A man was reported dead Saturday in Santa Clarita, after being found in a scorched vehicle in a neighborhood swept by the Sand Fire, just north of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Advertisement
First reported on Friday afternoon, the blaze has forced at least 1,500 residents to evacuate their homes and at least 18 homes have been destroyed, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said in a statement.
“This is a big animal”, said Chief Mike Wakoski, incident commander for SoCal Team 3. “They were saddened by the fact that they lost structures and part of the conversation was that they felt they lost additional structures because they had to stop what they were doing to help citizens evacuate”.
Monday morning evacuation orders expanded to 10,000 homes.
“There’s nothing normal about this fire”, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s captain Roosevelt Johnson to the LA Times.
A man’s body was found in a burned-out auto near one neighborhood where a home was singed. According to the sheriff’s department, the cause of the man’s death has not been determined, and an investigation is underway. The area has been popular with notable artists, writers, sports figures and other celebrities who’ve lived there or maintained second homes, including Clint Eastwood, Doris Day, Ansel Adams, Jack London and Beverly Cleary.
“And then we just focused on what really mattered in the house”, she told The Associated Press.
Kinikin grabbed important documents and fled with her husband, two children, two dogs and three birds. “They’re working hard, they’re exhausted, it’s hot, it’s dry”, battalion fire chief Marc Peebles told local television station KABC-TV. “I don’t know if he got out of there or not”. I think the last time I looked it was about 100 yards from us.
Kellum and his wife, Helen, teared up as they recalled the joy of finding out the house they loved was still standing. “All we can do is pray”.
Cal Fire helicopters flew back and forth between the ocean, where they collected water, and the Santa Clarita area, where they dumped the water on the fire lines.
Advertisement
The fire destroyed film sets at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, which has Old West-style buildings used for movie locations. It also forced a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures to evacuate 340 of its more than 400 animals, including Bengal tigers and a mountain lion.
