Search Results
Web results
begin quote from:
42 mins ago - The Saddleridge fire grows to 4000 acres overnight in the San Fernando Valley foothills and evacuations orders are issued for almost 13000 ...
ADVERTISEMENT
Saddleridge fire explodes to 4,700 acres, burns 25 homes in San Fernando Valley
A fast-moving brush fire continued its destructive march into the northern foothills of the San Fernando Valley on Friday, burning at least 25 homes, closing freeways and forcing thousands to flee.
The Saddleridge fire, which broke out late Thursday in Sylmar amid strong Santa Ana winds, spread rapidly overnight west into Porter Ranch and other communities, burning more than 4,700 acres as of early Friday. The fire is burning at a rate of 800 acres per hour, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
Mandatory evacuations have been issued to roughly 23,000 homes making up a huge swath of neighborhoods north of the 118 Freeway from Tampa Avenue all the way to the Ventura County line — an area covering 100,000 residents.
One firefighter suffered a minor injury to his eye and a man died after going into cardiac arrest while talking with firefighters early Friday, Terrazas said. Authorities could not confirm reports that the man was trying to fight the fire at the time.
Saddleridge fire resources
Roughly 1,000 firefighters from multiple agencies were battling the blaze on Friday. Fire crews faced intense winds overnight that sent embers flying into neighborhoods, quickly setting homes ablaze and igniting spot fires.
Firefighters deployed bulldozers along with multiple helicopters and, remarkably, a fixed-wing aircraft making retardant drops despite the winds and under the cover of darkness.
State fire regulations prohibit flying fixed-wing aircraft after dark, but the plane that made the drops overnight was with the U.S. Forest Service, said Los Angeles firefighter John Ferrer.
“It is unusual,” Ferrer acknowledged. “It’s probably because the incident is so dynamic.”
The L.A. Fire Department has established these evacuation zones for the Saddleridge fire near Sylmar. They are current as of 5 a.m. Friday Oct. 11.
(Chris Keller / Los Angeles Times)
Winds between 20 and 30 mph are expected to continue through the early afternoon with gusts up to 50 mph in the fire area, according to the National Weather Service.
The winds, paired with humidity hovering under 10%, pose a challenge for firefighters on the ground who are working to get the blaze under control while trying to protect homes, officials say.
The blaze moved so quickly overnight that it jumped into neighborhoods before firefighters and police could warn residents.
In Porter Ranch, a man stared as waves of embers crested against a two-story home abutting a hillside on Sheffield Way and flames lapped at the back of the structure.
“That’s my home,” he said. He had gotten out 15 minutes earlier.
Flames had already reached a second home on the cul-de-sac, which was choked with thick gray smoke, punctured only by the high beams of fleeing cars speeding through the small streets that crisscross the hillsides.
Kuriakose Chaz watched flames scale the side of the canyon, thinking about his Porter Ranch home of six years just a few blocks from the houses that by 2:30 a.m. were beginning to be devoured.
“If it goes,” he said, “it goes.”
Chaz, who’d gone to sleep at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, was awakened by a call around midnight from his nephew, who works for Southern California Edison and was monitoring the fire.
His nephew said, “You need to go.”
Chaz watched, dismayed, as flames charred the canyon he often enjoys hiking. The brush that had been watered by this year’s plentiful rains stoked the blaze.
“I’ve watched fires on the news,” Chaz said. “But this hits home. I live here.”
Cece Merkerson first noticed an orange glow from the living room of her third-story apartment in Porter Ranch about 11:30 p.m. Thursday. She had heard a fire was raging in nearby Granada Hills but figured it was a safe distance away.
“That can’t be that fire,” she thought. “That can’t be it.”
She checked the TV news, but there wasn’t an evacuation order for Porter Ranch. To calm her nerves, Merkerson started packing anyway: medication, a small safe with important papers, a change of clothes and a couple of bananas.
Around 2 a.m., Merkerson looked through her window and saw flames. The mandatory evacuation order was issued minutes later.
“I started knocking on all my neighbors’ doors because I knew they were sleeping,” she said. “I’m banging and banging and I woke up about eight of them — and they all looked at me like I was crazy.”
The fire was first reported about 9 p.m. Thursday on the north side of the 210 Freeway, but with winds gusting up to 60 mph, firebrands soared over the 210 and 5 freeways and ignited more dry brush. A 30-acre spot fire broke out west of Balboa Boulevard and pushed westward, officials said.
At least two homes caught fire on Jolette Street in Granada Hills as residents streamed to Knollwood Plaza.
Several major highways were closed because of the blaze, the California Highway Patrol said. The 210 Freeway was shut down in both directions between the 5 and 118 freeways. The 5 Freeway was closed between Balboa Boulevard and the 210 Freeway. The 14 Freeway was closed at Newhall. Authorities have not said when the freeways would reopen.
Evacuations have been ordered for Oakridge Estates, Glenoaks, the Foothill area and into neighborhoods in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch.
That order included hundreds of teenagers incarcerated at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall facility in Sylmar, not far from the fire’s edge.
The facility holds 278 teenagers, most of them 15 to 18, along with dozens of facility officers and workers. They all were being relocated to Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, said facility spokesman Kerri Webb. It’s an hours-long process to move them all.
“It’s very methodical. We have to utilize a lot of security,” Webb said, adding everyone was safe and the facility has not been damaged.
Once the transfer is completed, the county probation department will open a hotline that parents can call to get more information about their children, Webb said.
“Right now, getting everyone out safely is our highest priority,” she added.
Meanwhile, firefighters were throwing everything they could at the blaze through the night. Crews were concerned with the fire’s westward push, which could eventually bring it close to new developments and Topanga Canyon, Ferrer said.
There are few options for firefighters against a wind-driven fire with lots of things to burn, he said.
“Because of the wind-driven factor, it creates a more defensive posture for firefighters,” Ferrer said. “We wait until the wind dies down and can deploy adequate resources to contain the flanks of the fire and an early morning attack on the fire. But at this time, we’re in flux.”
About 1 a.m. Friday, several Sylmar residents stood about three miles from Oakridge Estates, which was under a mandatory evacuation order, watching the fire burn in the mountains beyond.
Iván DeGuzman, 34, said he had packed his car hours before after receiving a text message from a friend alerting him to the fire. He loaded up passports, clothes and some other items.
He recalled how the neighborhood was overwhelmed by smoke and ashes during a massive 2008 fire in Sylmar. He had evacuated then, but said it was still too early to go now.
“We’re waiting for mandatory evacuations,” he said.
More spot fires popped up on the valley floor beneath power lines and near other buildings, spreading firefighters’ resources thin.
Kim Thompson, who lives at the intersection of Sesnon Boulevard and Jolette Avenue in Granada Hills, said she took her dog out at 10 p.m. Thursday and immediately smelled smoke.
After reading about the fire on Twitter and realizing it was a danger,Thompson evacuated her home about midnight, taking just her dog. The flames by then were “bright orange, terrifying to look at,” she said at a strip mall downhill from her neighborhood on Balboa where other displaced residents had gathered to await news.
Later, she admitted, she doubled back to retrieve a bottle of wine. Her neighbors were less willing to leave: “Up here, we’re stubborn. My neighbors are spraying their roofs right now.”
A little after 1 a.m., Thompson heard from a friend that fire crews were allowing two homes on Jolette Avenue to burn to the ground. She thought back to the Aliso Canyon and Sayre fires, which burned to the very edge of her cul-de-sac.
“We’ve been through a lot, but we choose to live here,” she said.
“You’re on edge. You think you get used to it,” Thompson said, the wind whipping eye-stinging smoke and ash through the air, “but you can’t really get used to this.”
No comments:
Post a Comment