LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15 -- An erratic, wind-blown bush fire tore through Southern California today, consuming nearly 3,000 acres, forcing the shut down of power lines and forcing the evacuations of 10,000 people.
The Sylmar "Sayre" wildfire, as it is being called, had charred 2,600 acres in northern San Fernando Valley as of Saturday morning, fanned by up to 70-mph winds that sent the flames over the 210 and Interstate 5 freeways and shut down a handful of others. Six firefighters had been injured, KTLA reported.
The fast moving flames sent massive white billows of smoke soaring into the sky as the fire consumed brush and licked at power lines, threatening to send rolling blackouts throughout the area. The flames prompted the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to shut down transmission lines.
Outages and blackouts were reported in Sherman Oaks and Northridge neighborhoods. Traffic lights on surface streets shut off, further slowing traffic, and some people in blackout areas were reportedly trapped in elevators. Anticipating further blackouts, officials pleaded with residents to conserve their use of energy.
About 165 other homes were reportedly destroyed as of this morning and thousands more structures were threatened. In the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, flames melted street signs, rendering them illegible, and devastated 600 residences.
"When you walk around the areas that were devastated, it looked like hell today," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) today at a news conference. He along with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) have declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County.
A handful of evacuation centers were opened and quickly filled, as
horses were moved by the truckload to stables about five miles outside
the area.
Temperatures above the 90s and powerful, erratic Santa Ana winds that sent embers flying through the air helped fan the flames and spark additional hotspots in neighborhoods and rugged hillsides. Firefighters from all over the state, who began battling the blaze Friday night, numbered more than 1,500 by this morning, said Capt. Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
"We plan ahead, but when you've got a fire as large as this one being fanned by the fuels that we have and the winds that we have makes things very difficult to combat," Brown said. "This is non-stop."
One Sylmar hospital, Olive View Medical Center, transferred 18 babies and 10 adult critical care patients, some on ventilators out of the hospital overnight as flames surrounded the building and the hospital's back-up generators gave out, said a hospital spokeswoman. The power was restored around 5 a.m. today, she said.
Also this morning, two more fires erupted in Rancho Palos Verdes and Carona, forcing more evacuations in those areas. No information was available on the seriousness of the fires.
Today's three fires follow the still-burning Tea fire that started Thursday night in Montecito, a wealthy area of Santa Barbara about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles. About 800 firefighters are battling that blaze, which forced more than 5,400 evacuations, injured 13 and was connected to one death.
Last month, fires similarly whipped by Santa Ana winds killed two people, destroyed thousands of homes and burned more than 27,000 acres statewide.
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