Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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17 killed in West Coast wildfires BY BRIAN SKOLOFF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES — Firefighters beat back flames that had threat ened hundreds of homes Tuesday in northwest Los Angeles, but to the south, a fire official said his ex hausted crews were being pulled off the lines even if it means more homes will bum. Amid one of the most destruc tive and deadly wildfire outbreaks in California history, two major blazes were threatening to merge and destroy more homes in San Diego County. Even so, some fire fighters were being pulled offlines there to rest. “They’re so fatigued that despite me iaci uie me perimeter rmgm ue come much larger, we’re not will ing to let the firefighters continue any further,” said Rich Hawkins, a Forest Service fire chief. At least 17 deaths were blamed on the fires, as separate blazes were scattered along an arc from the suburbs northwest of Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico, about 60 miles south of the border. At last count, 1,137 homes had been destroyed in California. More than 512,000 acres of brush, forest and homes-or about 800 square miles, roughly three quarters the total area of Rhode Island-had burned in California. “It’s a worst-case scenario. You couldn’t have written anything worse than this. You can dream 'up horror movies, and they wouldn’t be this bad,” said Gene Zimmerman, supervisor of the San Bernardino National Forest, where two of the most destructive fires began last week. Crews battling the Simi Valley fire in the Santa Susana Mountains, which separate the northwest corner of Los Angeles from Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County, had feared they could lose hundreds of homes in the Chatsworth section. “They saved every one of them,” said Bill Peters, a spokesman for the California ■npnartmpnt of FnrPQtrv Firefighters went driveway to driveway in the Chatsworth area, which extends up the Santa Susana slopes from the city’s San Fernando Valley, and turned back the flames before dawn, Peters said. The fire teams were aided by calmer weather that included in creased humidity, lower temper atures and a break from the Santa Ana wind that had gusted up to 70 mph earlier in the week. The hot, dry Santa Ana blows from the high desert down to the sea at this time of year. South of the Los Angeles area, however, conditions were grim in San Diego County, where ash from three large fires fell on the beaches like snow. Two of them, the Cedar fire and the Paradise fire, were just two miles apart Tuesday morning and likely would merge within hours into a super fire, Hawkins said. “There’s blocks of homes that are going to bum to the ground this af ternoon, in my opinion,” Hawkins said. “My objective is to make sure there’s nobody in them... so that you and I aren’t talking tomorrow about the 38 people that died. ” Hawkins said that lunches in tended for firefighters on Monday weren’t delivered until Tuesday morning and there was a shortage of diesel fuel in some cases. More than 10,000 firefighters urnro hatflinP thp flfllTlPQ \xrViir»Vi Wtr Tuesday had already cost the state more than $24 million. More resources were on the way from Arizona and Nevada, which each volunteered the use of 50 fire trucks, and Nevada also was sending three helicopters. Crews east of Los Angeles lost 20 buildings during the night in the Strawberry Peak section of the San Bernardino National Forest. They couldn’t immediately say if the structures, near Lake Arrowhead, were homes or outbuildings. Some of the fires were believed started by arsonists. Investigators sought two men who were seen throwing flaming objects from a van in the area of one of the fires. On Monday, President Bush de clared the region a disaster area, opening the door to grants, loans and other aid to residents and businesses. —Associated Press writer Larry Ryckman in San Diego contribut ed to this report. * k -I jf COSTUME RENTALS AND SALES your Halloween source fe 4 ^ 5143 Forest Drive 4 782.8188 4 ,__ 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 I 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 —1 ■■nriflPMH 4 wMmSmtmmmm mmmiMmmmmm 4 KSgsSfi&SSUsuLliQI 4 Qg^^EBSBES&JB^Q 4 A A gr 4 h h 4 I I Adult Children Costumes ^ Masks Makeup Popcorn Candy Apples Wigs & Hats £ Decorations Balloons Candy Favors ^ j. A next to Williams Brice Stadium 1055 Berea Road ■ Columbia, SC 29201 - |3S|j wwwaomere.com (803)-779 2290 Mon-Set ' --'Ojl A h 4 ^4444444444