A mandatory evacuation remained in effect Sunday in a residential area near Los Angeles, as firefighters battled a brush fire that had forced thousands of people to evacuate.
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Firefighters are reporting that they possibly have about 75 percent of a 516-acre brush fire in Calabasas, California contained as water-dropping helicopters and hundreds of firefighters worked around the clock to extinguish the blaze.
L.A. Fire Capt. Keith Mora said the initial call was for a vehicle crash into a power pole with power lines down.
Evacuation orders remained in place higher up in the hills in Topanga Canyon, a rustic stretch famous for its resident artists and musicians that rolls down to the Pacific Ocean.
“The fire is halfway up a mountain”, Tripp said. Years of drought made vegetation and brush dry and highly susceptible to fire.
For much of the weekend, temperatures hovered in the mid-90s, making the challenge of battling the blaze even more intense.
The service said the fire started Saturday afternoon west of King City on the boundary of Fort Hunter Liggett and Los Padres National Forest.
The evacuation order was lifted for Calabasas on Sunday morning, while the order for the Topanga area was still in effect, Wright said.
By morning, 500 acres had burned, two homes were damaged, and a commercial building destroyed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The fire remains at zero percent containment. Some other buildings, including some at a city park, also were damaged. Sunday’s high in Calabasas was expected to be in the mid-80s. Officials had previously said three homes had been damaged, but closer examination as the fire calmed showed that was not the case, he said. The blaze has ignited trees and brush within yards of million-dollar homes – the L.A. suburb is noted for its wealthy residents, gated neighborhoods and celebrity sightings.
Residents were encouraged to take horses and other large animals to Pierce College in Woodland Hills (map), and to drop off smaller animals at the Agoura Animal Care Center (map).
The smoke could be seen across the region, and a dusting of ash rained down on neighbourhoods more than 50 kilometres away. Two suffered knee injuries, and one had a “cardiac event”.
The blaze grew to 200 acres in a matter of hours.
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No evacuations have been ordered, and no structures are threatened.
