LOS
ANGELES — Wildfires that have burned almost 200,000 acres across
Southern California showed little sign of abating Thursday night as a
new, out-of-control blaze menaced Camp …
New wildfire racing near San Diego adds to California crews’ burden
byAlex Johnson, Miguel AlmaguerandCorky Siemaszko
LOS ANGELES — Wildfires that have burned
almost 200,000 acres across Southern California showed little sign of
abating Thursday night as a new, out-of-control blaze menaced Camp
Pendleton and killed at least a dozen racehorses in San Diego County.
The National Weather Service offered no
immediate optimism, saying the hot, dry Santa Ana winds fueling the six
major fires would bedevil fire crews into late Sunday.
Powerful winds spread massive California wildfires2:22
A red flag warning, signaling critical fire
weather conditions, was extended through Sunday night for Ventura and
Los Angeles counties. The weather service predicted 30-mph winds, with
gusts above 60 mph, in open areas and higher elevations, where humidity
levels could drop as low as a bone-dry 3 percent.
"This is very, very bad fire weather. We still
have evacuation orders that are expanding right now," said Ari
Sarsalari, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel.
"It won't be, really, until Sunday that the firefighters can really start to get some of the nitty-gritty work done," he said.
After four days of round-the-clock effort,
firefighters were confronted with a new challenge when a brushfire
exploded into an out-of-control wildfire about midday Thursday in San
Diego County.
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders
for nearly 20,000 county residents as the so-called Lilac Fire chewed
up more than 4,000 acres on its way west toward Camp Pendleton and the
city of Oceanside. At least 1,000 homes and other structures were in
imminent danger, the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection said.
Lilac Fire burns at least 4,100 acres in San Diego County0:55
Pendleton, the Marine Corps' Western training
hub, urged its almost 100,000 personnel and families to remain alert as
the evacuation area crept closer to the base and its surrounding
community. It said it was sending helicopters and fire crews to help
battle the rapidly moving blaze.
Three people suffered burns and were transported to hospitals in San Diego County, authorities said.
"It looked very eerie, very dark and overcast," Jerry Vasquez, who lives in the area of the Lilac Fire, told NBC San Diego. "It's almost like driving into hell."
Trainers at San Luis Rey Downs, a racehorse
training center in Bonsall, said at least a dozen thoroughbreds died
when hundreds of horses sprinted from the flames, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Austin Nakatani, whose mother trains a stable at the Downs, told the Daily Racing Form,
the national journal of thoroughbred horseracing, that several barns
were lost on a property that housed more than 400 horses.
"It's taken 75 percent of San Luis Rey Downs," Nakatani said.
Brian Kozak, a trainer at the facility, told
the Union-Tribune: "There's a lot of dead horses. A lot of them just
didn't get out of their stalls and got asphyxiated."
On the front lines of the California wildfire1:00
The Stronach Group, the largest thoroughbred
racing company in North America, called the damage "catastrophic." It
said it couldn't confirm how many horses died because access to the
facility was restricted.
North of Los Angeles, thick smoke drove air
quality readings to "very unhealthy" levels in much of Santa Barbara
County. As many as 400 schools across across the San Fernando Valley and
coastal areas were closed because of the unhealthy air.
In all, six major fires were burning more than
140,000 acres across a large stretch of Southern California from Santa
Barbara County south to San Diego, the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection said Thursday night. Almost 200,000 residents had
been evacuated, and 23,000 homes were threatened, it said.
So far, no deaths had been reported as a
result of the fires. But the body of a woman was found near the site of a
car accident in Ojai, and investigators were checking whether the
blazes figured in her death, Ventura County Sheriff's Sgt. Kevin
Donoghue said.
In Ventura County, the Thomas Fire, which
first erupted near the town of Santa Paula, completed its westward march
to the Pacific Ocean overnight, leaving 115,000 charred acres in its
wake. Fire officials said the fire destroyed 427 homes and other
buildings and damaged at least 85 others.
"It's definitely moving," Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Garo Kuredjian told the Los Angeles Times. "Forecasters were correct in terms of the wind forecast for tonight — it's much windier than it was yesterday."
Firefighter loses family home to California wildfires1:59
Among those whose homes were destroyed was Tom Lanski, a captain with the Ventura County Fire Department.
"I came off the line and went through our
house and found a couple little trinkets," Lanksi said told NBC News'
Lester Holt. "I just I grabbed pictures and stuff, because the other
things can be replaced. But when you look back in retrospect, I mean,
everything was gone so fast."
Lanski, an 18-year veteran, said he'd seen some vicious wildfires in his time, but "I never thought I'd lose my house, ever."
He was allowed to go home to be with his
family. But he said he would be back on the lines Friday because "I want
to go back out there and help best I can."
California Gov. Jerry Brown, who declared a
state of emergency in San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara
counties, called on President Donald Trump to declare a federal
emergency in Southern California on Thursday night. A federal
declaration would direct federal assistance to supplement state and
local emergency responses to the fires. Alex Johnson and Miguel Almaguer reported from Los Angeles. Corky Siemaszko reported from New York.
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