California blaze to rage two more weeks

• Source: Global Times
• [03:11 September 02 2009]
• Comments

A man watches yesterday as a wall of flames from a backfire light up a hillside behind homes in La Crescenta, California. Photo: AFP

Flames roared through southern California yesterday, trapping at least five people, as fightfighters warned that the massive blaze was likely to rage out of control for two more weeks.

"This is a very angry fire. Until we get a change in the weather conditions, I am not overly optimistic," said Mike Dietrich, incident commander for the US Forest Service, speaking to the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

"The fire is headed just about anywhere it wants," he said.

The enormous runaway blaze has killed two firefighters, and rescuers battled to save another five people trapped by flames. About 10,000 people have already been evacuated. The fire has torn through 105,296 acres (42,612 hectares) of tinder-dry forest north of Los Angeles and was still spreading yesterday, authorities said.

More than 3,655 firefighters have battled the nearly week-old fire in the Angeles National Forest, which sent a huge mushroom cloud of smoke billowing across the city.

The inferno threatened communications antennas for numerous television and radio stations, cell phone providers and law enforcement agencies on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains.

As the fire showed no sign of easing, authorities pushed back an estimate for when it would be contained, saying the blaze was now unlikely to be brought under control by September 15.

AFP