A week of triple-digit temperatures awaited the almost 3,000 firefighters battling flames in rugged terrain between Los Angeles and suburban Santa Clarita, where many homes are tucked into canyon lands. The remains of a auto that burned with the Soberanes Fire in Palo Colorado Canyon on the northern Big Sur Coast on Tuesday July 26, 2016 in Big Sur, Calif. California’s signature parks along the Big Sur c.
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A total of 2,937 firefighters are battling the blaze, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
To the south, firefighters made progress containing a huge blaze in mountains outside Los Angeles, allowing authorities to let most of 20,000 people evacuated over the weekend to return home.
Twenty percent of the fire had been contained, aided slightly by improving weather conditions and lighter vegetation in some areas, which offered hope of increased containment of the blaze.
The blaze has killed one person, found in a burned-out auto parked in a driveway, and destroyed at least 18 homes.
The park shutdowns came as a fire that started Friday just north of Big Sur grew to 78 square kilometres but was just 10 per cent contained.
Nearly all evacuation orders were lifted as of 7 p.m. Monday but remained in effect for residents of Placerita Canyon Road from Running Horse Lane to Pacy Street, and along Little Tujunga Road from the Wildlife Waystation to Sand Canyon Road and Placerita Canyon Road.
A helicopter drops fire retardant ahead of advancing flames as a wildfire approaches Placerita Canyon in Santa Clarita, California.
The active part of the 37,473 acre wildfire is burning in the higher reaches of the Angeles National Forest east of here and away from homes. Hours after the board’s vote on Tuesday, acting Gov. Tom Torlakson officially declared a state of emergency to free up state resources. The Sand Fire near Los Angeles has consumed at least 10,000 acres of land a day, the equivalent of 10,000 football fields.
The fire has destroyed 18 homes since it started and authorities found the burned body of 67-year-old Robert Bresnick on Saturday in a vehicle and said he had refused to be evacuated.
“This will provide the reimbursements for firefighting personnel because we have personnel from all over California in the Santa Clarita Valley and Antelope Valley fighting this fire”, said County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Jerry Brown comes back from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The declaration is the first step in acquiring state funding to help fire-recovery efforts.
“It’s a miracle everything was there”, he said from his home across the street from a ranch used to make movies where the sets were incinerated.
He repeated the same text message back them: “We’re still standing”.
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The fire erupted Friday afternoon in Santa Clarita, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
