2 Firefighters Die in Los Angeles Wildfire/Los Angeles Fire Was Arson, Officials Say

2 Firefighters Die in Los Angeles Wildfire
By SHARON OTTERMAN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/us/01fires.html?ref=global-home


Firefighters battling a dangerous wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles worked to protect a key communications site and observatory above the city early Monday, as they mourned the deaths of two firefighters who died the day before when their vehicle careened off of a slope in the fire zone, the national Forest Service said.

The blaze, called the Station Fire, has more than doubled in size since Sunday night, scorching 85,700 acres of underbrush, scrub oak and mature trees and destroying 18 homes inside the Angeles National Forest. Much of the area has been fire-free for 50 to 60 years, providing plenty of dead undergrowth to fuel the flames.

By Monday, fire officials had ordered the residents of about 10,000 homes to evacuate.

The fast-moving fire spread in all directions Sunday night into Monday, threatening at least 12,500 homes in suburban and rural communities in the San Gabriel foothills, particularly the small town of Acton 40 miles north of Los Angeles, the national Forest Service said. The night sky over the city’s northern suburbs, including La Cañada Flintridge, glowed with orange flames.

The fire was about five percent contained as of Monday morning. It was the largest of several wildfires burning around southern and central California and in Yosemite National Park on Monday.

“This is a huge and very dangerous fire,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a briefing at a fire command post on Sunday. Firefighters faced thick, lingering smoke and flames that reached between 80- and 100-feet high, he said.

The two Los Angeles County firefighters died while fighting the fire on a road near Mt. Gleason, just south of Acton. Flames swept into a firefighting camp and as the men tried to retreat in a vehicle, it careened down a slope, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

The men, who were later identified as Arnaldo Quinones, 35, of Palmdale and Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, died from injuries suffered in the crash and from the advancing flames, the department said.

The fire, which began on Wednesday, was a half mile away Sunday night from a critical cluster of television, radio, and cell phone communication towers serving Los Angeles, as well as a historic astronomical observatory on Mount Wilson. A Web cam at the observatory broadcast dramatic still images of the burning forest before dawn Monday. Teams of firefighters used bulldozers to build fire breaks around the site, said Shane Rollman, a fire information officer for the United States Forest Service, who warned that communications in the city, including at Los Angeles International Airport, would be impaired if the towers were damaged.

The authorities ordered communities in Crown Valley, Soledad Canyon and Aliso Canyon to evacuate as the Station Fire moved closer. In Acton, a community of 3,000 on the north side of the San Gabriel Range, residents reported over the weekend that ashes were falling from a black daytime sky, said Bruce Quintelier, another United States Forest Service fire information officer. Mr. Schwarzenegger said on Sunday that about 6,600 homes had been evacuated overall as a result of the Station Fire. By Monday morning, about 10,000 homes were evacuated.

Last week, the governor declared states of emergency in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.

At least four evacuation centers were opened for residents, and authorities also arranged special evacuation points for farmers to bring horses and other livestock from the danger zone. Small animals could be taken to La Canada High School in the West San Gabriel Valley, and horses could find safe haven at Pierce College in Woodland Hills or the Hansen Dam recreation area, the National Forest Service said.

About 2,800 firefighters worked to fight the flames, both by dumping water from helicopters and planes and by building fire breaks around the perimeter of the burn area. As of Sunday night, however, the fire ranged over 19 miles east to west, and almost 100 miles of fire break had yet to be built to keep the fire from spreading.

In foothills communities, about 150 fire trucks stood ready as a precaution to protect buildings. “This fire is probably a week away from being fully contained,” Mr. Quintelier said. “It’s just a long marathon sort of job that lies ahead.”

Temperatures, which have been in the triple-digits in some inland Los Angeles areas, were slightly lower on Sunday, somewhat easing conditions. But a significant change in the hot, dry weather was not expected for several days. A saving grace for threatened communities, however, is that winds have remained low.

Four injuries have been reported. On Saturday, three people were severely burned in Big Tujunga Canyon after they failed to heed evacuation orders, the governor said, and on Friday one firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. Smoke lingered over much of Los Angeles county, and people with respiratory difficulties, children and the elderly in affected areas were urged to stay indoors.

Other smaller fires were still burning on Monday, including one measuring under a square mile called the 49er, which erupted around 3 p.m. near the intersection of Highway 49 and Quartz Drive in Auburn, in Placer County, fire officials said.

The 275-acre fire, whose cause was not yet determined, was 50 percent contained Monday morning and had destroyed multiple houses and business. There were no immediate reports of injuries and homes in the expected path of the blaze were evacuated, fire officials said.

To the north, in the state’s coastal midsection, a 10-square mile fire near Pinnacles National Monument near the Monterey County town of Soledad was 100 percent contained by Monday morning. It had been started by agricultural fireworks used to scare animals away from crops, The Associated Press reported. The fire destroyed at least one home and one outbuilding, fire officials said.

A state of emergency was declared Saturday for Mariposa County, where a 4,600-acre fire burned in Yosemite National Park. The blaze was 50 percent contained as of Sunday, park officials said.

Derrick Henry and Anahad O’Connor contributed reporting.




Los Angeles Fire Was Arson, Officials Say
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 4, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/us/04fires.html?th&emc=th


A wildfire in the foothills north of Los Angeles that has claimed the lives of two firefighters, ravaged more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 60 homes was caused by arson, the federal Forest Service said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun a homicide inquiry looking for the person or people responsible for the wildfire, which continues to burn.

The blaze, known as the Station Fire, has burned for over a week in the Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles. After a forensic investigation, officials with the U.S. Forest Service determined on Thursday that the fire was started intentionally, and they labeled the firefighters’ deaths homicides, the Associated Press reported.

The authorities did not say where precisely the fire is believed to have begun and whether they had identified any suspects.

As of Thursday evening, the fire had consumed nearly 150,000 acres — an area more than two-fifths the size of the city of Los Angeles — and had become the largest in the county’s history. The fire has been fueled in large part by a mix of dry brush, record heat, and steep slopes that have slowed firefighters.

Still, the fire is considered particularly unusual because it has spread so quickly without the help of the ferocious Santa Ana winds, which typically drive Southern California’s wildfires. The Angeles National Forest is usually struck by about 200 fires every year, most of which are quickly controlled.

Peak fire season in Southern California begins in the fall, when the Santa Ana winds flare up. As a result fire officials have said the state could be in for a particularly long and harsh wildfire season this year.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told reporters that crews were making progress against the flames, containing about 40 percent of the Station Fire, but he cautioned that it was still far from over. Fire officials have said it could be another two weeks before the blaze is completely contained.

Mr. Schwarzenegger toured the fire-ravaged Vogel Flats area of the Angeles National Forest and later thanked firefighters for all of their work in putting out the flames. At one point on the tour, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder, picked up a 30-pound dumbbell found in rubble. “Even though we are still battling those fires, we are now trying to help get people’s lives rebuilt,” he said.