Wildfires rage in SoCal, Idaho and Montana
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wildfires rage in SoCal, Idaho and Montana*
Lockwood residents watch as smoke and flames billow from Emerald Hills
as a fire races through the subdivision Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007, near
Billings, Mont.
A massive fire in the Los Padres National Forest grew an additional
11,500 acres Sunday, making it one of the largest wildfires in modern
California history, officials said.
Authorities closed a highway and encouraged residents of about two dozen
rural Ventura County homes to evacuate while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
declared a state of emergency for Ventura County. The move clears the
way for state government assistance with costs related to the fire.
"It's growing, and it may become the granddaddy of them all before this
is over with," Maeton Freel, a fire information officer with the U.S.
Forest Service told the Ventura County Star.
The fire had burned 199,588 acres of wilderness, or 312 square miles. It
was 75% contained, with more than 3,000 personnel working on it.
A 45-mile stretch on Highway 33, between Ventucopa and Wheeler Gorge,
was closed to all traffic, including residents, fire spokesman Larry
Comerford said.
Most of the homes in the recommended evacuation zone are surrounded by
alfalfa fields and are near the Deal and Rancho Nuevo Canyons in the
Dick Smith Wilderness, where the fire has spread, fire spokesman Ed
Linquist said.
It was 75% contained. Full containment has been predicted for Sept. 7.
The fire has cost more than $83 million to fight since it was ignited
July 4 by sparks from equipment being used to repair a water pipe.
In 1932, the Matilija Fire scorched about 220,000 acres in the Los
Padres National Forest, near where the Zaca fire has burned since it
began on July 4, fire officials said.
The 2003 Cedar Fire near San Diego burned more than 273,000 acres,
destroyed 4,847 structures, and killed 15 people.
Meanwhile, a fast-moving wildfire in Central Idaho driven by high winds
was burning less than two miles away from homes ranging from summer
cottages to million-dollar houses, officials said Sunday.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter ordered residents of about 100 homes to evacuate.
The fire had burned through 11 square miles of grasslands, sagebrush and
forest about eight miles west of the resort area of Ketchum, fire
spokesman David Olson said.
In western Montana, three homes were destroyed by a wildfire that forced
the evacuation of a 350-home subdivision east of here, a Bureau of Land
Management official said Monday.
The Ford fire was reported at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, shortly after a
wind-driven thunderstorm went through the Billings area. Lightning was
seen in the area at the time, but the cause remains unknown, said Mary
Apple, fire information officer.
The fire, estimated at about 600 acres early Monday, destroyed three
homes in the Emerald Hills subdivision, said the BLM's Jack Conner, an
information officer for the firefighting team.
At least one outbuilding also was destroyed, fire officials said.
Residents of the subdivision's 350 homes were evacuated Sunday and were
still displaced Monday morning, Conner said.
Gusty winds whipped up the fire overnight and about 50 fire engines were
trying to protect homes in the subdivision, he said.
"They're staging themselves at homes in areas where they can defend the
homes, areas cleared of vegetation," Conner told The Associated Press in
a telephone interview.
Air tankers and helicopters dropped water and retardant on the blaze
until dark and were expected to continue those efforts Monday, Conner said.
Gusty wind and low humidities tested fire lines across the state Sunday
and prompted more evacuations at several blazes in western Montana.
Near Seeley Lake, wind pushed the Jocko Lakes fire toward Placid Lake,
prompting authorities to issue an evacuation order for the area Sunday
afternoon, said Paul Slenkamp, fire information officer. He did not know
how many homes were involved.
The lightning-sparked blaze has burned 27,990 acres, or 43.7 square
miles, since Aug. 3 and was 20% contained.
One home has been destroyed in that blaze, and several others damaged.