Crews Struggle to Contain Calif. Blazes

AVALON, Calif. – Fire crews struggled in searing heat Sunday to corral wildfires across Santa Catalina Island and other parts of Southern California, where flames have prompted the evacuation of dozens of homes and clogged traffic on a major interstate.

The largest fire charred about 2 square miles of brush on the 76-square-mile island off the coast of Los Angeles, county fire Inspector Scott Ross said. It was 10 percent contained Sunday afternoon.

Hundreds of firefighters and at least 20 fire engines were shuttled late Saturday to the island on boats and military hovercraft from Camp Pendleton because lightning made helicopters too dangerous.

Authorities initially evacuated 10 homes on the island’s western edge after the lightning-sparked fire broke out around 8 p.m. Saturday. The order was lifted Sunday, and the homes were no longer threatened, Ross said.

Officials called for the evacuations of about 100 homes in the small community of Carveacre as they battled a blaze that burned just under half a square mile of brush-covered hills in the Cleveland National Forest.

Firefighters also battled a blaze that blacked about three-quarters of a square mile and clogged traffic on Interstate 15 north of San Bernardino. They hoped to have it contained Sunday despite soaring temperatures and low humidity.

In Arizona, a fire burning in a national forest threatened two transmission lines that send electricity to metropolitan Phoenix, officials said Sunday.

Three planes dropped retardant on the fire, which was burning about 5 square miles but wasn’t threatening buildings, said Emily Garber, a spokeswoman for the Tonto National Forest.

Arizona Public Service, one of two major utilities serving the metro area, can use contingency plans to import power into Phoenix if a transmission line is lost, company spokesman Alan Bunnell said.

In Nevada, firefighters reported progress in their battle against a 3-square-mile wildfire near the historic mining town of Virginia City.

The lightning-caused blaze threatened the community of Mark Twain, fire information officer Mark Struble said. Samuel Clemens assumed his famous pen name while working for a newspaper in Virginia City in 1862.

Struble said the fire potentially threatened 200 homes and 50 outbuildings, but nothing was immediately threatened and evacuations were voluntary.

The fire was 15 percent contained and shut down Six-Mile Canyon Road linking Virginia City and Mark Twain.

In Idaho, fire managers worried a 90-acre fire in the Payette National Forest could threaten endangered populations of chinook salmon, bull trout and steelhead. A network of streams in the area is prime habitat for the fish.

A 1.3-square-mile fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest shifted course, sparing a nearby cluster of homes. That blaze was 50 percent contained.