Scorching heat fuels Los Angeles wildfires

Mary Milliken, Reuters 28 Aug 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Firefighters battling four wildfires around Los Angeles saved hundreds of homes in an affluent coastal community but struggled against a larger fire coming down the mountains toward another exclusive suburb.

With temperatures in excess of 100 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius), flames flared above La Canada Flintridge, 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles and home to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Nearly 900 homes were evacuated and 1,500 acres had burned in two days.

"It is very active but hasn't reached the neighborhoods yet," said Gabriel Alvarez of the U.S. Forest Service.

Aircraft dropped water and retardant on the steep terrain, while some residents stayed behind to hose down roofs, trees and lawns of multimillion-dollar homes.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Monterey counties due to wildfires that have burned 13,000 acres.

More than 1,000 residents from the coastal enclave of Rancho Palos Verdes were allowed to return home by midday after a fast-moving fire late on Thursday forced the evacuation of 650 homes. Some 230 acres had burned with 70 percent of the fire contained.

"We were very fortunate that the head of the fire ... was stopped at the backyards of those homes," said Los Angeles County deputy fire chief John Tripp.

Two more large fires burned further inland, making this week the worst conflagration in Los Angeles since November 2008, when multiple fires burned hundreds of dwellings.

But unlike that episode, firefighters were benefiting this week from low winds as they battled in the steep, brittle brush that has seen no measurable rainfall since early June.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and John O'Callaghan)

Fire near Los Angeles menaces homes, transmitters
Reuters 29 Aug 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles has quadrupled in size since Friday, threatening telecommunications transmitters and prompting a call on Saturday for more homes to be evacuated.

Authorities said about 7,000 acres have burned in the San Gabriel Mountains near the exclusive suburb of La Canada Flintridge.

Mandatory evacuation notices were issued for people in hundreds of homes, including a hilltop subdivision just across a canyon from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon and was just 5 percent contained as of early Saturday, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Mark Savage.

Firefighters were trying to keep the blaze from reaching Mount Wilson, which houses key television and radio transmitters, as well as towers that handle emergency services dispatches.

"This is a very dangerous situation that we are in right now," said U.S. Forest Service fire boss Mike Dietrich. "We had overnight growth up toward the La Canada area, which has prompted additional evacuations there."

Southern California Edison, the utility that supplies power to the region, said it had de-energized two major power lines because of the fire.

Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said the outages were not affecting the utility's ability to service customers.

The city of La Canada Flintridge said 164 houses near a country club were blacked out until it was safe for Edison crews to enter the area.

A National Weather Service spokesman said the agency's automated Los Angeles radio station went off the air at midday due to burned power lines.

Angeles National Forest spokesman Robert Brady said on Friday that it could take a week to contain the flames, which have been helped by hot, dry weather with temperatures higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).

"If there was one silver lining, there are no Santa Ana winds predicted at this point," Dietrich said.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles and Monterey counties due to wildfires that had burned 13,000 acres.

Acting Governor John Garamendi on Saturday added northern California's Mariposa County to the emergency list after a wildfire there consumed about 3,400 acres, also threatening homes and closing roads.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Eric Walsh)