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.
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SANTA CLARITA – Most of the roughly 20,000 evacuees forced out by a wildfire were cleared to go home, but firefighters still have huge work ahead Tuesday in taming a massive wildfire northwest of Los Angeles.
In Santa Clarita, the call for widespread evacuations brought frustration among fire officials as some residents refused the orders.
Firefighters in drought-hit California who are battling a 50-square-mile wildfire could be hampered by triple-digit heat, wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour and low humidity on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
But the fire, which had been increasing by about 10,000 acres per day since it broke out Friday, did not grow signficantly overnight and was at about 58 square miles Tuesday morning.
The Wyoming fire in a remote region burned almost 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) and forced the evacuations of 900 people but no homes had burned by Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
The majority of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people who lived in the 10,000 homes that were evacuated earlier were allowed to return home on Monday evening, fire officials said. “These are not normal times”, noted Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby in NBC News.
When the blaze appeared to die down, she thought the worst was over and returned.
Brock Bradford lives in a historic house in Palo Colorado, one of the evacuated areas, and could see the flames coming down the road as he fled.
Officials say people with respiratory problems, cardiac or lung disease, young children and senior citizens should avoid prolonged periods or heavy exertion outdoors.
“And then we just focused on what really mattered in the house”, she told The Associated Press.
Firefighters saved about 2,000 homes in the fire’s first three days, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
Three Forest Service firefighters lost their homes at a remote fire station in the San Gabriel Mountains, including two who were fighting the fire.
The fire also burned parts of the Sable Ranch, where many movies and TV shows were shot, reducing film sets to charred piles of burnt wood and metal.
Bresnick was found Saturday night dead inside a auto parked on the driveway of a home that burned to the ground on North Iron Canyon Road.
Hedren’s animal sanctuary, Shambala Preserve, was also forced to move 340 of its more than 400 residents, including Bengal tigers and a mountain lion, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Aggressive efforts by about 3,000 firefighters helped slow the spread of the blaze that burned through the dry terrain, parched after five years of drought in Southern California.
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Kellum and his wife, Helen, teared up as they recalled the joy of finding out the house they loved was still standing.
