‘Like a freight train,’ fire guts homes
‘For this time of year, it’s the most extreme fire behavior I’ve seen’
LOS ANGELES — Flames raced down a steep hillside “like a freight train,” leaving smoldering remains of homes and forcing thousands to flee the wildfire churning through tinder-dry canyons in Southern California, authorities said Sunday.
The fire that has destroyed at least 18 homes in northern Los Angeles County gained ferocious new power two days after it broke out, sending so much smoke in the air that planes making drops on it had to be grounded for part of the afternoon.
“For this time of year, it’s the most extreme fire behavior I’ve seen in my 32-year career,” County fire Chief Daryl Osby said.
About 300 miles up the coast, crews were battling another fire spanning more than 16 square miles and forcing evacuations outside the scenic Big Sur region.
The Southern California blaze has blackened more than 34 square miles of brush on ridgelines near the city of Santa Clarita, and authorities found a burned body in a car. No new measurements were available, but officials said the fire might now be double that size.
Planes were unable to make drops over the fire for a long stretch of the afternoon, but helicopters are releasing retardant around the perimeter.
“The fire’s just doing what it wants right now,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said. “
Residents of thousands of homes were evacuated, and a 40-mile stretch of State Route 14, known as the Antelope Valley Freeway, was closed except for those evacuating. Shifting winds were pushing flames northeast through Angeles National Forest, where additional evacuations were ordered in the city of Acton and other residents were warned to prepare to leave, authorities said.
Lois Wash, 87, said she and her daughter and her dog evacuated, but her husband refused.
“My husband’s stubborn as a mule, and he wouldn’t leave,” Wash said. “I don’t know if he got out of there or not. There’s no way of knowing. I think the last time I looked, it was about 100 yards from us. I don’t know if our house is still standing or not. All we can do is pray.”
The fire has ripped through brush withered by days of 100-degree temperatures and years of drought.
“It started consuming houses that were non-defendable,” Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said, describing the flames as charging through terrain “like a freight train.”
More than 1,600 firefighters were battling the flames that sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the region.
The body of a man was discovered Saturday in a burned sedan outside a home in the fire zone. Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials are investigating the death.
North on the Central Coast, a blaze consuming brush in rugged mountains near Big Sur was threatening about 1,650 homes. It burned in inaccessible terrain 5 miles south of Garrapata State Park and forced the communities of Palo Colorado and Carmel Highlands to evacuate.