Los Angeles County fire officials said earlier that residents of some areas of Sand Canyon near Santa Clarita would be allowed to return Sunday afternoon.
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SCAQMD’s Jo Kay Ghosh told the LA Times that if the air quality was making residents uncomfortable: “Do whatever you can do to remove yourself”.
By Sunday morning the fire had swelled to 22,000 acres and burned 18 homes, Los Angeles County Fire Chief John Tripp said at a news conference.
By Saturday evening, the flames had burned through more than 31 square miles, threatening more than 1,500 homes in Santa Clarita, located about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. No new measurements were available, but officials said the fire might now be double that size. Helicopters released retardant around the perimeter of the fire all day and would continue into the night.
“Because this is the fifth year of an ongoing drought we have a lot dry vegetation”, said LA County fire chief Daryl Osby. “We eventually got removed from that fire (the Roblar Fire) and now we’re back here fighting this fire (the Sand Fire)”, Toscano explained.
Most of those homes are in the areas of Sand Canyon, Bear Divide and Little Tujunga, said Marc Peebles, public information officer for the SoCal Incident Management Team.
Associated Press photographer Matt Hartman contributed from Santa Clarita.
Jerri Masten-Hansen and her husband said she and her husband watched the fire creep in. There’s no way of knowing. “All we can do is pray”. Winds pushed it into the adjacent Angeles National Forest. More than 1,673 firefighters, 122 engines, 8 fixed-wing air-tankers and 6 heavy heli-tankers are being utilized to battle the fire, Peebles said.
As firefighters battled a fast-moving 20,000-acre fire in Santa Clarita Sunday, they were trying to solve the mystery of a body found in a burned out vehicle that could have been the victim of the massive blaze. It broke out along the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14) near the Sand Canyon Road exit, the county fire department said.
The ranch in Santa Clarita, Calif., was destroyed by the fire on Saturday despite the efforts of dozens of firefighters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Some 400 animals were being evacuated from the Wildlife Waystation, a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures within the national forest. One, burning further to the north near Big Sur, threatens some 1,600 homes and was only five per cent contained as of Sunday afternoon.
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Brock Bradford lives in a historic house in Palo Colorado and could see the flames coming down the road as he evacuated.
