More Evacuations Ordered in Deadly Station Fire

Fed by bone-dry brush and soaring temperatures, the deadly Station Fire continued its multi-direction march through the Angeles National Forest today, prompting more evacuation orders as the flames continued pressing toward Acton and surged southwest toward Sunland-Tujunga.

The flames were also burning close to Mount Wilson, which is home to a historic observatory and an array of broadcast communications towers used by the bulk of area television and radio stations, as well as public safety agencies.

The monstrous blaze, which broke out near a ranger station around 3:20 p.m. Wednesday amid high heat and low humidity and was still about 5 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

By midday, the fire had apparently swelled to 105,000 acres, according to some broadcast reports.

Full containment was originally expected Sept. 8, but that estimate was pushed back to Sept. 15.

At least 18 homes were destroyed, although fire officials said there were reports of three more that burned to the ground near Acton, which would bring the total to 21. The fire was threatening 12,000 more homes and 500 commercial buildings, the Forest Service reported.

At least 2,575 firefighters were on the scene, along with 290 fire engines, six helicopters, seven helitankers, eight air tankers, 54 hand crews and 52 bulldozers were on the scene.

Two SuperScooper air tankers were flown into the area over the weekend, but they were not yet being used on the Station Fire.

Los Angeles County fire Capt. Tedmund “Ted” Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo “Arnie” Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, died about 2:30 p.m. Sunday when the vehicle they were in went off a road south of Acton, near Mount Gleason, and overturned.

They were “overrun by a fast-moving fire which approached Fire Camp 16 on the Station Fire incident,” according to a county fire statement.

Hall had been with county fire for 26 years, while Quinones had been with the department for eight years.

Three other injuries were reported. At midday today, sheriff's and fire officials received word that five people were trapped at a ranch in the Gold Canyon area north of Lakeview Terrace -- after having refused to heed evacuation orders issued at least two days ago.

Fire crews were unable to immediately reach them because of the intense flames in the area. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said rescue crews were being forced to risk their lives because people refused to listen to evacuation orders.

“What this says is listen, listen, listen,” Whitmore said. “Those people were told to get out two days ago, and now we are putting our people in danger to get them out.”

The fire grew substantially on its western flank overnight, and crews manned fire lines stretching along the crest of the forest from La Canada Flintridge to Acton. Flames came within five miles of homes in the Sand Canyon area in Santa Clarita, while the western flank of the fire burned into Little Tujunga Canyon, home to the Wildlife Waystation animal sanctuary, and near the Pacoima Reservoir in the Sylmar area.

Whitmore said 4,000 homes had been evacuated as of this morning, but at midday, the city of Los Angeles issued mandatory evacuation orders for a swath of homes in the Sunland-Tujunga area.

Esmeralda Bracamonte, a Forest Service spokeswoman, said this morning about 10,000 people have now been evacuated, but that number grew as the day wore on.

About 10 a.m., fire officials ordered the evacuation of Chantry Flats, a campground on a mesa in Big Santa Anita Canyon north of Arcadia.

The northwestern flank of the fire burned up to the Santa Clara Truck Trail, a mountaintop fire break that runs parallel to the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, about five miles south of the freeway.

On the fire's southern flank above Sunland-Tujunga and La Crescenta, the flames have spread to the backyards of some homes.

“The surprise movement is what did not occur at Mount Wilson,” said Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Mark Savage. “But it certainly got closer to Sand Canyon and parts of the Santa Clarita Valley.”

In the Acton area, the fire continued to burn north, reaching the Mount Emma Road cutoff from the Angeles Forest Highway, about eight miles south of Lake Palmdale.

The fire, which was fueled by brush that had not burned in decades, was not pushed by winds, although some gusts were expected to move into the area later today. Soaring temperatures also continued to make conditions hazardous for fire crews. A red flag warning, indicating conditions that are ripe for wildfires, was extended to 9 p.m.

Firefighters were working keep the fire west of Mount Wilson, south of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, east of the Golden State (5) Freeway and north of the Foothill (210) Freeway and Alta Dena Drive.

But the fire was licking at the flanks of Mount Wilson this morning.

Loss of communications facilities there would cripple fire and police departments across Southern California, which not only use mountaintop transmitters to communicate in the field but in many cases relay signals from other mountaintop sites back to dispatch centers via microwave facilities that are now threatened.

“These are extremely crucial to the infrastructure and public safety protection, and the daily lives in the L.A. basin,” said Mike Dietrich of the U.S. Forest Service.

Nearly all of the 22 Los Angeles TV stations transmit from those sites, and more than two-thirds of the region's FM radio stations broadcast from there as well.

Evacuation centers have been set up at La Canada High School, La Crescenta Valley High School, Golden Valley High School, Highland High School and Verdugo High School. Animal shelters are available at Hanson Dam and Pierce College.

A 20,000-foot-high mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and water vapor towering over northern Los Angeles could be seen for miles and was making air quality unhealthful and in some cases hazardous.

In addition to the two firefighter deaths, a firefighter and three civilians -- including two who tried to ride out the fire in a hot tub -- have been injured.
 

Copyright Associated Press

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