1 home burned as wildfire torches more than 5000 acres
September 3, 2017 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
A brush fire in the Verdugo Mountains north of downtown Los Angeles has burned more than 5,000 acres, making it one of the largest fires in the city’s history and one that officials warn could grow larger if erratic weather conditions continue.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze overnight and into the morning, and at one point, the flames were spreading in four directions amid intense heat and wild winds. One home has burned, but no injuries have been reported, officials said Saturday.
Firefighters face another day of triple-digit heat in inland areas of Southern California as a heat wave that has gripped the state continues. The National Weather Service said temperatures could reach 110-115 degrees in the hottest areas, and hillside areas could experience more of the shifting winds that helped fuel what has been dubbed the La Tuna fire.
More than 700 homes in the area are under evacuation, including 300 in Burbank, 250 in Glendale and 180 in Los Angeles, officials said.
Eric Garcetti.
“There is a lot of unburned fuel” in this area, Terrazas warned, noting that the last fire in the area was at least 30 years ago.
Both Terrazas and Garcetti said the La Tuna fire was the largest in the city’s history in terms of acreage.
“We can’t recall anything larger,” Terrazas said.
“Our biggest concern is the wind and weather,” the chief said. “The erratic weather is our No. 1 challenge. If there’s no wind, this is a relatively easy fire to put out. But when the wind changes, it changes our priorities because other properties become at risk.”
The fire was 10% contained Saturday morning, officials said. Winds were blowing between 10 and 15 mph, with humidity at 10% to 15%.
The combination of dry brush, high heat, low humidity and shifting winds make it possible for the fire to spread, officials said.
“We are worried about the fire hooking southeast into Glendale and working its way up into the Whiting Woods area,” Garcetti said.
Late Saturday morning, the city of Glendale announced voluntary emergency evacuations in the Glenwood Oaks and Mountain Oaks neighborhoods. Residents in the city’s Whiting Woods neighborhood also were told to be prepared to leave.
Despite the size of the fire, it has destroyed only one home, in the southern region of the Sunland-Tujunga area, officials said.
Chris Hall, 37, was spraying his roof with a water hose Saturday morning when two police officers pulled up to his driveway on McGroarty Street in Sunland-Tujunga.
“Now it’s mandatory,” they told him. “Get your stuff and go.”
Hall said he wanted to stay but didn’t argue.
The officers gave him 20 minutes to pack, but Hall said he already was prepared. The night before, he organized his photos — those of his daughter’s birth, birthdays and visits to the zoo — and important documents, piling them in the trunk of his Nissan Sentra.
“Everything else can be replaced,” he said, sitting behind the wheel of his car and ready to flee.
Earlier that morning, after seeing flames creep up behind a nearby art center, he dropped his 5-year-old daughter and 12-year-old stepson, along with their pet hamster, at a friend’s home. He left their goldfish behind.
Over the last couple of weeks, as wildfires raged across California, Hall said he spent hours trimming trees and pruning bushes in case a fire erupted nearby.
“We did a lot of cleaning,” he said.
Music teacher Valerie Keith was 40 minutes into her work day Saturday morning when her Tujunga neighbor called.
“You gotta come home,” the neighbor told her.
Keith already was already on edge. Her dogs and cat were home — alone — as flames crept closer to her house. She rushed back.
Soon after, police told her she needed to leave.
Keith frantically loaded her pets in her car, along with her two best violins, spilling on her hands the yogurt she had taken for breakfast but hadn’t eaten.
“I thought I was going to be safe today,” she said.
Just about ready to escape, she remembered something. She dashed back inside and grabbed a framed photograph of her mother and a banjo made from a tambourine.
“When you have to leave for safety, then you suddenly realize what’s important,” she said.
In Burbank, Red Cross officials rushed Saturday to set up a shelter at McCambridge Recreation Center. Animals were housed in kennels in an animal control vehicle stationed in the parking lot.
“It got really bad in Burbank last night,” said Eric Baumgardner, emergency coordinator for the Burbank Fire Department. “It shifted on us real quick.”
Baumgardner said no homes or structures in Burbank were damaged Friday night but the flames got within 100 feet of houses in Burbank Estates above Brace Canyon and the Stough Canyon Nature Center.
Firefighters set up structure protection groups overnight, including at least 25 fire engines that backed into residents’ driveways in case the fire got too close.
Raul Claros, executive director of the Northern Valleys chapter of the Red Cross, said an apartment fire also caused several evacuations in Santa Clarita. Meanwhile, he said, 20 staff had been diverted for the past six days to work as dispatch operators for Hurricane Harvey evacuees in Texas.
“Then the emergency started at home with these fires,” he said.
When winds pushed a band of flames over the canyon ridgeline Friday night, authorities ordered those living in the Brace Canyon Park area and Castleman Estates to “leave immediately” and head to evacuation shelters, according to an alert issued by the fire department. The Stough Canyon Nature Center also is under evacuation order.
Nancy Varney, 71, got to the recreation center at 2:30 a.m. with her dog, Maggie. Her husband stayed at their home in Brace Canyon.
“It was coming down the hill pretty fast,” she said.
At 5 a.m., Varney took her dog outside, where they sat until noon, when the temperature reached 96 degrees and the smoke left a gray plume above the recreation center. She opted to walk around the mall as she waited for good news.
On Saturday, the fire was burning on multiple fronts southwest of the 210 Freeway, which remained closed between the Glendale Freeway and Sunland Boulevard. It was not known when the freeway would be reopened.
