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Subscribe to RSSA fire burning in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Mountains proved tough to contain as holiday campers were forced to evacuate the area over the Labor Day weekend. KNBC's Robert Kovacik reports.
A brush fire in the San Gabriel Mountains that prompted the evacuation of campers and picnickers in the hills above Glendora, Calif., continued to rage Tuesday and it could be several days before crews gain the upper hand.
"We have some challenges we face out there," Tony Imbrenda, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told NBCLosAngeles.com. "We expect that this is going to take several days to get some containment."
Crews continued the aerial attack on the fire burning east of Los Angeles and about 10 miles south of Highway 2. The terrain was described as "very steep."
Four people, including at least two firefighters, had been injured, suffering from heat-related ailments, Angeles National Forest Officer Angie Lavell told the Los Angeles Times, though none of the four required hospitalization.
The fire, which started Sunday and has burned 3,600 acres, was moving toward Rattlesnake Canyon Ridge. Fire officials said the goal was to stop the fire there.
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Some 1,000 people, many of them enjoying the three-day holiday, were evacuated from several communities and from three campgrounds as the fire spread in the largely recreational area.
David Mcnew / Getty Images
The Williams Fire spreads as night falls in the Angeles National Forest on Monday north of Glendora, Calif.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies searched hillside trails for any hikers who were still walking in the hills. The evacuations started after 3 p.m. Sunday in the area off of San Gabriel Canyon Road in Azusa. Officials closed roads leading into the hills.
Highway 39 was closed early Monday.
The fire is named after Camp Williams, which, according its the website, is a "quiet haven tucked away in the spectacular San Gabriel Mountains." It offers camping, swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, and panning for gold. The camp, located at the San Gabriel River East Fork has full-hook-up RV sites under giant oak trees.
The fire was burning uphill into heavy timber and steep, rugged terrain, fire officials said.
A gray plume of smoke could be seen by commuters for miles.
Nearly 800 firefighters, backed by 10 helicopters and four air tankers, were battling the blaze. Containment was at just 15 percent Tuesday morning.
Maritza Martinez got out of the area when she noticed smoke.
"When we came up, we noticed a whole bunch of smoke and we started to notice something is burning and little by little the smoke started to grow," she said. "My little sister was like, 'Let's go! Let's go!'"
The experience was a first for Catharine Vega, one of nearly 12,000 visitors who had expected to use the park during the holiday weekend.
"I've never seen a real fire except on TV," she said. "We stopped to see, and we saw actual flames and it was scary because we didn't know what to do."
NBCLosAngeles.com contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Q: Why do ducks have webbed feet?
A: To stamp out forest fires.
Q: Why do elephants have flat feet?
A: To stamp out burning ducks.
you make me laugh.
What's that goo between an Elephants toes? (Slow Ducks)
And why do Elephants paint their Toe-Nails red? (So they can hide in Cherry trees).... (ever seen an Elephant in a Cherry Tree? See its works.)
Must be those Mexican "immigrants" hot-footing it through the hills.
Naw, probably a inbred 'minutman', militia member who jumped at his own shadow.
Obviously celnav hasn't had a pre-teen daughter groped by an illegal or had a friend, a Marine Corp veteran, have an out shot out by an illegal who despised Anglos or been stomped by a gang of illegals for being a stupid Gringo with the nerve to enter the illegals part of town.
Well, I DO hope any or all the above happen to celnay.
Enjoy your beloved illegals
Is this a tragedy? Absolutley. But there are 3 major wildfires that have now been burning for a week in Western
Nebraska. These fires have now burned close to 170000 acres of land. Evacuation
have been lifted but at one point close to 400 homes were evacuated and classes
were cancelled last Thursday and Friday for students at Chadron State College
and Chadron Public Schools in fear of more evacuations. More than 10 homes, 50
stuctures, a state park and camping area, and a national forrest are badly
damaged. There is now approximately 260 square miles that have been blackened
and more than 450 fire personnel are trying to contain 2 of the remaining fires.
Im sure there are many other fires of the like burning across the nation who
could use a little national attention and help.
California is a blue state. Nebraska is a red state.
And maybe, just maybe if the Sierra club hadn't lobbed and stopped all the forest management decades ago,( controlled burns, selective thinning and controlled logging), in favor of their "leave it to nature philosophy" these fires would have far less dry dense fuel to support them.
Maybe, if environmentalists didn't love playing "God" so much, many of the homes that have been burned won't be.
California, and a few others now, The Granola state, What ain't nuts and fruits, is flakes. Burn baby burn, population control in action. Leave it to nature and it will solve the problem, Even if it kills you in the process.
plork, more like dork, local fire departments are well funded by tax dollars. I'll start donating to fire departments when fire fighters start working as many years as the average citizen! Just like cops, they're overpaid and mostky retire by 50.
Um, I seem to remember plenty of national attention last year at this time when wildfires were raging through Texas. Im pretty sure Texas qualifies as a red state. I always find it a strange sight to see Republicans crying for federal handouts and sympathy for their plight when the going gets tough. Especially considering the easily verifiable, go ahead and type it into google, fact that 'red' states take more than their fair share of federal dollars.
I am sorry to hear about the fires in Nebraska and hope you get some help. Perhaps the fact that this fire is near a metro area with a population of almost 18 MILLION people helped make headlines. Just to give some perspective, between 1990 and 2000 the federal govt collected 4.25 TRILLION in taxes from California and paid 3.91 Trillion in services to CA. During the same time the govt collected 246 Billion from Nebraska and paid 202 billion. California's overpayment was more than the entire amount collected from Nebraska.
Nicodemus, you need to educate yourself more.
Problems begin when man tries to overly influence nature. Like building where the ecosystem cannot support it. By planting non-native vegetation that the environment cannot sustain. Like not practicing basic fire-prevention behavior.
The news reports say the fire started near a campground. Coincidence?
fielden;
Take a history course, Man has been doing that since the Roman Empire. So what's your point? People should only live in cities? Most of them were built on the cut and burned remains of forests. As I said, dufus, man used to do the fire prevention activities, then along came you tree huggers and nit-wit environmentalist who thought letting it all go back to a natural state was the answer. Again history tells us of monstrous fires that cleared millions of acres of all plant life, but the Sierra club knew better. So, now we're back to the huge devastating fires of long ago. As I said nature will take care of it, but when your home burns to the ground in the process, remember, it's your fault for building there.
You. clearly, are the one who needs to educate or medicate yourself, either way.
I grew up in the exact area the fires are occuring. Each and every year there were fires, and this was WAY before your so-called nit-wit environmentalists were around. I'm talking the 50's and 60's. So don't start blaming people who are committed to helping keep the earth from being destroyed by people like yourself. The fires will happen because of human stupidity, not because of environmentalists.
I find that hard to believe. :)
Sometimes nature needs to burn off the underlying brush, and Pine trees rely on the fires to allow seeds to open and produce pine trees Fire causes the cone of an older jack pine tree to open up and release seeds.
Cones that need heat, such as the heat from fire, in order to open are called. When the heat causes the cones
to open, seeds are released and fall to the ground.
As we get hotter Summers and cooler winters, fires will become more and more prevalent. The winter brings about the taller grass, the summers dry it all out.
Fires are not always bad.
This is fire season in California, always has been, always will be! It has nothing to do with "climate change/global warming". I'm not sure why it's national news, except maybe to distract from the folly of the Democrat convention.
You mean like Hurricane Isaac was a distraction from the laughable republican national convention?
Maybe it's past time to let some of those fires run their course and clean up the forest, like they would do if there weren't humans around to interfere and 'keep things natural looking'. Fire is one of nature's ways of cleaning things up.
Wow, a fire which hasn't been started by gang bangers. I'm impressed!
Have a feeling a piece of string and a crayon would impress you.
Being in So Cal for my whole life I can say this.... My donations to the fire Department are vast and structured. I pay more in property tax than most of you do in mortgage. With that said I have seen the tanker 10 in action and when it shows up it STOPS the fire. Interesting that a private corp, conceived, contructed and tested the tanker 10 prototype. Now when the crap hits the fan a tanker 10 comes to the rescue. Not the same old choppers and C birds we have had for 40 years. Our Fire departments can only afford to pay for boots not new battle gear.
Fun fact: We could burn down every single structure and rebuild it in Los Angeles every ten years for the same price the fire department costs us.
Fun fact: Im sure what you call a "fact" is anything but. Of course, you could post a link...
They saw flames and didnt know what to do?... ummm.. run? call the FD? ...our excellent education system at work.
I just pulled out one of my old workout T-shirts- it says: Williams Fire, 9-22-02. Yep, same exact area, a decade later, almost to the day. There is little "old growth" here to burn. The reason this small fire gets so much attention is because it's in LA county where 10 million people are squeezed together.
My sympathy goes to all who watch wildfires come close to their communities and special thanks and prayers for the men and women on the firelines. I'll be buying another fundraising T-shirt this month.
Colorado could have used that DC10 or lockeed whatever it is here in June! and July! I guess Colorado was not high on Obama's vote list at the time! it is onlly for lefty States with votes that get Obama's attention when the chips are down!
ED, those DC-10s charge by the hour... Just a phone call away. There are many of them now. i think they have a Facebook page 'Tanker 10" or something like that.
Woop! Woop! DUMFUX ALERT!
Yes, the CO fire was Obama's fault. Go vote against your own interests this fall edwardo-1001200. Go vote for BIGGER DEFICITS due to tax cuts for the ultra rich. Go vote for the party that will slash funding for everything except the military- INCLUDING FIRE FIGHTING. Go ahead, jackwagon, make America's day.
You know edwardo-1001200, if you think Obama had a hand in this and was doing it for political gain then consider this: Colorado is a SWING state, California will go to Obama in a landslide. If I were trying to sway an election I know where I would pour resources.
Let 'em have it, and have it big. These stupid people just never learn.
Oh so the fires in Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Texas, etc should just burn because those stupid people never learn. Tells me something of your intellect or complete lack of.
It's California let it burn, then maybe we can start over and get it right this time.
Yeah then California won't have to finance the rest of the country. Let's get that right for sure
With any luck, that fire will burn down the entire state! I know i would not miss it!!!!
Nor we you
Well.....the L.A. area is a dessert, people don't understand that.
A dessert, huh? Pie, mousse, cupcakes? It sure isn't baked Alaska.
It is not desert, it is chaparral.
Hope nobody is hurt. The one upside is, once it burns off the scrub, theres no worry of fire for a while.
Maybe 10 another 10 years if we're lucky.
Dear Friends:
Get the firemen water! Especially for them to drink! Please be careful the trucks and men and woman can also catch on fire!
Fires are a natural part of the system. The problem now is because we have suppressed them for so long we have disrupted natural fire breaks, introduced plants such as European grasses also disrupt these breaks . So when fires burn now they are bigger then in the past. We need to look at climate change also and factor in if this will cause more fires and how it will do so.
We need to stop abusing the environment and we need to let nature take its course. I live in an area of chaparral and I have emergency get out plan in order, if my house burns so be it.
It seems that the fires in Californica get a lot more press than the fires in New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Texas and Idaho. Maybe it's because there are more people whining about it in Californica than anywhere else. The rest of the states just buck it up and go on, but the west coast doesn't seem to have the guts to just fight the fire and shut up about how inconvenienced a bunch of campers were on a holiday weekend.
@olddog47 I have a cousin that is a firefighter in wyoming and he works very hard for his money they dont get paid that well and neither does cops. but yet when you need one of them to come to your rescue you call them. When they are fighting these wildfires especially they work very long hard and hot hours without complaint. To save peoples lives. So im sure you do make more money than they do but definitly not the hours!!
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