New Wildfire Threatens California
Pastor Dale Morgan
New Wildfire Threatens California*
Tuesday September 12, 2006 7:46 PM
CASTAIC, Calif. (AP) - A fast-moving wildfire had charred more than 30
square miles Tuesday and threatened to jump Interstate 5 north of Los
Angeles and march into the Angeles National Forest.
The fire, which started on Labor Day in a remote area of the Los Padres
National Forest, had spread across 19,523 acres, authorities said. It
was only 25 percent contained by Tuesday.
The blaze, which Forest Service investigators said was started by a
trash fire, consumed mostly chaparral and brush over the last week, but
hot, dry wind on Monday made it spread rapidly eastward
``Today will be a challenge. They will be patrolling it quite
carefully,'' Paula Martinez of the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday.
Temperatures in the triple digits were forecast Tuesday, with wind up to
25 mph, said Jamie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Service in Oxnard.
Authorities temporarily shut down a stretch of I-5 but reopened some
lanes early Tuesday. Firefighters were able to contain several small
spot fires that started east of the freeway.
``The fire is on the west side of I-5, and we are trying to keep it
there,'' said Kathy Good, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman, said
Monday. ``If the flames jump, there is a lot of open country'' where it
could burn.
Firefighters in Washington started carefully burning out vegetation
Tuesday to protect the isolated community of Stehekin from a wildfire
that has been burning for nearly seven weeks on Lake Chelan's eastern
shore. The blaze had blackened more than 11 square miles, or 7,301
acres, since it was accidentally started by a campfire July 26.
Stehekin, a community of about 60 people at the north end of Lake
Chelan, is reachable only by boat, floatplane, horse or on foot and is a
popular tourist attraction with numerous hiking trails. About 100
people, mostly tourists, were evacuated during the weekend and residents
were told they might have to flee if the fire threatens the road linking
the town to a ferry landing.
``If the fire hooks around and cuts off the road, there's no other way
out of there,'' U.S. Forest Service spokesman Mick Mueller said Tuesday.
Managers in south-central Montana had started releasing a few crews from
a wildfire that had charred an estimated 208,000 acres, or 325 square
miles, since it erupted three weeks ago. It was considered 70 percent
contained Tuesday morning.
The blaze, south of Big Timber, Mont., had destroyed 26 homes and about
22 other buildings, and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
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On the Net:
Incident Information Web: http://www.inciweb.org/
Los Padres Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/lospadres/