Near Los Angeles, a beefed-up force of almost 3,000 firefighters battled to outflank the blaze there, which has charred at least 50 square miles on the rugged northwestern fringes of the Angeles National Forest, authorities said. It’s the season of brush fires in the state, and in about 300 miles from Santa Clarita, another fire occured, which now spans more than 17 square miles and has destroyed six homes.
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With the majority of evacuated residents back home today, fire crews were working to add to their hard-fought progress against the deadly Sand Fire in the Santa Clarita area.
A smoke advisory was issued at midnight Sunday for the valleys of San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Clarita, the San Gabriel Mountains, the Pomona Valley, and the central Los Angeles area, as smoke from the fire drifted southeast toward Los Angeles. Also, one person was killed and 18 homes have been destroyed.
Most of the roughly 20,000 evacuees forced out by a wildfire have been cleared to go home, but firefighters still had huge work ahead in taming the massive blaze northwest of Los Angeles. The body of a man, who coroner officials said refused to evacuate an area, was found inside a auto in the 26700 block of Iron Canyon Road Saturday night.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief John Tripp said firefighters likely saved at least 2,000 homes that were directly in the path of the fire. One man perished on Saturday after he refused to heed firefighters’ instructions to leave immediately. According to the latest information, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has so far evacuated more than 20,000 residents. Numerous remaining flames on Tuesday were burning in higher elevations of the Angeles National Forest, south of Agua Dulce and farther away from homes.
“It’s not a surprise to see the fires behaving the way they are and the number of fires we’ve already had”, said Tom Rolinski, a meteorologist for the United States Forest Service.
An estimated 20,000 people were evacuated as the fire raged, most evacuation orders were lifted at 7 p.m. Monday, but the orders still remain in effect in some places. Jerry Brown and other state officials are attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. It burned almost 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) and forced the evacuations of 900 people, but no homes had burned by Tuesday, authorities said. The county now has a contract for the use of four Canada-based Super Scoopers, massive amphibious planes that can scoop up and then drop more than 1,000 gallons of water without having to land.
But some firefighters had been unable to battle some of the blaze because of evacuation holdouts they had to spend time helping to safety instead of putting out destructive flames, County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said.
The Santa Clarita blaze, known as the Sand fire, is not the first to hit the region in 2016.
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“It was a horrific firestorm”, owner Derek Hunt told KABC-TV. The study also predicts that droughts in the Southwest as well as heat waves everywhere will continue to become more intense, leaving dead plants and dry debris prone to flames.
