Firefighters face hot, dry conditions
Raging wildfire engulfs Calif home, film set
SANTA CLARITA, California, July 26, (Agencies): Firefighters in drought-hit California who are battling a 50-square-mile wildfire could be hampered by triple-digit heat, wind gusts up to 30 mph and low humidity on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
About 3,000 firefighters have been fighting to contain the so called Sand Fire on the rugged northwestern fringes of the Los Angeles National Forest since Friday.
The blaze has killed one person, found in a burned-out car parked in a driveway, and destroyed at least 18 homes. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people were forced to evacuate but late on Monday, fire officials lifted the evacuation order for the majority of residents.
The fire was just 10 percent contained on Monday evening as crews backed by bulldozers labored to hack buffer lines around its perimeter as it cast a pall of smoke and soot over a wide area.
An air quality advisory was in effect in the area of the fire until Tuesday midnight local time after much of the Los Angeles basin was dusted with a thin layer of fine white ash from the fire over the weekend.
Among the properties to go up in flames was the landmark Sable Ranch, a popular location for television and movie shoots.
About 300 miles to the north, another fire ravaged a hilly area near the scenic coastal city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, churning through 16,100 acres (6,500 hectares) and destroying 20 homes, authorities said.
The so-called Soberanes Fire, burning
lands police Detective Joseph Cornetta.
Last week, police arrested 43-year-old Perry Coniglio at the motel where both men lived and charged him with grand larceny, menacing and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.
Coniglio used “brute force and intimidation” to get McLellan to hand over monthly Ford Motor Co pension and in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, threatened 1,650 structures by Monday evening and was only 10 percent contained, the US Forest Service said.
The causes of the two fires were under investigation. They are among some 3,750 blazes large and small to have erupted across California since January, a higher-than-normal total, collectively scorching more than 200,000 acres (80,940 hectares), state fire officials said.
The biggest so far was last month’s Erskine Fire, which consumed 48,000 acres (19,429 hectares) northeast of Bakersfield, killing two people and destroying about 250 structures.
By comparison, the 2003 Cedar Fire ranks as the biggest on record in the state, burning more than 273,000 acres (110,480 hectares) and killing 15 people.
Defend
“We’ve had fires before here and we had always been able to defend it. But this one, this one was a beast. It was a big fire. You could hear it coming. You could hear the ‘fffrrrrrrrr,’ the grumbling and the rumbling,” owner Hunt told AFP.
Hunt’s father and grandfather did the construction work in the 1970s.
The ranch has been the site of various television and film shoots, including “24,” “The A-Team,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” and “Maverick.”
The only showbiz structure left was a giant metal dinosaur that was going to be used on a Netflix series.
“We were able to save it. They couldn’t destroy the beast,” he added.
Social Security checks totaling several thousand dollars, police said. He also is accused of selling McLellan’s vehicle and keeping the proceeds after telling the buyers that he was the older man’s guardian.
Coniglio remained in the county jail on $15,000 bail Monday. Messages seeking comment on the accusations against
Forest fires are a fact of life in much of California but have become far worse because of bone-dry conditions, with the Golden State gripped in its fifth year of drought.
The Sand Fire has turned out to be one of the worst in this region in decades. It spread fast as it was fueled over the weekend by high temperatures and strong wind.
Most people have abandoned their homes in Sand Canyon.
Mary and Bill Sloan were out of town in Las Vegas and rushed back when they heard about the fire. Their son was home but he managed to evacuate.
“The fence melted some of our furniture. It had to been thrown into the pool because it caught on fire,” Mary Sloan told AFP.
“I have asthma. I could not breathe. My baby could not breathe. My baby is so sick and kept crying,” said Rehab Moawad, 39, who was at a Red Cross shelter set up at a school with his 14-year-old son Badr.
Hedren’s animal sanctuary, Shambala Preserve, was also forced to move 340 of its more than 400 residents, including Bengal tigers and a mountain lion, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Please say a prayer for all residents in the path of the #SandFire. My Moms place Shambala is being evacuated,” the actress Melanie Griffith, who is Hedren’s daughter, tweeted on Sunday.
Hedren, who founded the sanctuary in the desert community of Acton in 1972, kept a lion in the family home when Griffith was a teenager.
Thousands of California residents
him were left for his Legal Aid Society attorney.
Police said the thefts began soon after McLellan, who has no known relatives, moved out of his condemned house in nearby Fort Montgomery in 2012 and rented a room at the US Academy Motel in Highlands, about 50 miles north of New York City. McLellan was already showing were allowed to returned home on Monday after a deadly, destructive wildfire forced them from their houses in recent days as it raged through drought-parched canyons and foothills north of Los Angeles.
About 300 miles (480 km) to the north, though, another fire ravaged a hilly area near the scenic coastal city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, churning through 16,100 acres (6,500 hectares) and destroying 20 homes and two outbuildings, authorities said.
The so-called Soberanes Fire, burning in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, threatened 1,650 structures by Monday evening and was only 10 percent contained, the US Forest Service said.
Near Los Angeles, a beefed-up force of nearly 3,000 firefighters battled to outflank the blaze there — known as the Sand Fire — which has charred at least 50 square miles (130 square km) on the rugged northwestern fringes of the Angeles National Forest, authorities said.
Fed by dense brush left desiccated by five years of drought, flames were initially stoked by triple-digit heat and extremely low humidity. Slightly cooler, moister weather and diminished winds were expected to assist firefighters on Monday.
“We have very little wind, we have an increase in relative humidity, and so it’s favorable for us to get out and to put out hot spots and work on line construction,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Greg Hisel said. He said calmer winds were helping to keep the fire stationary.
signs of dementia when he moved, the detective said, and Coniglio “immediately sized up the victim” upon renting a room next door to him.
When police raided the $200-a-week motel on July 19, they asked McLellan how long he had been living there. His response: “About four days.”
“He said that to me over and over again,” Cornetta said. (AP)
US OKs Russian’s release:
A former ballet dancer and member of the Russian military who has been imprisoned as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo for nearly 14 years was given notice Monday that a review board has approved his release from the US base in Cuba.
Ravil Mingazov was deemed eligible for release by the Periodic Review Board, an interagency task force set up by the Obama administration to evaluate whether prisoners not facing charges can be released without endangering US security. He is the last Russian citizen still held at Guantanamo.
A statement announcing the decision was posted on the board’s website, and Mingazov’s lawyers said they notified him by video-teleconference from their office in Washington to the base in Cuba. The Russian planned a celebratory dinner with other prisoners at Guantanamo, said attorney Gary Thompson of the global firm Reed, Smith LLP.
“It was emotional. We are still just in a state of disbelief,” Thompson said. “It’s been 14 years that Ravil has been imprisoned without charges. It’s an amazing day.” (AP)