Wildfires ease in US West
LOS ANGELES — A sudden gusty series of rainstorms allowed Los Angeles to cancel evacuation orders for a wildfire that the mayor called the largest in the city's history and sent beach umbrellas and toy shovels bouncing down Southern California beaches late Sunday.
The rainstorms were another part of a sweltering, smoke-shrouded holiday weekend of record heat and of wildfires that had forced thousands to flee homes across the U.S. West.
Other wildfires Sunday forced evacuations in Glacier National Park in Montana and many other parts of the West; compelled crews to rescue about 140 hikers who had spent the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge Trail in Oregon; and led firefighters to step up efforts to protect a 2,700-yearold grove of giant sequoia encroached by flames near Yosemite National Park in California.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had declared a local emergency earlier Sunday and Gov. Jerry Brown did the same on the state level for Los Angeles County after the wildfire destroyed three homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods. More than a thousand firefighters battled flames that chewed through more than 9 square miles (23 kilometers) of brush-covered mountains.
By evening, however, the day's record heat in Los Angeles had eased and a spate of brief storms even brought a bit of rain to the burning slopes, slowing the progress of the wildfire. Authorities were able to cancel the evacuation orders that had been issued for three cities — Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale — and allow all of the 1,400 people who had fled to return to their homes.