LA-area wildfire torches 18 houses

1,500 families evacuated; man’s body found in burned car

Firefighters hose down the remains of a home burned by a wildfire in Sand Canyon near Santa Clarita, Calif., on Sunday.
Firefighters hose down the remains of a home burned by a wildfire in Sand Canyon near Santa Clarita, Calif., on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES -- Flames raced down a rugged hillside "like a freight train," leaving smoldering remains of homes and warnings that more communities should be ready to flee the wildfire churning through tinder-dry canyons in Southern California, authorities said Sunday.

The blaze that sparked Friday has destroyed 18 homes and blackened more than 34 square miles of brush on ridgelines near Santa Clarita. About 300 miles up the coast, crews were battling another fire spanning more than 16 square miles outside the scenic Big Sur region.

Near Santa Clarita, residents of some 1,500 homes were evacuated and authorities found a burned body in a neighborhood. Shifting winds were pushing flames northeast through Angeles National Forest and toward the city of Acton, and residents were warned to prepare to leave, authorities said at a news conference.

The fire has ripped through brush withered by days of 100-degree temperatures and years of drought.

Planes were unable to make drops over the fire for a long stretch of the afternoon before resuming for a few hours before dusk. Helicopters released retardant around the perimeter of the fire all day and were to continue into the night.

"The fire's just doing what it wants right now," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said. "We have to stick back, let it do what it wants to and attack it where we can."

Juliet Kinikin said Sunday that "there was panic" as the sky became dark with smoke and flames moved closer to her home a day earlier in the Sand Canyon area of Los Angeles County.

"And then we just focused on what really mattered in the house," she said.

Kinikin grabbed important documents and fled with her husband, two children, two dogs and three birds. They were back at home Sunday, "breathing a big sigh of relief," she said.

More than 1,600 firefighters were battling the flames threatening homes and commercial buildings. The blaze, whose cause is under investigation, sent up a plume of smoke visible across the region.

The body of a man was discovered Saturday in a burned sedan outside a home in the fire zone. Los Angeles County sheriff's officials are investigating the death but said there was no evidence it was a crime.

Residents of thousands of homes were evacuated as shifting winds pushed flames northeast through Angeles National Forest, authorities said.

Lois Wash, 87, said she and her daughter and her dog evacuated, but her husband refused.

"My husband's stubborn as a mule, and he wouldn't leave," Wash told KABC-TV. "I don't know if he got out of there or not. There's no way of knowing. I think the last time I looked it was about 100 yards from us. I don't know if our house is still standing or not. All we can do is pray."

The fire destroyed sets at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, which has Old West-style buildings used for movie locations. It also forced a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures to evacuate 340 of its more than 400 animals, including Bengal tigers and a mountain lion.

Volunteers showed up with trucks and trailers and evacuated animals from early Friday to late Saturday, when fire officials felt the blaze was no longer a threat to Wildlife Waystation in Sylmar, spokesman Jerry Brown said.

To the north on the Central Coast, a blaze consuming brush in rugged mountains near Big Sur was threatening about 1,650 homes. It burned in inaccessible terrain 5 miles south of Garrapata State Park and forced the communities of Palo Colorado and Carmel Highlands to evacuate, California's forestry department said.

Information for this article was contributed by Matt Hartman and Olga R. Rodriguez of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/25/2016

Upcoming Events