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.
Advertisement
The wildfire grew slightly overnight to almost 60 square miles.
The so-called Sand Fire grew more than 10,000 acres on Sunday alone, and has burned up to 18 homes, Los Angeles County fire Chief John Tripp said at a news conference late Sunday. It burned almost 11 square miles (28 square kilometres) and forced the evacuations of 900 people but no homes had burned by Tuesday, authorities said.
As of Tuesday morning, wildfire fueled by high heat has charred 37,472 acres (around 152 square km), up 13 percent compared with Monday afternoon in the Santa Clarita Valley area near Los Angeles, in the western USA state of California, and over a dozen houses have been destroyed.
High temperatures, low humidity and strong winds were making it hard for firefighters to contain the blaze over the weekend, officials said.
National Weather Service data indicate humidity in the Acton area was 30 to 35 percent overnight, which could benefit firefighters.
“It’s been a problem each of the last couple of fire seasons, and we continue to see incursions”, said Stanton Florea, a fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service.
About 10,000 homes were evacuated because of the massive blaze near Santa Clarita. Almost 3,000 firefighters from multiple agencies are working to quell the massive blaze, which started Friday afternoon along the northbound 14 Freeway near Sand Canyon.
A burned body was discovered in an area scorched by the fire near Los Angeles.
The Department of Insurance says most people aren’t even aware they’ve paid for the coverage so they never use it. Spokesman Dennis Weber says facilities aren’t endangered but officials made a decision to get the public out of the areas for safety and to keep roads clear and avoid exposure to bad air quality.
Residents flee their home as flames from the Sand Fire close in on July 23 2016 near Santa Clarita, California.
Torlakson, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, is acting as the state’s chief executive because Gov.
“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.
Her husband, however, called it a “nightmare” largely because of the large amount of smoke surrounding their home.
An air quality advisory was in effect in the area of the fire until Tuesday midnight local time after much of the Los Angeles basin was dusted with a thin layer of fine white ash from the fire over the weekend.
Advertisement
Area resident Lois Wash, 87, said she and her daughter and her dog evacuated, but her husband refused. About 770 large animals were in the care of Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control. Firefighters were informed about the fatality before they headed out to battle the blaze early on Wednesday, he said. A raging wildfire that forced thousands from their homes on the edge of Los Angeles continued to burn Monday as frustrated fire officials said residents reluctant to heed evacuation orders made conditions more risky and destructive for their neighbors.
