WILDFIRES BURN IN CALIFORNIA

Officials declare emergencies yet rain arrives and heat eases

Smoke filled the sky and ash rained down across Los Angeles on Sunday from a wildfire that the mayor said was the largest in city history — one of several blazes that sent thousands fleeing homes across the West during a holiday weekend heat wave.

In all, more than 12,000 people were on the ground battling the fires, and temperatures Sunday were as much as 20 degrees hotter than usual.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared a local emergency. At the state level, Gov. Jerry Brown did the same for the county after the wildfire destroyed three homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods. More than a thousand firefighters battled flames that chewed through more than 9 square miles of brush-covered mountains.

Authorities eased evacuation orders for Burbank and Glendale later Sunday and were considering doing the same for Los Angeles, however, as easing temperatures and a bit of rain helped the 1,000 firefighters slow the flames’ progress.

All but 10% of the 1,400 people ordered out of their homes in that fire had returned, Garcetti said.

“That can change in a moment’s notice, and the winds can accelerate very quickly,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Ralph Terrazas cautioned. “There is a lot of fuel out there left to burn.” Elsewhere:

The Salmon August Complex fire, near the Oregon border, had burned nearly 49,000 acres and was 15% contained.

The Helena Fire in Trinity County, northwest of Redding, had burned about 7,400 acres and destroyed 72 homes; it was 6% contained.

The Pier fire, in Tulare County, north of Bakersfield, had burned about 17,400 acres and was 0% contained.

In the Pier fire, a mandatory evacuation order was in place near the town of Springville, with more than 1,200 firefighters on site.

Still a few residents chose to stay to look after their properties.

“We have some grit to stay here,” Michelle Ray told KMPHTV. “I know it was mandatory. I was afraid to leave, but they won’t let you back in.”

Ray said she and about a dozen others decided to stay in their homes near Camp Nelson, in the Sequoia National Forest.

In Los Angeles, the La Tuna Canyon fire, a nearly 5,900-acre blaze burning in mountains north of downtown, had destroyed three homes, closed a stretch of the 210 freeway and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

ROBYN BECK, AFP/GETTY IMAGES The La Tuna Canyon fire burns in the hills above Burbank, Calif., on Saturday. The brush fire, which has been called the biggest in Los Angeles County history, started Friday and was driven by high winds and temperatures from a heat wave.