WICKED BLAZES BRANCH OUT IN CALIF.
Reagan Library near 1 of 10 fires
Two more blazes broke out in Southern California on Wednesday morning — marking a total of 10 active fires in the windwhipped Golden State.
The first inferno, dubbed the Easy fire, erupted in Ventura County, between the cities of Simi Valley and Moorpark, west of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, around 6 a.m. local time.
By 10 a.m., it had already scorched 1,300 acres — about two square miles — and 6,500 homes were said to be in harm’s way, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, located on a hilltop in Simi Valley, was evacuated but not damaged, spokeswoman Melissa Giller said.
The flames came within 30 yards of the facility, but it was protected by aircraft dropping water, and what’s known as a “firebreak” — a buffer zone cleared of brush.
Hundreds of goats are brought in each year to nibble at the vegetation that could fuel wildfires on the 300-acre grounds, according to Giller. Reagan and wife Nancy are buried on a hillside on the property.
As helicopters and airplanes worked to extinguish the blaze, some 800 firefighters tackled it on the ground.
Residents in parts of Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks were placed under evacuation orders.
A second blaze, dubbed the Hill fire, broke out around 10 a.m. in the Riverside County community of Jurupa Valley, authorities said.
A rare “extreme red flag” warning has been issued in Southern California as the strongest Santa Ana winds of the season — with the potential to reach 80 mph — rolled in, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The region hasn’t seen similar conditions since October 2007, when numerous large fires scorched more than 900,000 acres (1,400 square miles, or about 90 percent of Rhode Island), according to the report.
By Wednesday afternoon, 10 significant fires burned in the Golden State, according to Cal Fire records.
Besides the Easy and Hill blazes, the Getty fire, which was named for its proximity to The Getty art museum, and the Tick fire, which shut down a swath of a major highway last week but was near complete containment — were burning in Southern California, in addition to the Old Water, Palisades and Saddle Ridge fires.
The massive Kincade fire, which broke out last week in Northern California’s Sonoma County, had burned through nearly 77,000 acres and was 30 percent contained by Wednesday morning.