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Wildfire menaces California homes
Associated Press
Published September 30, 2005
LOS ANGELES - A wind-whipped 17,000-acre wildfire raced across hills and canyons along the city's northwestern edge Thursday, threatening homes and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate.
Some 3,000 firefighters aided by aircraft struggled to protect ridgetop houses along the Los Angeles-Ventura county line, a rugged, brushy landscape west of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Officials said the blaze was 5 percent contained as it burned toward such communities as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Calabasas and Agoura.
Numerous homes were evacuated in nine areas, and the Red Cross reported 500 people were staying at five of its shelters.
At least one home and five other structures were lost, but 2,000 buildings had been saved by firefighters, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.
"We are guardedly optimistic, if the weather cooperates, if the public cooperates," Yaroslavsky said. "This may end well for all of us, but weather is unpredictable in these parts and everyone needs to be on guard."
Temperatures were in the high 90s and conditions were dry.
Some gusts were reported on the fire lines, but there was no reappearance of the winds from the interior that fanned a small brush fire into a conflagration on Wednesday.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:37:04]
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