MSNBC----
(TODAY Show host Meredith Vieira talks to Capt. Mark Savage of the Los Angeles Fire Department about what firefighters are doing to battle the blaze.)
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(Wildfires causing thousands in Los Angeles, CA to flee.)
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LOS ANGELES - A relentless Southern California wildfire raged Tuesday with 53 homes up in smoke, thousands more threatened and new rounds of evacuations as towering flames crackled close to neighborhoods on the northern and southern flanks.
As the day began, fire officials hoped for lower temperatures and higher humidity but were told to expect otherwise.
And while some progress was made overnight in containing the spread, fire officials in their incident report Tuesday morning predicted that winds would shift from the northeast to the southwest Tuesday afternoon "and increase to 30 mph on the ridgetops, which is expected to increase fire activity later in the day."
"We need a break from the weather," Capt. Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire department told NBC's "TODAY" show.
Calling it a "monster" fire, Savage said it's been "difficult identifying where we're going to stop this thing."
"The fire is doing what it wants to do, when it wants to do it," he added.
Crews fighting the blaze also were contending with temperatures topping 100 degrees and low humidity. Temperatures near the fire were expected to hit 102 degrees Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
Flames are plowing through half-century-old thickets of tinder-dry brush, bush and trees just 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
The size of fire in the Angeles National Forest grew by 30 square miles overnight to 190 square miles overnight.
It was spreading in all directions early Tuesday, from Sunland on the western front of the fire to the high desert ranchlands of Acton on the northeast.
Firefighters planned to set backfires to protect the Sunland area and will try to halt its northeastern spread with bulldozers to carve eight miles of firebreak in the Acton area.
Firefighters were keeping a close eye on the weather. Hurricane Jimena roared toward Baja California, but was not forecast to have much of a factor in firefighting efforts because it is expected to dissipate by the time it hits Southern California.
Meteorologist Curt Kaplan cited a 20 percent chance of a thunderstorm in the fire area Tuesday, but that could end up being a bad thing because the storm could spawn high wind gusts. The one factor that's helped firefighters this week has been the lack of wind to drive the flames.
'Lunar landscape' in one neighborhood
The blaze threatened some 12,000 homes but had already done its worst to the suburban Tujunga Canyon neighborhood, where residents returned to their wrecked homes.
Bert Voorhees and his son on Monday fetched several cases of wine from the brackish water of their backyard swimming pool, about all he salvaged from his home.
"You're going to be living in a lunar landscape for at least a couple of years, and these trees might not come back," the 53-year-old Voorhees said. "Are enough of our neighbors going to rebuild?"
About 2,000 people were chased from their homes in triple-digit heat. Fire spokesman Paul Lowenthal said Tuesday that the blaze is expected to be fully surrounded Sept. 15.
Some people wouldn't leave. Authorities said five men and one woman refused several orders to evacuate a remote ranch in a canyon near Gold Creek. The Los Angeles County sheriff's office had initially said the people were trapped and could not be rescued.
"When we tried to get them out, they said they're fine, no problem, they didn't want to leave," said fire spokesman Larry Marinas.
Capt. Savage said officials "believe they are safe" after the fire reportedly passed through the ranch.
Only 5 percent of the Station fire, the largest of several California wildfires, was contained so far.
Two firefighters — Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale — were killed when their vehicle plummeted off a mountain road on Sunday.
The swath of fire extends from the densely populated foothill communities of Altadena, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Tujunga and Sunland in the south to the high desert ranchlands of Acton.
Beth Halaas knew her creekside home in Big Tujunga Canyon was gone when she saw her favorite Norwegian dishware on television news. But she was desperate to see for herself and cajoled fire officials to escort her through barricaded roads.
"It's just stuff," she murmured, as her 5-year-old son Robert kicked at a deflated soccer ball in his sandbox. She raked ceramic cups from the ashes.
The 53 homes destroyed included some forest cabins, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dennis Cross. He did not know how many were full-time residences.
Fire crews set backfires and sprayed fire retardant at Mount Wilson, home to at least 20 television transmission towers, radio and cell phone antennas, and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory. It also houses two giant telescopes and several multimillion-dollar university programs in its role as both a landmark for its historic discoveries and a thriving modern center for astronomy.
If the flames hit the mountain, cell phone service and TV and radio transmissions would be disrupted, but the extent was unclear.
T.J. Lynch and his wife, Maggie, were among residents who evacuated late Monday after the eerie orange glow on the horizon turned into flames cresting the hill near their Tujunga home.
"It's pretty surreal, pretty humbling, how your life is represented in these objects that you collect and then you have to whittle them down," he said, describing the difficulty of choosing what to bring with them.
He said his wife would miss the 1965 Mustang that she has owned since she was a teenager. He would miss the antiques that decorate their home.
"It's a beautiful place — is? Was? I don't know anymore," he said of their home.
Other Calif. fires
The blaze in the Los Angeles foothills was the biggest but not most destructive of California's wildfires. Northeast of Sacramento, a wind-driven fire destroyed 60 structures over the weekend, many of them homes in the town of Auburn.
The 340-acre blaze wiped out an entire cul-de-sac, leaving only smoldering ruins, a handful of chimneys and burned cars.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday toured the Auburn area, where only charred remnants of some homes remained. At some houses, the only things left on the foundation are metal cabinets and washers and dryers.
East of Los Angeles, a 1,000-acre fire damaged one home, threatened 2,000 others and forced the evacuation of a scenic community of apple orchards in an oak-studded area of San Bernardino County. Brush in the area had not burned for a century, fire officials said. Flames burning like huge candles erupted between rocky slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains and the neat farmhouses below.
A few miles away, a 300-acre wildfire that erupted on the edge of Yucaipa forced the evacuation of 200 homes.
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Sources: MSNBC, Google Maps
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