SOME POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS WITH CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES.
Some Southern California fire evacuations lifted
Some of the thousands of people who fled Southern California’s huge wildfire were being allowed to return home, and traffic was flowing Monday on the major highway through the area after a closure of several days. Repopulation of some neighbourhoods and the reopening of U.S. 101 west of Los Angeles began late Sunday, marking positive developments even though forecasts called for continuing critical fire weather conditions. Mandatory evacuations remained in effect in many other areas, however, including the entire cities of Malibu and Calabasas.
The so-called Woolsey fire grew only slightly on Sunday to just over 133 square miles (344 square kilometres) and by firefighters by nightfall had increased their containment of the blaze to 15 per cent.
Authorities planned to release new damage assessments late Monday morning, saying they expected the number of destroyed buildings would be more than the 177 previously reported. The death toll stood at two.
Relief and heartache awaited those starting to return home.
Eager to know the status of his house, 69-year-old Roger Kelly defied evacuation orders Sunday and hiked back into Seminole Springs, his lakeside mobile home community in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu.
His got the thrill of finding his house intact. But some a halfblock away were laid to waste, as were dozens more, and virtually everything on the landscape around the community had been turned to ash.
“I just started weeping,” Kelly said. “I just broke down. Your first view of it, man it just gets you.” The community where Kelly and his wife have lived for 28 years and raised two children was among the hardest hit.
The fire erupted Thursday amid strong Santa Ana winds and spread through communities in western Los Angeles County and southeastern Ventura County. Santa Ana winds, produced by surface high pressure over the Great Basin squeezing air down through canyons and passes in Southern California’s mountain ranges, are common in autumn and have a long history of fanning destructive wildfires in the region.
A lull Saturday gave firefighters a chance to gain ground but the winds returned Sunday, stoking the fire again.