Of course, how would I know? I don't watch TV news anymore.
Related: Observing the California Fires
"Raging wildfire threatens 12,500 homes in LA suburbs; 2 firefighters killed in blaze; Governor urges residents to flee" by Jessica Garrison and Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times | August 31, 2009
LOS ANGELES - A giant fire in the Angeles National Forest continued its slow-motion rampage through the mountains yesterday, claiming the lives of two firefighters as it bore down on the semi-rural community of Acton and threatening to overrun Mount Wilson.
America's REAL HEROES!
An explosion at a Pakistani border crossing ripped through a line of trucks ferrying fuel to NATO troops in Afghanistan. (Shah Khalid/ Associated Press)
Oh, sorry. Wrong fire.
The two firefighters were killed when they drove off the side of a treacherous road in the Mount Gleason area, south of Acton, around 2:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Deputy Chief Mike Bryant....
Bryant said, choking up as he spoke yesterday evening. “This is a very difficult time for LA County Fire Department and the men and women that serve day in, day out.’’
The fire had churned through more than 42,500 acres of chaparral and forest, from the edge of metropolitan Los Angeles up to pine-clad ridges and down toward the Mojave desert. More than 12,500 homes were under threat and 6,600 under mandatory evacuation. Eighteen residences were destroyed, fire officials said, mostly in the Big Tujunga Canyon area.
The fire was 5 percent contained, they said, and at least temporarily eased off the foothill communities from La Canada-Flintridge to Altadena on its southern flank. Much of yesterday turned into a blistering hot waiting game for firefighters, who were trying to determine where the fire would move next. Rather than battling the flames in the sheer granite canyons of the interior, with heavy vegetation more than 40 years old in many areas, they feverishly cut fire lines near threatened neighborhoods.
“In this rugged, steep terrain, with this brush as thick as it is, we are having difficulties establishing containment lines where we can make a stand,’’ said Captain Mark Savage, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “This fire is still very much out of control.’’
The flames were about 2 miles from Mount Wilson yesterday afternoon. Hand crews were clearing brush to protect the historic observatory and critical transmission towers for local television and radio stations. Fire officials expected the fire to reach the 5,710-foot peak above Pasadena in the evening....
No more TV because of the fires?
Fire personel....had hoped that the day would bring cooler, more humid air. But the red-flag fire alert was extended through today, as the fire grew in all directions and sent a column of smoke high into the air - mushrooming into a towering pyrocumulus cloud that could be seen all over Southern California....
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