California Wildfires Quite Possibly An Act of Arson...Smoke Seen In Denver

MSNBC----

L.A.-area fire was human-caused, officials say

(Firefighters in Southern California made progress Tuesday against the raging wildfire that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes.)

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LOS ANGELES - The huge wildfire burning in the mountains north of Los Angeles was human-caused, a U.S. Forest Service official said Wednesday as crews readied for potential setbacks due to the return of drier conditions.

Investigators don't know specifically how it was started but have enough leads to conclude that it was caused by a person, deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph told reporters.

Investigators will be trying to determine whether it was accidental or arson. The ignition point has only been identified as mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway.

The news came as firefighters, after a day of major gains aided by better weather, braced for a return of lower humidity that could spur the blaze and slow their progress.

Firefighters got an assist from Mother Nature on Tuesday in the form of higher humidity, some clouds and slightly cooler temperatures — which allowed them to make their first significant headway against the stubborn flames. But that break may be short-lived.

"Now we're going to have drier conditions, so fire activity is going to pick up quite a bit," Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Whaling said Wednesday morning.

"It's still a very dynamic fire even though it looks calm right now," he later told MSNBC Cable.

The blaze in the Angeles National Forest had burned nearly 219 square miles — nearly the size of Chicago — by early Wednesday.

Firefighters have created a perimeter around 22 percent of the blaze, largely by removing brush with bulldozers and setting controlled burns. Bulldozers still have 95 miles of fire line to build.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire area Wednesday morning and served breakfast to firefighters, scooping Cream of Wheat into paper bowls and giving them plenty of protein so "they get all pumped up for the next fight out there with those fires."

Since erupting Aug. 26, the blaze has destroyed more than five dozen structures, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people from their homes. The cause was still not known.

In a hillside neighborhood of Glendale on Tuesday, Frank Virgallito stood in a group anxiously watching a controlled burn edge toward their neighborhood.

Virgallito said he and his neighbors had been on high alert since Friday but ignored a voluntary evacuation.

"You don't sleep well," Virgallito said. "I get up every hour and a half or two hours to get a good view of where the fire is. For four days we've been a little sleep-deprived. It's unnerving."

Virgallito said he saw deer, coyote and skunks scampering down his street away from the heat and ash of the smoldering wilderness.

Telecom towers defended

Officials also worried about the threat to a historic observatory and TV, radio and other antennas on Mount Wilson northeast of Los Angeles. But on Tuesday, firefighters set backfires near the facilities before a giant World War II-era seaplane-turned-air tanker made a huge water drop on flames inching toward the peak from the north and west.

By nightfall, 150 firefighters and engines were stationed at the peak to defend the towers, said fire spokesman Paul Lowenthal.

The flames crossed the Angeles Crest Highway into the San Gabriel Wilderness to the east on Tuesday, Lowenthal said. Firefighters made progress on fire breaks to the north near Acton and southwest from Altadena to the Sunland neighborhood.

Officials on Tuesday lifted evacuation orders in wide areas of La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, but about 6,000 people remain out of their homes.

Firefighters and longtime residents know it could be so much worse. Autumn is the season for the ferocious Santa Ana winds to sweep in from the northeastern deserts, gaining speed through narrow mountain canyons, sapping moisture from vegetation and pushing flames farther out into the suburbs.

"If we had Santa Anas, we still have all this open land here on the western flank and islands of vegetation would throw embers into the air, which would blow down to the homes," Fire spokesman Henry Martinez said, his voice trailing off as he imagined the worst-case scenario. "Let's hope that doesn't happen."

The wildfire season usually doesn't gather steam until the winds hit in October, but the so-called Station Fire has been driven by dryness instead of wind. The region is in the midst of a three-year drought, and the tinder-dry forest is ripe for an explosive fire.

The outbreak of wildfires across California was burning through cash at a rate that alarmed leaders in Sacramento who are grappling with a still-growing state budget deficit.

As of Monday, just two months into the fiscal year and before the state's usual fire season had begun, California had already spent over half of its annual firefighting budget.

The Station Fire alone has cost $14 million to fight so far.

Smoke billowed thousands of feet up in the air, forming what firefighters call an "ice cap," which dissipated and was pushed east for at least 800 miles.

Smoke seen in Denver

In Colorado, smoke from the Station Fire combined with soot from local fires to block mountain views from Denver.

"That really speaks to the columns of smoke and how much burning was going on," said Norv Larson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, Colo.

"I've put haze in the forecast. I don't see it ending anytime soon," Larson said. "We've got our fires here, you've got your fires there."

Flames charred other parts of Southern California, including one that burned at least 1.5 square miles in the San Bernardino County community of Oak Glen and another that threatened 400 homes in Yucaipa and was at 70 percent containment.

"There's action everywhere," Schwarzenegger said Tuesday as a helicopter interrupted his comments at a news conference in San Bernardino County.

Lance Williams, 49, managed to save his aunt's home in Delta Flats, a remote community tucked in a canyon in the Angeles National Forest, but returned Tuesday to find his neighbors' homes in ashes.

"It looked like hell," Williams said. "The fire was creating its own winds. There was no way of predicting which way it would go."

He said he used a water pump to fight off the firestorm that raced down hillsides into the canyon. By the time he ran out of water, fire crews had arrived to defend the home that had been in his family since 1945.

Near the remains of house, the charred frames of animal cages swayed in a light wind. In one of the cages, the remains of three small dogs were found.

The massive fire also took a toll on firefighters who bunk down each night in tents at the huge fire command center. Glendale firefighter-paramedic Jack Hayes, 31, said he had not taken a day off for a week.

"You can't sleep," said Hayes, who had the beginnings of a beard and bloodshot eyes. "You're ready to go and there's always something you could be doing."

Two firefighters — Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale — were killed Sunday when their vehicle plummeted off a mountain road. Quinones' wife is expecting a child soon, and Hall had a wife and two adult children.



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