Officials said late Sunday that the blaze had burned through at least 51 square miles of brush north of Los Angeles – but that number is expected to jump Monday when better assessment is done at daylight.
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A tortoise was rescued on the street while trying to flee the Santa Clarita “Sand Fire” in Los Angeles County on Sunday.
At a news conference Monday morning, fire officials said a total of five homes associated with the Bear Divide Ranger Station had been lost.
Three of the scorched homes belonged to firefighters.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says no one has been injured, but the fire has destroyed six homes and forced evacuations. The fire now threatens hundreds of homes in Sand and Placerita canyon areas.
In Santa Clarita, 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Juliet Kinikin said Sunday there was panic as the sky became dark with smoke and flames moved closer to her home a day earlier in the Sand Canyon area. A department spokesman said on Twitter that more than 33,000 acres had been destroyed as of Sunday evening.
Over the weekend, a body was found in a burned-out auto but it is not clear if the death is fire-related. The most serious fires are burning in the south.
Firefighters discovered the man’s body in a compact sedan in a home’s driveway as they traveled along Santa Clarita’s Iron Canyon Road on Saturday night.
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) – A firefighting army converged Monday on a unsafe wildfire burning in the mountainous northern fringe of metropolitan Los Angeles after it wildly expanded and forced thousands of people from their homes during the weekend.
Authorities said the man’s identity is unknown, and his body is with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Original Post: (AP) – Unexpected winds feeding the beast sent a Southern Californiawildfire surging back to life, sending thousands fleeing the flames which have destroyed 18 homes.
When Toscano heard his home had burned to the ground, he was pulled from the Roblar Fire and reassigned to the Sand Fire.
“Of those three, two of them were involved in the fire fight that day on the Sand fire”, Garcia said.
Helicopters circled the blaze, dousing the flames with water. Drones can interfere with firefighting activities and can cause the blaze to grow larger and cause more damage as well.
Fire crews attempted to dig lines to halt the fast-moving fire, but the mountainous area proved problematic, according to Nathan Judy, fire information officer with the Angeles National Forest.
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The drone activity occurred over the Bear Divide as flames burned the area, according to InciWeb.
