Extreme heat, wildfires scorch California, West
Ore. hikers rescued but giant sequoia trees threatened
LOS ANGELES — Smoke filled the sky and ash rained down across Los Angeles on Sunday from a destructive wildfire that the mayor said was the largest in city history — one of several blazes that sent thousands fleeing homes across the U.S. West during a blistering holiday weekend heat wave.
In Oregon, about 140 hikers made it to safety after they were forced to spend the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge trail, officials said.
On Saturday, search and rescue crews air-dropped supplies as flames prevented the hikers’ escape. Wildfires also entered a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia trees near Yosemite National Park, forced evacuations in Glacier National Park and drove people from homes in parts of the West struggling with blazing temperatures.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared an emergency and Gov. Jerry Brown did the same after the wildfire destroyed three homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods. More than a thousand firefighters battled flames that chewed through nearly 8 square miles of brush-covered mountains as authorities issued evacuation orders for homes in Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.
Temperatures were in the mid-to-high 90s, but crews got a break from increased humidity and winds that calmed to less than 5 mph, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Ralph Terrazas said.
“That can change in a moment’s notice and the winds can accelerate very quickly,” he told reporters Sunday. “There is a lot of fuel out there left to burn.”
Tourists snapped shots of their planes landing against a backdrop of orange flames in the hills near Hollywood Burbank airport.
Meanwhile, officials issued an alert for poor air quality as smoke choked the area and a thin layer of ash settled on homes and cars across the area.
San Francisco on Saturday set a heat record for the day before noon, hitting 94 degrees. By the afternoon it was 101 — hotter than Phoenix. It was a rare heat wave at a time of year that San Francisco residents usually call “Fogust” for its cloudy chill.
The weekend also broke heat records in wine counties north of San Francisco, where Labor Day for some vineyards marks the start of the busy grape harvest.
Another wildfire burning near Yosemite had grown to 8.5 square miles and entered the Nelder Grove of 106 giant sequoias, despite firefighters’ efforts to stave it off.
Fire officials said they had no immediate information on whether any of the giant trees — including the 24-story-high Bull Buck sequoia — had burned.