FRESNO - Crews gained the upper hand on forest fires raging throughout Northern California on Thursday, but lost ground to a blaze threatening a rural community in a protected wilderness area north of Santa Barbara. California's largest blaze in the Inyo National Forest was still sending up smoke visible from Highway 395, the main road along the eastern Sierra, but authorities sent the bulk of crews to help elsewhere, said Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman with the U.S.
Forest officials reopened roads, campgrounds and trailheads impacted by the 35,000-acre fire, which was still listed as 80 percent contained since its western flank was smoldering in a rocky area too steep for crews to access, Upham said. "It's moving very slowly and kind of creeping around in that very, very steep country," Upham said. "There's very little to burn right there.
" The Inyo fire has cost $3.2 million to fight, injured 11 firefighters and destroyed six homes in the area north of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental U.S.
Remaining crews might see more flare-ups over the weekend sparked by a thunderstorm expected to move through the mountains Saturday, said Chris Stachelski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. A lightning strike Tuesday ignited 600 acres of sagebrush and Jeffrey pine near June Lake, just northwest of the Inyo fire, but that blaze had been put out by Thursday. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Inyo County on Wednesday to free up state resources for fighting the blaze and helping residents of Independence whose water supply was contaminated by the fire.
In northern Santa Barbara County, firefighters were struggling to keep a 13,200-acre blaze in the Los Padres National Forest from spreading across a river, where it could threaten the small town of Tepusquet. The fire was 37 percent contained Thursday, unchanged from the day before. "It's a very rugged, broken landscape with no good places to construct control lines," said Kathy Good, a Los Padres spokeswoman.
"We've got several dozen crews in there building lines as close to the fire's edge as they can safely do." About 2,060 firefighters have been assigned to the fire, which has cost about $11.4 million to fight, said state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Joel Vela.
The fire, started when sparks from grinding equipment used in repairing a water pipe ignited nearby brush, was burning dry chaparral in the San Rafael Wilderness, prompting authorities to close the wilderness to campers and other visitors, said fire information officer Tony Guzman. Homes in northern San Diego were briefly threatened after a wildfire in an open canyon tore through about 10 acres of dense brush, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque. Air tankers quickly halted the spread of the blaze, which got within 50 yards of some backyards and sent heavy smoke into the air.
Investigators determined it was arson and are pursuing several leads but have not yet made any arrests, Luque said Thursday.
News RSS