Fire crews have made some gains against a massive wildfire burning in rugge.
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Firefighters continued to make progress Wednesday in their battle against the Sand Fire burning in the Santa Clarita area. County officials have ordered a state of emergency in the county along with the evacuation of 10,000 homes in the area, and warned that 45,000 more are at risk.
By TERENCE CHEA and KRISTIN J.
The park shutdowns came as a fire that started Friday just north of Big Sur grew to 36 square miles by Tuesday.
Another operator escaped injury when a second bulldozer rolled over and sustained minor damage, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The name and age of the operator was not immediately available. “It is folly to predict where this fire will go”, Weber said.
BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) – A wildfire was fouling the summer season on a beloved and scenic stretch of the California coast, where smoke and the threat of flames forced the closure of state parks near Big Sur. The blaze has destroyed 20 homes and is threatening 2,000 more.
Firefighters working around the clock got a break early Wednesday from cooler temperatures and increased humidity.
Some neighborhoods in Santa Clarita, population about 200,000, remained off limits Tuesday because of the fire.
Jim Newby, a Phoenix-area tourist, drove along the Pacific Coast Highway with his family and was disappointed at the smoke. “We didn’t see a whole lot of it unfortunately, and it’s a handsome, beautiful stretch”. Also, one person was killed and 18 homes have been destroyed.
The so-called Sand Fire in Santa Clarita has scorched almost 60 square miles since it started on Friday, July 22.
Authorities said they had managed to contain 25 per cent of the area, meaning the flames there had been isolated and were not expected to spread.
Some 2,300 firefighters were battling the blaze dubbed the Soberanes Fire, which has scorched almost 20,000 acres since Friday, at the edge of the Los Padres National Forest, a state fire agency spokeswoman said. “And that’s a lot”.
Firefighters are dealing with dry, warm conditions; strong winds; and steep, rugged terrain as the fire burns south toward the community of Palo Colorado, where homes were evacuated.
Closures as of Tuesday in the major tourism destination include Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Andrew Molera State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, among others. Some residents, panicked and fearful for their homes, tried returning before the evacuation order was lifted.
The causes of both fires were under investigation, but they are among some 3,750 blazes large and small that have erupted across California since January.
Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Authorities initially said the men had been hiking in the area.
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Gov. Edmund Brown Jr., Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and top elected leaders, all Democrats, are out of state at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaving Mr. Torlakson, ninth in the line of succession, in charge.
