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Brushfire threatens Los Angeles suburb

Schools in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles canceled classes yesterday as a raging brushfire swept through local mountains and canyons and forced the evacuation of at least 400 homes.

All Sierra Madre schools, both public and private, were closed yesterday, authorities said, predicting that if the weather continued to cooperate, the blaze could be fully contained only in four to seven days. Meanwhile, helicopters and planes were dumping water and fire retardant on the blaze — the first major fire of the dreaded summer fire season — which since Saturday has consumed 140 hectares in foothills near California’s Santa Anita Canyon about 25km from downtown Los Angeles.

Officials said that battling the northern section of the fire was more difficult because it was burning up steep slopes through thick brush inaccessible to bulldozers.

Elisa Weaver, a spokeswoman for the Arcadia Fire Department, said that 200 homes had been evacuated on Saturday night and another 200 early on Sunday.

“This is a mandatory evacuation. We do not want people to wait until the last minute and then have to leave as fire trucks are moving up the roads,” Weaver said.

There have been no reported injuries, although firefighters remained concerned that the ferocity of the blaze — fueled by an ongoing southern California heat wave that has seen temperatures rise to 37ºC — could threaten more residents living closer to Los Angeles.

“This is not a lazy fire. This fire is burning with some energy,” Sierra Madre Fire Department battalion chief Michael Bamberger told a news briefing.

“I was waiting for the possibility of more evacuations, although it looks like we’re making good progress tying off the southern end of the fire near the city’s northern boundary, which is where more homes are located,” Bamberger said, adding that no homes had been burned.

About 1,000 people have left their homes, as roughly 400 firefighters battled the blaze, which was just five percent under control.

Weaver said the early season brushfire, which started along a day-use trail in an area popular among picnickers and hikers, had cut off an exit route for a wedding party that was to take place at a mountain campground.

The wedding party, consisting of 45 people and four pets, had to be lifted out by helicopter to a campground at Chantry Flats, the spokeswoman said.

“They are 3.5 miles [6km] away from the fire and are in no danger,” Weaver said. Southern California is frequently hit by scorching wildfires because of its dry climate, Santa Ana winds and recent housing booms in suburban and wooded areas.

Last October, devastating wildfires were among the worst in Californian history, leaving seven people dead, destroying 2,000 homes, displacing 640,000 people and causing US$1 billion in damage.


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