California Wildfires Continue to Rage, threaten hundreds of homes
Pastor Dale Morgan
California Wildfires Continue to Rage, threaten hundreds of homes*
* Story Highlights
* Fire near Big Sur moving closer to 500 homes, only 3 percent contained
* Fires in Butte County, California, cover 8 square miles, threaten
1,000 homes
* More lightning expected in the next few days; resources stretched
thin, governor says
* Wildfires also burning in New Mexico
BERKELEY, California (AP) -- A lightning-sparked wildfire in the Los
Padres National Forest that already burned 16 homes was moving closer
Thursday to the scenic community of Big Sur, where it threatened 500 houses.
The San Francisco skyline is barely visible on Wednesday because of
smoke from hundreds of wildfires.
The blaze was only 3 percent contained late Wednesday and had burned
nearly 30 square miles near the coast about a mile south of Big Sur,
officials said.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service predicted more lightning toward
the end of the week, although forecasters did not expect as severe an
electrical storm as last weekend, when nearly 8,000 lightning strikes
sparked about 800 fires across Northern California.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Monterey County on Wednesday to
assess the damage and said he has called in the National Guard to help
fight the fires.
"The fact is that when you have that many fires -- and there are still
700 fires left all over the state of California -- you get stretched
thin with the resources," Schwarzenegger said.
The state's largest blaze, located about 20 miles east of the Big Sur
fire in a more remote area of the Los Padres forest, also continued to
vex firefighters, having scorched more than 92 square miles and
destroyed two homes. The blaze, sparked by a campfire on June 8, was 71
percent contained.
Monterey sheriff's officials said mandatory evacuation orders were in
place for both fires, but they could not specify how many people were
forced from their homes.
The governor also stopped Wednesday in Butte County, where 27
lightning-sparked fires covering about 8 square miles were threatening
1,000 homes. The blazes, which were only 5 percent contained, cropped up
just as the county was recovering from a fire that charred 74 homes and
36 square miles earlier this month.
Fire crews from Nevada and Oregon have arrived to help California
firefighters battle the blazes darkening skies over the San Francisco
Bay Area and Central Valley, causing public health officials to issue
air-quality warnings.
Areas hit the hardest by the lightning storm also included Mendocino
County, where 131 fires have burned more than 20 square miles and
threatened about 500 homes, and the Shasta-Trinity Forest, where more
than 150 fires have burned about 15½ square miles and threatened 200 homes.
Several blazes also were burning in New Mexico, where a fire in thick
trees in the Manzano Mountains led officials Wednesday to urge hundreds
of people to leave their homes in and near Tajique, about 30 miles
southeast of Albuquerque. About four dozen homes in the area burned in a
wildfire last month.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared a disaster in Torrance County,
where fire has charred an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 acres in the mountains.