Crews battle last SoCal wildfire
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Crews fought a pitched battle against the last remaining large wildfire in Southern California as the stubborn flames threatened nearly 2,000 homes and other buildings.
The fire that erupted on a hilltop northeast of Los Angeles headed for what would be its third day yesterday and firefighters were finding it hard work as shifting winds made the front line a moving target.
The Maria Fire had burned some 38 square kilometer and prompted evacuation orders for nearly 11,000 people since it began Thursday evening.
Eastern Ventura, Camarillo, Somis and Santa Paula were at risk, Ventura County fire officials said.
On Friday, a tug of war developed between onshore and offshore winds.
“It has been an uphill battle ever since,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark
Lorenzen said. “As winds shift, we have a whole new fuel bed open up.”
Winds and skin-cracking low humidity were expected to make Saturday another difficult day for firefighters.
Crews battled to keep the flames away from orchards and farms in the rural area. Three buildings were destroyed.
The cause was under investigation but there was a troubling possibility that an electrical line might have been involved — as such lines have been at other recent fires.
Southern California Edison said Friday that it re-energized a 16,000-volt power line 13 minutes before the fire erupted in the same area.
Edison and other utilities up and down the state shut off power to hundreds of thousands of people this week out of concerns that high winds could cause power lines to spark and start fires.
SCE will cooperate with investigators, the utility said.
The fire began during what had been expected to be the tail end of a siege of Santa Ana winds that fanned fires that destroyed buildings and prompted mass evacuations across the region.
The fires even caught the attention of teenage climate-change activist Greta Thunberg, who was visiting Los Angeles for a rally.
“It has been horrifying to see what is going on here and what happens here often and that it’s gotten worse because of the climate crisis,” she said.
Red flag weather warnings of extreme fire danger had been expected to expire Friday evening but forecasters extended them to 6 p.m. yesterday for valleys and interior mountains of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, citing the withering conditions.