LA ‘turns corner’ in blaze battle
Rain and drop in temperatures help firefighters gain upper hand
LOS ANGELES — A smattering of rain and easing temperatures helped more than 1,000 firefighters battling the largest wildfire in Los Angeles history gain the upper hand on the blaze on Sunday, but officials warned that danger remains.
“We’ve turned the corner, but this is not over,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “With winds this strong, anything can happen.”
Shifting winds could cause burning embers to spread the fire once more through the rugged northern edge of Los Angeles, said Garcetti.
The nearly 2,400-hectare La Tuna Fire, named after the canyon area where it erupted on Friday, has destroyed three homes and damaged one. More than 700 homes were evacuated as the blaze tore through thick brush that has not burned in decades.
Of the 1,400 people forced to leave their homes, 90 percent had returned by Sunday afternoon and Garcetti said nearly all would be back before the day was over.
The wildfire is the largest in terms of acreage in the city’s history, Garcetti said. It was considered 30 percent contained by late on Sunday night, up from 10 percent on Sunday morning.
“We do not have this fire contained,” Garcetti said, “but we do have a good sense of, in the next day or two, how we can bring this fire to rest.”
Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people and vast tracts of undeveloped mountainous land, has suffered much larger wildfires that have burned for weeks.
Governor Jerry Brown of California on Sunday issued an emergency proclamation, ensuring that state and federal assistance will be provided as quickly as possible.
Temperatures in the area have hovered around 38 C in recent days. But the mercury was in the low 30s on Sunday, and the temperatures are expected to be moderate and the humidity higher in the coming days, positive signs for containing the fire, said Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas.
More than 640 kilometers to the north, the so-called Ponderosa Fire has burned 1,620 hectares and destroyed 32 homes in Butte County since it started on Tuesday.
San Francisco residents, meanwhile, stifled under a third day of a rare heat wave in the coastal city, although highs in the San Francisco Bay Area fell on Sunday from records of above 38 C set the previous two days.
In Oregon, crews rescued about 140 hikers forced to spend the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge Trail. Wildfires also burned in a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia trees near Yosemite National Park and forced evacuations in Glacier National Park.