Operations & Training

Firefighters Make Progress On California Wildfires, Alaskan Blaze Approaches Fairbanks

July 20, 2004

Firefighters managed to keep a stubborn wildfire in Los Angeles County away from hundreds of canyon homes, while their colleagues made progress against other blazes that have burned more than 40,000 acres of California brush and forest.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) -- Firefighters managed to keep a stubborn wildfire in Los Angeles County away from hundreds of canyon homes, while their colleagues made progress against other blazes that have burned more than 40,000 acres of California brush and forest.

Nearly 1,600 homes have been evacuated since the fire began Saturday in northern Los Angeles County. It had spread across about 6,000 acres by Monday evening and was 45 percent contained by firefighters using helicopters, bulldozers and hand crews working in 90-degree heat.

The blaze was ignited when a red-tailed hawk flew into a power line and its flaming body fell into brush. Residents were allowed to return to homes in the Sand Canyon and Fair Oaks Ranch communities but were kept out of about 350 homes in Placerita Canyon.

In Alaska, firefighters were having a more difficult time battling a 473,000-acre fire on the outskirts of Fairbanks. About 150 people were told to evacuate Monday from a subdivision north of the city.

Alaska has been having one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, with 3.6 million acres already burned. However, most of the state's 107 fires are in Alaska's remote and unpopulated forests, and many are being allowed to burn.

The Los Angeles County fire was one of several burning across more than 40,000 acres of California, from eastern San Diego County to Yosemite National Park. The overall cost of fighting the four largest fires was estimated at $20 million.