Cooler, wetter air and calmer wind helped thousands of firefighters battling a wildfire early on Friday that has pushed hundreds of people from their homes in the hills and canyons along Los Angeles’s north-western edge.
The fire, which has burned an estimated 8 300ha, was 20% contained on Friday morning, up from 5% the night before, said Los Angeles county fire Deputy Chief Mike Bryant, the incident commander. Firefighters hoped to have the blaze 35% contained by day’s end, he said.
”We’re really happy with the weather today. This is a good opportunity for us,” Bryant said.
Fire crews planned to attack hot spots aggressively on Friday instead of simply trying to keep the fire from spreading, he said.
They also hoped to let at least some of the 800-plus evacuees return home, he said. The fire has burned at least one house and five other structures.
Temperatures at sunrise on Friday were about 15 degrees Celsius, with light wind and humidity above 50%.
But Bryant cautioned that the fire, which broke out on Wednesday, is far from over.
”We’re going to be here another week at the minimum. We are going to have a lot of mop-up,” Bryant said.
‘It would have gone to the coast’
About 3 000 firefighters aided by airplanes and helicopters attacked flames and protected ridge-top homes amid the brushy landscape west of the San Fernando Valley, California. The fire moved west much of the day on Thursday, menacing Ventura county communities, then sent flanks in the opposite direction as winds shifted.
”If it wasn’t for the wind changing, it would have … gone all the way to the coast,” said Joey Escobar (45), who was among a group watching the flames near Highway 101. ”It’s like a fireplace.”
As night fell on Thursday, long lines of fire marched east toward the wealthy enclave of Hidden Hills and the western fringes of Los Angeles.
Mandatory or voluntary evacuations covered homes throughout the canyons and in parts of cities along the south side of the fire and 16km north to Simi Valley.
Firefighters have saved about 2 000 structures from the flames, Los Angeles county supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.
Fire also spread to parts of the 1 100ha Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where everything from space rockets to Peacekeeper missiles was built over the past half-century.
Officials there cancelled what was to be the lab’s final rocket test because of the blaze, and about 200 employees were evacuated.
Several unused structures at the site were destroyed, said Dan Beck, a spokesperson for Boeing, which is doing an environmental clean-up at the site.
About 600 people registered with the Red Cross on Thursday, but it was not known how many actually spent the night at five shelters in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Actor evacuates
Actor Shelley Berman of the television series Curb Your Enthusiasm and his Bell Canyon neighbours evacuated, taking a few items from the home he has lived in since 1984.
”We were sitting watching television, had finished a nice dinner, everything was fine … Then suddenly, we were moving,” said Berman, who went with his wife to a friend’s house a few kilometres away in Westlake.
One other large wildfire in Southern California was 100% contained after burning 470ha in San Timoteo Canyon between Redlands and Moreno Valley in Riverside County. No homes were destroyed.
The fire began at a chicken farm when welding equipment inside one of the coops accidentally sparked, fire officials said. More than 80 000 chickens were killed. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writers Paul Chavez, Gillian Flaccus, Lynn Elber, Alicia Chang and Tim Molloy contributed to this story