CALIFORNIA BLAZE THREATENS FARMS AND ORCHARDS.
LOS ANGELES A fast-moving scrub fire threatened orchards and farms in Southern California on Friday, but fierce Santa Ana winds eased, helping firefighters tame a rash of wildfires that forced thousands from their homes.
The new wildfires roared to life in hilly farm communities outside Los Angeles on Thursday, destroying homes and forcing yet more evacuations.
The Maria Fire swelled to over 3,520 hectares near Santa Paula, Ventura County, threatening millions of dollars in fruit crops and some 1,800 homes and other structures, according to the county fire department. About 7,500 residents were ordered to find lodgings elsewhere for Halloween night, and dozens of schools were closed on Friday. “It’s going to eventually run out of fuel,” Ventura County Assistant Fire Chief John Mcneil said. “We’re looking at maybe 12,000 acres at the biggest footprint on this.”
East of Los Angeles, the Hillside Fire scorched 80 hectares of the San Bernardino National Forest, burning residential areas in the north end of the city of San Bernardino, but by Friday afternoon was 70 per cent contained.
A fire that erupted early on Monday near the famed Getty Center art museum in west Los Angeles threatened thousands of homes in some of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods but was largely suppressed, with containment listed at 66 per cent.
Residents were allowed to return to most of the 10,000 homes that were ordered evacuated. The museum emerged unscathed, but about a dozen dwellings were lost in the 300-hectare Getty fire and two firefighters were injured.
About 50 km to the northwest, a fire raged to the edge of the hilltop Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Ventura County’s Simi Valley on Wednesday, threatening thousands of homes, but was 60 per cent contained early on Friday.