Fire crews fanned out on Friday across a parched California where wind-whipped wildfires have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes and led to an emergency declaration in Santa Cruz County.
In the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Lockheed Fire has blackened close to 20km² of remote wilderness and prompted mandatory evacuations of the mountain communities of Swanton and Bonny Doon, which have about 2,400 residents and several wineries.
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi declared a state of emergency for Santa Cruz County as a step toward getting federal assistance for local governments and private property owners.
“We’re entering the height of fire season in California. We need to prepare,” he said in Davenport, a coastal town near the Lockheed Fire.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was out of state attending the funeral of his mother-in-law, Eunice Shriver, was scheduled to visit the fire zone for a briefing yesterday morning.
The blaze started on Wednesday about 16km north of Santa Cruz. By Friday evening, it was 15 percent contained, CalFire spokesman Daniel Berland. A change in winds has shifted the fire away from Bonny Doon, but a little closer to Swanton, he said.
Berland credited Bonny Doon residents with putting up a “defensible space” by clearing brush and debris from around their homes.
The fire sent huge plumes of smoke across Monterey Bay. It damaged two small structures and was threatening more than 1,000 homes and buildings.
There have been no reports of injuries. The cause is under investigation.
The steep, rugged terrain and dense vegetation has made it difficult to contain the blaze, so firefighters are focused on keeping flames away from homes, said Jim Stunkel, a battalion chief from San Jose.
“As the brush ignites, it’s like a fireworks explosion, and the sparks rain down where the ranch houses are,” he said.
The fire was moving toward Bonny Doon and more populated areas around Highway 9. As winds picked up on Friday afternoon, officials worried the gusts could ignite more fires and force more evacuations.
“The winds are going in so many different directions at the same time ... We can’t build a line big enough,” said Rick Hutchinson, a CalFire incident commander. “Unfortunately, if it does advance far enough to the southeast, it could ultimately lead to an evacuation of the Highway 9 area.”
Farther down the coast, about 2,000 firefighters battled a wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest that grew to nearly 280km², US Forest Service spokeswoman Maeton Freel said.
In Yuba County north of Sacramento, two separate wildfires began on Friday. The blazes blackened a combined 1,000 acres near Lake Francis, destroyed one home, forced the evacuation of about 60 residences and knocked out power in the Sierra foothills town of Dobbins, CalFire spokeswoman Joann Cartoscelli said.
In far northern California, firefighters lifted evacuation orders issued accompanying a nearly 3.2km² fire burning near Lewiston, about 321km north of Sacramento. The Coffin Fire was 75 percent contained, with containment expected yesterday.
Trinity County District Attorney Michael Harper charged 60-year-old Brenda Eitzen of Los Molinos with two felonies and two misdemeanors alleging she negligently sparked the blaze by throwing away a lit cigarette on Wednesday. The charges could bring a maximum four-year prison term. Eitzen, who has no criminal history, was staying at a drug rehabilitation shelter at the time of the fire, Harper said.
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