Wildfire Prompts Thousands of Evacuations

Blaze Sends Massive Billows of Smoke Near L.A., Many Lose Power

(CBS/ AP)  Last updated at 11:33 p.m. Eastern

A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, burning a small number of homes, knocking out power to many more and prompting thousands of evacuations in a number of mountain communities.

Mandatory evacuations were extended Saturday into neighborhoods in the canyons on the northwestern edge of Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said.

The flames crept lower down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite winds blowing predominantly in the other direction, threatening more than 2,000 homes in the La Canada Flintridge area.

A few homes and about 25 recreational cabins have burned but exact numbers were not immediately available, said Forest Service spokesman Gabriel Alvarez.

An evacuation center was set up at La Canada High School and Jackson Elementary School in Altadena.

CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman reports there are 12 fires ablaze in California, four of them major. More than 12,000 acres have been consumed - most in Southern California, bone dry after years of drought.

Flames knocked out power to at least 164 residences in La Canada Flintridge Saturday afternoon, according to Southern California Edison. Repair crews were ordered to stay out of the area because of fire danger.

More than 31 square miles of dry forest was scorched by the fire, which continued to move out in all directions, the most active flanks to the north, deeper into the forest, and east, Quintelier said. The blaze was only 5 percent contained.

At least three residents of Big Tujunga Canyon were burned and airlifted to local hospitals, Quintelier said. The details of their injuries were unknown.

Air crews waged a fierce late afternoon battle against the southeast corner of the fire, burning dangerously close to canyon homes. Spotter planes with tankers on their tails dove well below ridge lines to lay bright orange retardant then pulled up dramatically over neighborhoods, and giant sky crane helicopters swooped in to unleash showers on the biggest flareups.

The amount of smoke was hampering air operations in some areas, officials said.

"It's difficult for water-dropping aircraft to get in there, but they're still trying," Forest Service spokeswoman Jessica Luna said.

The fire was burning in steep wooded hills adjacent to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in northern Pasadena. Nearby, Dawn James, 39, a physical therapist, and friend Leah Evans, 39, watched flames roil on the mountainsides from an equestrian park where they had brought two horses from their stables. James lives in the area and her husband stayed up at the house while she watched the horses.

"We always knew it could come. We knew it was a possibility," James said.

Evans said she watched the flames spread as she spent the night in her pickup truck near her horses.

"Through the night, you kind of watch it diminish, and then flare up," said Evans. "It's just amazing to watch, kind of unbelievable."

In La Vina, a gated community of luxury homes in the Altadena area, a small group of residents stood at the end of a cul-de-sac on the lip of a canyon and watched aircraft battle flames trying to cross the ridge on the far side.

At one point, the flying circus of relatively small propellor-driven tankers gave way to the sight of a giant DC-10 jumbo jet unleashing0 a rain of red retardant.

"We see a drop, we give a big cheer," said Gary Blackwood, who works on telescope technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We've watched it now for two days hop one ridge at a time and now it's like we're the next ridge."

A major goal was to keep the fire from spreading up Mount Wilson, where many of the region's broadcast and communications antennas and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory are located, officials said.

A thick layer of smoke hovered over the Los Angeles Basin and San Fernando Valley, and officials issued a smoke advisory for communities near the fire. Residents were urged to avoid exertion and seek air-conditioned shelter.

A second fire in the Angeles National Forest was burning several miles to the east in a canyon above the city of Azusa. The 3.4-square-mile blaze, which started Tuesday afternoon, was 85 percent contained Saturday. No homes were threatened, and full containment was expected by Monday.

A wildfire on the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the south Los Angeles County coast was 100 percent contained Saturday afternoon, according to county fire officials. As many as 1,500 people were forced to flee at the height of the fire Thursday night. Six homes received minor exterior damage, but the only structures destroyed were an outbuilding and gazebo. No injuries were reported.

Southeast of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a 3½-square-mile fire in a rural area of the San Bernardino National Forest was 10 percent contained.

Crews aided by aircraft were working to build a line around the fire, which was burning in steep, rocky terrain in Beeb Canyon, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Norma Bailey. No structures were threatened. Temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees in the region, but winds remained light.

To the north, in the state's coastal midsection, a 9.4-square-mile fire threatening Pinnacles National Monument kept 100 homes under evacuation orders near the Monterey County town of Soledad. The blaze, 60 percent contained, was started by agricultural fireworks used to scare animals away from crops. The fire destroyed one home.

In the southern part of Monterey County, firefighters had 100 percent containment of a 5@1/4-square-mile fire that had threatened 20 ranch homes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.

"It's fire season, clearly," he said. "There's tremendous amount of heat all over the state."

A state of emergency was declared Saturday for Mariposa County, where a nearly 5.5-square-mile fire burned in Yosemite National Park. The blaze was 30 percent contained, park officials said. No structures were threatened.

Park officials closed a campground and a portion of Highway 120, anticipating that the fire would spread north toward Tioga Road, the highest elevation route through the Sierra. The number of firefighters was expected to double over the weekend to 1,000.

The Mariposa County Sheriff's Office ordered guests and staff at the Yosemite View Lodge, in the town of El Portal just outside the park's western gate, to evacuate Friday due to the fire.

The evacuation was broadened later Friday to include the eastern part of El Portal, with about 100 residents leaving their homes, said Brad Aborn, chairman of Mariposa's Board of Supervisors. He said the remainder of the town, an estimated 75 people, were evacuated Saturday morning.

People without lodging were offered beds in a shelter in Mariposa staffed by the Red Cross.

"I went over and visited. ... Only one spent the night," Aborn said. "They're probably staying with friends."

[Aldymac]

ubrew, I live in the west, not all the west is in drought. Most of california is democrat, and from what I have seen, they have had some good rainfall this year, the beetle problem started almost 40 years ago. As far as trees taking 50 to 100 years to grow back, I see them grow back in 25 to 30 years. Texas is what I would call a drought zone, we have not seen as hot of weather as we did three to five years ago, we still have snow in the mountains. But I realize you can't see out of your cubbyhole so you don't know what is going on outside your TV.

[bradkt1]

There is some truth in many of these comments. Southern California is in a severe drought and water conservation efforts have been implemented in Los Angeles and in other communities. This is the fire season and for the last several years, the weather has gotten hotter and drier. I don't know whether this is a cyclical weather pattern or evidence of global warning, but I suspect that it is both. Then there are the Santa Ana winds. While it is true that years ago, a number of environmentalists opposed clearing away underbrush which fed the intensity of several fires, some of these current fires are occurring in areas where the undrbrush has already been burned away.

I believe that the intensity is due more to the weather and winds than anything else. It's hot, the forests are dry and it's windy...in other words, ideal weather for forest fires.

I wouldn't want to be one of those firefighters. They are not only very brave, but the weather conditions are miserable for fighting fires. They are not going to get a handle on this until they can effectively use the aerial tankers.

[Aldymac]

The environmentalists totally ignored the forests when they gained power, they were more involved in saving an owl and putting loggers out of work. They never learned that all living things need water, if you don't limit growth in some areas the growth can't sustain and will dry out early, it will be green but it will be dry as a bone, and will burn very easily.
Another area of ignorance by the enviros is the issue of the beetle destroying the forests, again, they were after the loggers, now millions of acres have been destroyed and the forests burn with every lightning storm, it goes on daily here in the west.
The dems and their bedpartners like to end all roads in the forests, then when there is a fire there is no way to get enough equipment in areas to stop fires, we lose millions of acres a year. The same fires that can't be controlled also put more carbon dioxide in the air than people do, but because it is sanctioned by the enviros its OK.
Gore said there is trillions of tons of pollutants in the air, (the dems like the word 'trillions') that must be the cause of so many air planes being destroyed in the air, from hitting tons of solidified pollutants and falling apart in flight.
The enviros like to blame every one else for GW, but they have done more than their part if it is true.

[ubrew12]

Beetles attack forests weakened by drought caused by global warming. Why don't you rightwing crazies admit that the reason they're afraid to set backburns in Southern Cal is because of all the republican property owners there who bought their 'house in the country' and would sue if it burned in a back burn.

Event's you're talking about occured in extreme Northern Cal and the Pacific Northwest, and the main reason the loggers had to shut down operations is

THEY RAN OUT OF TREES.

Same reason the fishermen aren't fishing anymore: or I suppose you have a way to blame that on the eviro's also, LOL. The NW got logged out, and since those trees need to be 50-100 years old before the timber is valuable, they've had to take a breather.

S. Cal, which is what BURNS every summer, is brush, not trees. It has no value, no loggers, etc. Get your story right, wierdo. Number of fires is going up every year cuz CA is in a drought, so is the ENTIRE WESTERN U.S.. And THAT is Global Warming, something the enviro's tried to warn us about, as I recall. But, maybe you and Limbaugh have rewritten THAT bit of history too.

[lloydbest1]

It's a shame that everything has to be political. There are people up there who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Some may die.

[John_Merritt]

Lloyd I respect many of your comments. You should know it always comes down to money over matter. What is the old saying "If I don't mind, it doesn't matter"? Having lived in California over 50 years I can tell you that special interest groups have controlled that state all the way back to George Brown.

The Sierra Club, Birch clubbers and every other clubbers have tied the hands; but money always won out. These people who have placed their homes in a 'view, view, view' area are now getting a taste of the greed and their contempt for nature. Nature will only take it so long until it comes back in a vengeance. California is overgrown and people (money) have encroached on the beauty and power of nature. The enviroment want's its territory back. Until they can protect our nation's natural resources we will all reap the rewards and the costs associated with our greed.

If people want to invest and invade the territory that was God given, it can be taken away as well. We have abused every right given us because of self serving interests. We were given the responsibility to protect the enviroment and we are destroying it. The Indian tribes throughout the landscape of this country knew how to protect it. We moved them out, we screwed them in the process and now vengeance in a real way is coming back to bite us all. What goes around, will come back full circle.

[garyl615]

Same old story ???????? Where were you the last eight years? There was a repukelican in the white House. Wake up you damn self.

[John_Merritt]

Gary, what's that got to do with the fires in California. And for the record, the California senate has been under lock and key with Democrats for as long as I can remember. Global warming is real and it does not have a Right, Left, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Independent, Peace and Freedom Party tag attached to it. It is here and we all better do something about. Mock all you want because those who laugh loudest, laugh last.

[nosmar-2009]

cory24444 is absoutely correct - this is a direct result of self-serving policies that appease the liberals at the expense of property.
Same old story - liberals decide what the rest of us should do and, unfortunately, thier ideas are always misdirected. Look at the california budget issue - more more more social programs without any regard as to what is affordable - now we face the same issue in Congress and the White house. Wake up America

[ubrew12]

Thats a pure and simple lie. California has a 2/3rds law in the state legislature: you can't raise taxes without a 2/3rds majority. This makes one Republican vote worth two Democratic votes in California. Even though a clear majority of Californians want to raise taxes, they can't due to a clear minority of Republicans.

California's budget problems are 100% due to the fact that it doesn't have a democracy, as other states have.