Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fiery menace
LOS ANGELES — Smoke filled the sky and ash rained down across Los Angeles on Sunday from a destructive wildfire that the mayor said was the largest in city history — one of several blazes that sent thousands fleeing homes across the U.S. West during a blistering holiday weekend heat wave.
In Oregon, crews were rescuing about 140 hikers forced to spend the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge trail. Search and rescue crews air-dropped supplies on Saturday as flames prevented the hikers’ escape. Wildfires also burned in a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia trees near Yosemite National Park, forced evacuations in Glacier National Park and drove people from homes in parts of the West struggling with blazing temperatures.
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles County, clearing the way for a mobilization of state resources to help fight the fire. Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles had declared a local state of emergency on Saturday and asked the state for help.
More than 1,000 firefighters battled wildfires burning through the Verdugo Mountains on the north edge of Los Angeles on Sunday. The fire destroyed three homes and forced mandatory evacuations in parts of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.
Temperatures were in the mid- to high 90s but crews got a break from increased humidity and winds that calmed to less than 5 mph, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Ralph Terrazas said.
“That can change in a moment’s notice and the winds can accelerate very quickly,” he told reporters Sunday. “There is a lot of fuel out there left to burn.
“We’re going to make a lot of progress starting [Sunday],” Terrazas added. “It will take us another three or four days to get 100 percent containment.”
Firefighters said they intended to allow some of the fires in rural areas to run their course.
Burbank resident George Grair was not in the evacuation zone but watched uneasily as flames blackened a hillside in the near distance.
“It’s very difficult to feel safe. I’ve got kids in the house,” he told KABC-TV. “I probably slept two hours all night.”
The fire in Los Angeles forced the closing of part of Interstate 210 and filled the air with smoke, prompting officials to issue an air-quality alert to people in the San Fernando Valley. About 1,000 people turned up at three evacuation centers, but 900 had left as of Sunday morning, officials said.
San Francisco residents, meanwhile, stifled under a third day of a rare heat wave in the coastal city, although highs in the San Francisco Bay Area fell Sunday from all-time records set the previous two days.
“I went to Home Depot, Walgreens, Office Depot, Target. They were sold out,” downtown office worker Alganesh Ucbayonas said Sunday, detailing her unsuccessful search for a fan. “CVS,” she remembered.
On Sunday, Ucbayonas sat at her desk in a building lobby squarely between two fans, both scrounged from her office building’s storage and trained straight at her face.
“I have never seen any heat like this in 10 years in the Bay Area,” she said.
Fires burning up and down California’s Sierra Nevada and farther to the northwest cast an eerie yellow and gray haze over much of California, and much of the state was under alerts because of poor air quality.
California authorities ordered evacuation for a third small town Sunday in one of the wildfires, a blaze that has burned 9 square miles near Yosemite National Park.
Firefighters battling that blaze were making it a priority to safeguard a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia and a pair of historic cabins at the grove, fire spokesman Anne Grandy said. Fire crews had wrapped the two 19th-century cabins and an outhouse in fire-resistant material to protect them from the flames that had entered the Nelder Grove, Grandy said.
California crews are also protecting homes from a fast-moving wildfire that forced evacuations in Riverside County.
In the Pacific Northwest, high temperatures and a lack of rain this summer have dried out vegetation that fed on winter snow and springtime rain. Officials warned of wildfire danger as hot, dry, smoky days were forecast across Oregon and Washington over the holiday weekend. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed a state of emergency across all counties as three major fires closed recreation areas and prompted evacuations.
Flames in Montana’s Glacier National Park prompted officials to evacuate all residents, campers and tourists from one of the most popular areas of the park. The order Sunday affects the Lake McDonald area, the western side of the Going-to-the Sun Road and some of the most visited trails in the area. The Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913, closed last week because of heavy smoke in the area.