The fire erupted Friday afternoon in the city of Santa Clarita and spread southeastward into the Angeles National Forest, scorching more than 17 square miles.
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The blaze, which has been dubbed the “Sand Fire” after a nearby neighbourhood, is only 10 per cent contained, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG).
Hot and dry temperatures, together with gusts of up to 65 km per hour helped the fire burned more than 2,000 acres, Xinhua news agency reported.
A burned body has been found as thousands of people fled their homes because of two huge wildfires engulfing mountains north of Los Angeles.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District said those areas were susceptible to direct smoke impact and unhealthy air quality, and recommended that people stay indoors and avoid using swamp coolers and wood-burning appliances.
-Run your air conditioner, but keep the fresh intake closed and the filter clean, to avoid bringing additional smoke inside.
More than 1,600 firefighters and water-dropping helicopters were battling the flames on several fronts.
Authorities say the identity of the man was still unknown and his body is now with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office.
North on the Central Coast, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighters battled a blaze in rugged mountains north of Big Sur.
“We were experiencing 50- to 100-foot flame links running across these ridges and down these slopes and doing the kind of things we normally expect to see at 2 p.m.”, Los Angeles County Fire Department Battalion Chief Dennis Cross said. Additional structures were also destroyed by the flames, but fire officials had not gotten close enough to determine if they were homes or commercial buildings.
About 400 animals were being evacuated from the Wildlife Waystation, a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures within the national forest. The Wildlife Waystation was evacuated Saturday and requested help from nearby residents to assist in moving as numerous wild animals as possible.
In the steep, rugged canyons near the Central California coast, a fire near Big Sur in Monterey County burned almost 1 ½ square miles of brush, grass and redwoods. Firefighters managed to beat back the threat later in the day.
No homes were immediately threatened in the sparsely populated area.
The blaze five miles south of Garrapata State Park posed a threat to 1,000 homes and the community of Palo Colorado was ordered evacuated, Cal Fire said.
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Jerri Masten-Hansen said she and her husband watched the fire creep in toward them.
