Firefighters are battling a blaze near the city of Santa Clarita and the Angeles National Forest that has charred 88 square kilometers, while about 500 kilometers to the north, another fire is burning in the majestic Big Sur region.
Authorities on Saturday found a body outside a home in Santa Clarita, and detectives are trying to determine whether that person was killed by the blaze something else. The area was one of several neighborhoods ordered evacuated as the fire raged through bone dry canyons and ranchlands.
Fire officials say more than 1,600 firefighters were battling the flames threatening about 1,500 homes and 100 commercial buildings.
"It's not a one direction type of fire,'' said Nathan Judy, a spokesman for the Angeles National Forest. "It's going in different directions depending on which way the wind is blowing. It's doing what it wants.''
The fire also forced the evacuation of Bengal tigers, a mountain lion and other animals from a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued exotic creatures within the national forest.
Northward on the Central Coast, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighters battled a blaze in rugged mountains north of Big Sur. The fire poses a threat to about 1,000 homes and the community of Palo Colorado was ordered evacuated.
[voanews.com]
24/7/16
A body has been found inside a burned out car near the wildfire in Santa Clarita that made several homes damaged or destroyed and 1,500 threatened, authorities said...
ReplyDeleteThe body was found at 7:20 p.m. Saturday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Deputy Lisa Jansen.
"The victim was pronounced dead at the scene," Jansen said.
Investigators have now learned the car in which the body was found was parked in the driveway of a house, according to Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez. She noted that there appears to be no crime involved in this death. But the reason for death needs to be determined by an autopsy, she added.
Several homes have burned and more than 1,500 homes are still threatened by the massive blaze, which took over about 22,000 acres (about 89 square km) as of Saturday night, according to United States Forest Service and the sheriff's department.
The fire also destroyed a western town set on the Sable Ranch, a well-known and well-used filming location, according to authorities.
The blaze remains at 10 percent contained, according to officials with the Angeles National Forest.
An estimated 100 commercial buildings also were threatened and one was destroyed, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station.
Evacuations were ordered Saturday afternoon from Lost Canyon to the Bear Divide and Placerita Canyon to the Nature Center to Sand Canyon.
Earlier, between 200 and 300 homes in the Little Tujunga area were under a mandatory evacuation order, according to the sheriff's department. And fewer than 100 people were evacuated from the area..........http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/996282.shtml
25/7/16