Most evacuations canceled after wildfires calmed
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. —The majority of some 20,000 people forced from their homes by a wildfire that exploded during the weekend were told they could return home Monday night, though an army of firefighters continued battling flames in the rugged hills and canyons northwest of Los Angeles.
Residents of two neighborhoods still under threat had to remain out of their homes, the U.S. Forest Service said, after a day when the fire grew only slightly to about 55 square miles (142.26 sq. kilometers). So far 18 residences were confirmed destroyed in the blaze that started Friday afternoon and quickly tore through drought-ravaged brush that hadn’t burned in decades.
Laurent Lacore, a native of France who lives in Santa Clarita, was among those who evacuated on Saturday, the last of his family of four to leave as the fire bore down on his house.
“The flames were right behind our backyard,” he said.
He returned Monday night delighted to find the house and everything around it had been saved, and could see a line of red fire retardant where a helicopter had stopped the fire’s approach.
“Everything is fine,” he said. “Even all of the trees are there.”
Some 300 miles to the northwest a blaze in the scenic Big Sur region of the Central Coast had destroyed 20 homes and threatened 1,650 others as it burned 25 square miles (64.75 sq. kilometers), though firefighters made gains Monday and had it 10 percent contained.
The two blazes sent smoke as far away as Nevada, where officials issued air pollution warnings.
In Santa Clarita, the call for widespread evacuations brought frustration among fire officials as some residents refused the orders.
That meant firefighters having to help the holdouts to safety instead of putting out destructive flames, County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said.
Some firefighters “felt that they lost additional structures because they had to stop what they were doing to help citizens evacuate,” Osby said.
U.S. Forest Service spokesman Justin Correll urged residents to leave quickly when evacuation orders are issued because their “property becomes secondary.”
“We don’t want firemen to become traffic directors,” he said.
In Santa Clarita, 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, the fire broke out Friday, spreading through rugged mountains before making its way into canyons sprawling neighborhoods.
By Sunday night, about 10 percent of Santa Clarita’s 200,000 residents had been ordered out of their homes, before most were allowed to return Monday night.
The fire exploded Saturday with like a “crazy storm,” said Kara Franklin, who said sand driven by heavy winds hit her in the face as she tried to get a horse and donkey into a trailer so she could tow the animals away. From a ridgetop, she saw flames engulf a neighborhood.
When the blaze appeared to die down, she thought the worst was over and returned.
Then it flared up again, and she and her son used a garden hose to put out embers that ignited spot fires on her property before fleeing.