Crews Battle Calif. Fires, Sizzling Heat

By ALLISON HOFFMAN

CLEVELAND NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Fire crews caught a break when a fast-growing fire began racing away from homes in this San Diego County forest, though hundreds of firefighters had to be ferried by boat to battle another fire on Santa Catalina Island.

The blaze in Cleveland National Forest had grown to 6,000 acres – or about 9 square miles – and prompted voluntary evacuations of hundreds of homes near Lake Morena, said Roxanne Provaznik of the California Department of Forestry.

An evacuation center at a middle school in Alpine was stocked with food, Gatorade and about 100 cots but remained empty early Monday. The blaze was moving south to southeast and away from homes, Provaznik said.

Further north, hundreds of firefighters and at least 20 fire engines were shuttled late Saturday to Santa Catalina Island on boats and military hovercraft from Camp Pendleton because lightning made helicopters too dangerous.

About 1,200 acres – nearly 2 square miles – of brush has burned on the island off the coast of Los Angeles, said county fire Inspector Scott Ross. It was 40 percent contained early Monday and no homes were being threatened.

Fire crews also were fighting a 1,500-acre blaze in dense, desert vegetation in Joshua Tree National Park, park spokeswoman Sandra Kaye said. The fire, burning about 2.3 square miles, destroyed a park-owned cabin and threatened a handful of privately owned cabins in the park’s sparsely populated area of Whispering Pines, Kaye said.

A heat wave that has gripped California in recent days was not helping efforts, with nearly 300 fire personnel contending with temperatures above 100 degrees, said Provaznik. One firefighter suffered heat exhaustion.

“It’s making it really rough for our firefighters,” she said.

Elsewhere, a 447-acre blaze in the Cajon Pass that had clogged traffic on Interstate 15 was 75 percent contained Sunday. The fire, which caused the evacuation of two ranches and torched several unoccupied buildings as it burned more than two-thirds of a square mile, started Saturday.

And a complex of fires, which has burned 24,695 acres – or about 38 1/2 square miles – was 63 percent contained, officials said. For nearly a week it has remained stalled eight miles southwest of communities in the San Bernardino Mountains.

In Idaho, hot temperatures combined with hot winds to fan three wildfires burning in dry timber stands in the central Idaho mountains. Fire managers worried that the one wildfire could threaten federally protected chinook salmon.

Fire crews in Arizona kept a 3,900-acre – or 6-square-mile – wildfire burning in Tonto National Forest from reaching two power lines that send electricity to Phoenix.

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On the Net:

National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov