Officials said late Sunday that the blaze had burned through at least 51 square miles of brush north of Los Angeles – but that number is expected to jump Monday when better assessment is done at daylight.
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“We’re building this organization up because as you’ve seen for three days, the fire wants to get up, it wants to run and it wants to go through 10,000 acres and threaten thousands of homes”, said Tripp, who estimated that firefighters saved 2,000 homes in the fire’s first three days.
In addition, authorities said at least 200 commercial buildings were at risk from the flames. “Containment of the fire is going to be slow”. The Sand Fire erupted Friday afternoon and has since grown to 22,000 acres. Ash rained down and red skies became the backdrop for hundreds of mandatory evacuations.
Over the weekend, a body was found in a burned-out vehicle but it is not clear if the death is fire-related. His death remains under investigation, but firefighters say it’s a reminder that homeowners need to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
Until this week, most of the fires have been largely located in remote areas.
The ranch has been the site of various television and film shoots, including “24”, “The A-Team”, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, and “Maverick”.
Almost 3,000 firefighters are working to contain the blaze. Officials with the County of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control picked up the tortoise, which weighs about 75 pounds.
Authorities said the man’s identity is unknown, and his body is with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Three U.S. Forest Service firefighters were battling blazes elsewhere as the Sand Fire tore a path of destruction through forests, neighborhoods and homes.
Helicopters made water drops through the night. Flames raced down a steep hillside “like a freight train,”.
Fire crews attempted to dig lines to halt the fast-moving fire, but the mountainous area proved problematic, according to Nathan Judy, fire information officer with the Angeles National Forest.
But Cliff Loth said he stayed to protect his home.
When the blaze appeared to die down, she thought the worst was over and returned. You look around the house and you say, as much as you love those beautiful plates and those things on the wall, what’s really the most valuable thing? “I grabbed all the pictures of the kids, and then I took the paintings of my parents that had been done by a local artist”.
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There are also fires burning as far north in California as Carmel and Concord, near San Francisco.
