Intense Santa Ana winds swept into Southern California on Monday morning and a 2,000-acre wildfire that had lain dormant for much of the night was flaring up on its western edge as firefighters scrambled to surround it.
“This is what we feared the most,” said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage. “The winds that were expected, they have arrived.”
AP Photo/Mike Meadows
Savage said the blaze had jumped a fireline at about 4:30 a.m. in an area of Lopez Canyon that had already been evacuated.
He said water-dropping helicopters had taken to the air at about 5 a.m. Monday but it was unsafe for them to be in the air and they were grounded.
The blaze 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles sent about 1,200 people from their homes, and all remained evacuated Monday morning.
Fire officials had warned that the fire could be a “sleeping giant,” with gusts expected Monday morning of up to 60 mph.
The fire burned through 2,066 acres of rugged terrain in the Angeles National Forest, destroying a house, a garage, several sheds and three mobile homes. More than 1,200 people had evacuated and were advised not to return to their homes overnight.
“It jumped the ridge and came down like a madman,” said Barry Demeter, who told KABC-TV his home had burned as he led his horses away. “I left when the embers were falling around the house.”
The fire, which began early Sunday, was 20 percent contained and no serious injuries were reported.
A “fire weather watch” was declared through Tuesday for all of Southern California except the deserts.
Some 1,000 people were deployed to fight the fire.
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