Residents flee fire sweeping through Southern California canyon
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A firefighting helicopter drops water over the Bond Fire burning in the Silverado Canyon area of Orange County on Dec 3, 2020.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Firefighters battled to tame a wildfire on hillsides southeast of Los Angeles late on Thursday (Dec 3), about 24 hours after it broke out in a wooded canyon, apparently triggered by a faulty domestic generator.
The fire, which forced the evacuation of some 25,000 people, was 10 per cent contained but still burning across 2,560 hectares. Two of 500 firefighters deployed to control it had been hospitalised with injuries, the Orange County Fire Authority said on Twitter.
The Bond Fire, named for the street in Silverado Canyon where it started, ignited late on Wednesday evening (Dec 2) and was quickly whipped up by dry Santa Ana winds.
"I got a text message from my neighbor saying, 'Are you okay? Your street is on fire,'" said Giovanna Gibson, 60, who lives on Bond Street. She was away from home at her small business office near John Wayne Airport at the time.
Ms Gibson said she wouldn't have received that warning had she been home in Silverado Canyon, which has little cell phone reception.
Neighbours told Ms Gibson the blaze ignited when the owners of a home without power tried to start their generator and it exploded. Fire officials have not yet said what they believe to be the cause of the fire.
Southern California Edison had cut power to parts of the canyon at the outset of the hot, dry Santa Ana winds, and Ms Gibson said that may have hampered efforts by authorities to send evacuation warnings.
An Edison spokesman confirmed that the utility had cut power to some of the homes in the canyon.
Woodsy Silverado Canyon, miles from Southern California's suburban sprawl up a single winding road, is home to an eclectic mix of residents including artists, horse owners and ranchers.
Fire managers said they believed a number of homes and other structures there had been damaged or destroyed by the blaze.
"We're in December and we now have active wildfires still in our state," California Governor Gavin Newsom said at a press briefing. "These Santa Ana winds have been quite intense."
Since the start of the year, wildfires have scorched more than 17,000sq km of California land according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The yearly land area burned in the western United States has grown eight times larger in less than four decades, the US Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station said in research published last month.