Gusty winds hinder fight against Raging Calif. wildfire
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gusty winds hinder fight against Raging Calif. wildfire*
By AMANDA FEHD,
Associated Press Writer
GILROY, Calif. - Fire crews struggled on Friday to maintain fire lines
around a wildfire that chewed through centuries-old redwoods and pushed
hundreds out of their homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Gusty winds picked up in the afternoon after heavy morning fog had given
much-needed relief to firefighters. By Friday evening, they had
contained about 25 percent of the blaze.
The fire, which burned about 5 square miles, had destroyed 28
structures, including 17 homes, officials said. Another 500 were threatened.
Almost 2,000 residents remained under evacuation orders _ more than 450
of them mandatory _ while almost 2,700 firefighters and a swarm of
tanker planes and helicopters continued dousing the area, said Dave
Shew, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection.
Shew said he expects the containment effort to continue through the
weekend. "It's going to take a little time to build 9 miles of line with
manual labor," Shew said.
No injuries have been reported from the fire, which was first reported
Thursday morning in the mountain range that separates Santa Cruz and
Santa Clara counties. The area, about 15 miles south of San Jose, is
rural but dotted with homes.
The cause remained under investigation.
Firefighters made significant progress overnight after a tumultuous
Thursday, when winds gusting up to 50 mph frustrated efforts to fight
the fast-growing blaze. The flames ravaged tiny communities tucked into
the rugged terrain, including Maymens Flat, where Chris Puett ran the
Taj Meow animal sanctuary.
Puett wandered around his wooded property trying to contain his grief as
he took stock of all he'd lost Friday.
"It's burnt to the ground," he said of the three-story building. "There
was a pond, and the fish are all belly up. I'm just trying to round up
the survivors."
Of the approximately 120 dogs, cats and birds he cared for _ mostly
abandoned pets _ Puett said knows he's lost four dogs and 17 cats. But
he won't know until all the survivors wander back, some nursing burnt
paws, ears or whiskers.
"Pretty soon, their stomach is going to overrun their fear, and they'll
come back in," he said. "I'm just going to rebuild, start back up as
soon as I can, to give the ones who are still alive a place to come back
to."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited with firefighters in the area and
assessed the damage on Friday.
At a noon briefing with state fire officials in Gilroy, Schwarzenegger
reported that firefighting had cost $800,000 so far. The governor had
declared a state of emergency in Santa Cruz County a day earlier to
allow access to funds for the effort.
In Southern California, stormy weather mudslides and snow.
In Sierra Madre, just northeast of Los Angeles, dirty brown water and
sludge washed onto the roads in a densely populated canyon below
foothills that were burned bare by a wildfire about a month ago.
Residents were urged to leave Thursday night when thunderstorms pounded
the hillsides but few did, said James Carlson of the city's emergency
operations center.
No homes were in immediate danger Friday but the voluntary evacuation
remained in effect, he said.
"We are definitely watching the weather," he added.
Some 2 inches of snow frosted trees in Wrightwood, a ski resort east of
Los Angeles, where just last week the temperature hit 90 degrees.
But "it's a very wet snow," said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with
the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "It'll melt rapidly. Probably by
Sunday, it will all be gone."