

Matthew Vitiello, 46, stuck it out with his two dogs as embers rained down around him and a nearby home burned. Asked why he decided not to evacuate, Vitiello pointed to a pine tree across the street.

``If that sucker goes, then it's time for me to go,'' he said.

An estimated 1,200 people were evacuated. Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage said 37 or 38 mobile homes were destroyed and various industrial sites also burned.

``We could have had an army there and it would not have stopped it,'' Battalion Chief Mario Rueda said. ``Wind is king here, it's dictating everything we are doing.''

The dry and warm Santa Ana winds typically blow into Southern California between October and February, priming vegetation for fires by slashing moisture levels. Last October, fires fanned by Santa Anas destroyed 2,196 homes and burned a combined 800 square miles in Southern California.

[boxman55]

Man, those Santa Anna's can blow. Keep your garden hose out...Boxman

[Sluff]

I just hope we don't lose more people in these fires. It's such a shame.

[kitkatz]

We have smoke in our area.  The freeway border caught fire last night on the north 215 and burned a few miles engulfing two buildings.  They closed the freeway.

[twirl]

Katz, you are not close to being roasted are you
or shake and baked

[Sluff]

Darn these fires, hundred homes or more lost already.

[Ang]

they  look  pretty  bad  on  the news  services


don't  say  how  they  started

[okarol]

Fires here are usually caused by power pole problems, cigarette butt or arson. Sometimes it's a campfire or off road equipment, but thats not as common.

[kitkatz]

The 91 freeway and 57 are closed due to the Anaheim Hills and Corona fire. Then there is a fire up Sylmar way.   We are not near any of them as of yet.  It is dry, dry , dry out here in the canyons and the Santa Ana winds are 25-30 miles per hour today down from 50 to 70 miles per hour.

If you find a map of So CA you will see the 91 and 57 are major arteries into and out of Orange County. Traffic is in a snarl everywhere tonight!

[pelagia]

finally saw this on the news tonight.  looks bad.  hope it doesn't last much longer.  I'd send you our rain if I could.

[okarol]

From the Los Angeles Times

More than 20,000 flee flames in O.C. Fire destroys or damages more than 600 homes; thousands are threatened

More than 600 Southland homes have been damaged or destroyed. Governor declares an emergency in L.A. County. High winds drive flames through canyons in the San Fernando Valley.

By Christopher Goffard, Louis Sahagun and Rich Connell

8:46 PM PST, November 15, 2008

Wind-fueled fires continued to rage out of control tonight in Orange County as emergency personnel struggled to get ahead of erratic leap-frogging flare-ups that were consuming houses and apartments and prompting evacuation orders for more than 20,000 residents.

"We have not been able to pinpoint exactly where the fires are," said Orange County Fire Authority spokesperson Christy Romero. "There are many spot fires; the fire is not in one general direction."

More than 600 homes have been damaged or destroyed in the Los Angeles and Orange County wildfires since Friday night. In Anaheim Hills, where 58 homes were destroyed by 7 p.m., residents were ordered to flee as a blaze that began early today in nearby Riverside County swept through Yorba Linda and jumped the 91 Freeway and 241 toll road.

"The embers are falling miles ahead of the fire front," said Battalion Chief Chris Concepcion of the Orange County Fire Authority. "That's what is creating a lot of the problems." Dubbed the Freeway Complex blaze, the firestorm had consumed about 2,000 acres by evening, damaged or destroyed at least 88 homes. Structures also were damaged at Brea Canyon High School.

More than 4,500 homes were evacuated, with 300 people staying at an emergency shelter at Katella High School. It was the third evacuation center set up after two others had to be abandoned because of smoke and approaching flames.

"We were running underneath fire," said Lene Vrieling, 23, describing her flight from the Cascades Apartments near Anaheim Hills, to which she had moved with her mother and sisters two weeks ago. "The branches and ashes were falling on us. My mom almost got trapped."

At the apartment development, where at least three large buildings were destroyed, one resident wearing flip flops huffed as he emerged from dense smoke. "I gotta get my dog out," he said, before vanishing back into smoke.

A short distance away, as the setting sun hung on the blackened skyline, Mary Palmer and her husband Gene were trying to get to her daughter's wedding. The couple had been in Long Beach getting their hair done when they heard about the fire.

They were told they couldn't drive back to their Yorba Linda home, so they parked in Anaheim Hills and walked two miles to dress for the ceremony. Then they hiked back to their car; she in a black dress and six-inch heels, he in a suit and tie. Mary Palmer's hair was undone, tossed about in the gusting wind as they trudged past burning palm trees.

"I'll never forget this," she said. "I don't know what I'll look like or smell like when I get there. But I'm a fan of Lucille Ball, and this is so Lucy."

In addition to the 91 Freeway, the fire had shut down parts of the 241 tollway, where there were reports that some motorists had abandoned vehicles to escape thick smoke.

A separate fire closed part of the 57 Freeway near Brea, where homes also were reported destroyed. About 1,200 acres had been scorched in Orange County by late afternoon and towers of smoke and ash spread as far away as Long Beach. The losses in Anaheim Hills were still being tallied, but earlier, 14 homes were listed as destroyed or damaged in Corona and at least 30 had burned in Yorba Linda.

Meanwhile, firefighters were still battling a massive fire in the northern San Fernando Valley, which prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County. Police announced this evening that they had arrested several suspected looters in the area and warned they were heavily patrolling burned and evacuated neighborhoods.

The greatest damage in the Valley was reported in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park near Sylmar, where more than 500 homes were destroyed in the so-called Sayre blaze that started late Friday. The Los Angeles Police Department sealed off the community and declared it a potential crime scene. Investigators were conducting a systematic search of the gutted homes, which were evacuated by police and firefighters just ahead of flames.

"We feel pretty comfortable that LAPD and fire were able to get everyone out," Ed Winter, assistant director of the Coroner's Office said this evening. Among those who lost everything at the mobile home park were Linda Pogacnik, 63, and Nodonda Baldwin, 56, retired Los Angeles Unified School District bus drivers who pooled their savings to buy a 1,500-square-foot mobile home.

Crying uncontrollably at a Sylmar High School shelter, Pogacnik said, "My street -- ashes. . . . It was a dream. We had a view, trees, a yard and neighbors. We felt so safe there. It was a perfect place for an old retired woman."

The evacuees at Sylmar High were among 10,000 residents ordered from their homes as more than 1,000 firefighters used water-dropping helicopters, bulldozers and engines from across Southern California to try to halt the erratic march of the blaze as it hopscotched west and south toward thousands of homes.

That fire more than doubled in size today to 6,500 acres, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at an early-afternoon briefing. "We've never lost in recent times anything close to this number" of homes, he said, referring to the mobile homes. The fire was 20% contained; officials hoped that the advance of the blaze into the previously burned area of last month's Sesnon fire would allow firefighters to get the upper hand.

But Los Angeles Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda added, "These are still very dangerous winds."

In addition, a fire that began Thursday night in Santa Barbara County, destroying more than 100 homes, was 40% contained this morning. Fire officials there warned that the Tea fire continued to threaten about 1,500 homes, and many neighborhoods remained under mandatory evacuation orders.

In the Valley, the major traffic corridors converging near the Sayre fire -- the 5 and 210 freeways and California 14 -- were shut down for much of the day as flames jumped the freeways. By this evening, most of the closures in the area were in the process of being lifted.

On a day with warnings of extremely high fire danger and a forecast of low humidity and unusually high temperatures, the blazes stretched firefighting resources. In the San Fernando Valley, gusts up to 70 mph drove horizontal flames through canyons and limiting the ability of large water-dropping planes to join the battle.

Villaraigosa declared a local emergency shortly before 8 a.m., calling the winds "treacherous." Rolling blackouts caused by the fire briefly interrupted city power supplies.

About 600 firefighters were on the lines by early morning, and 18 aircraft were in use to fight the fire.

Towering columns of smoke spread across western Los Angeles County.

American Red Cross officials reported that 300 people had gone to the temporary shelter at Sylmar High School, 100 to John F. Kennedy High in Granada Hills and 71 to San Fernando High. Today an additional shelter was opened at Chatsworth High School.

Authorities this morning said three firefighters had suffered minor injuries, and one civilian was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

"The fire is ripping and tearing through everything," said Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Bowman.

"Our No. 1 priority right now is life, and people have to get out of the path of the fire," said John Tripp, incident commander for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "We have citizens that are in harm's way right now, and that is our priority."

A Los Angeles County fire official said most of the property losses were in the area near Olive View Medical Center. Firefighters there waged a dramatic battle to protect the hospital early this morning as patients were taken to upper floors to escape smoke pouring into the lower floors.

Backup power was restored at Olive View shortly before 4 a.m. The most critically ill patients had been moved to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Authorities did not issue a mandatory evacuation until about 1:30 a.m., directing residents to Sylmar High School and San Fernando High School. Many residents had already realized the danger.

"Basically it was chaos and panic," Anne Moore said at Sylmar High. "At the same time people were trying to get out, others were trying to get closer to gawk."

Assistant Chief Donald Frazeur of L.A. Fire Department warned people not to visit the burned areas.

"We are encouraging Angelenos not to come to this area, to avoid this area. . . . We need these roads clear," he said. "This is a large area, this is a heavily concentrated area, and there are a lot of people standing around watching this instead of leaving."

Sahagun, Olivarez-Giles and Connell are Times staff writers.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

nathan.olivarezgiles@latimes.com

rich.connell@latimes.com

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Jason Felch, Ruben Vives and James Wagner contributed to this report.


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[paris]

California has had it's share of fires.  They seem so bad this year.   We had tornados in North Carolina over the weekend.  Two people killed.  The hit about an hour from here.  We had lots of winds and rain.  Wish I could have sent some of the rain to CA.

[kitkatz]

Burning, burning, burning, California is burning! I watch the news and over 600 home shave been burned to the ground.  Holy cow!

We are not currently any where near the burning area. Orange County though is on fire. The edge of Corona and Anaheim Hills burned last night.

[kitkatz]

For information: http://www.fire.ca.gov/index_incidents_info.php

[Rerun]

I guess I don't want to go to Disney Land??

                                                 

[Sluff]

or Wally world.