Vast scale of Colorado wildfires becomes clear as residents finally return to survey what's left of their homes

Vast scale of Colorado wildfires becomes clear as residents finally return to survey what's left of their homes



After being forced to evacuate four days ago, the residents near Boulder in Colorado will have the chance today to see whether anything but rubble remains of their homes.

Wildfires have raged in the area and authorities demanded that over 3,500 people were evacuated from about 1,000 houses.

At least 135 of those homes have been destroyed, making the blaze one of the most destructive in Colorado's history.

The sheer scale of the damage caused by the fires can be seen in the images below, where a tennis court is shown surrounded by charred woodland and rubble where houses once stood.

Ruined: An aerial photograph shows the scale of the destruction in Boulder, Colorado

                                             

Evacuation orders are set to be lifted today in four neighborhoods in the foothills west of Boulder, and residents are expected to return to see if their properties are still standing.

News that some people will get to go home four days after the blaze erupted drew applause from the crowd of about 600 at a public meeting last night.

Yesterday firefighters were able to contain about 10 per cent of the blaze that has scorched about 7,100 acres, or roughly 10 square miles. But eight people remain missing.

It was the first time officials reported being able to hold any part of the 20-mile-long fire perimeter.

The reported loss of homes surpasses that of the 2002 Hayman fire in southern Colorado that was hitherto the most destructive in the state's history.

That fire destroyed 133 homes and 466 outbuildings over 138,000 acres in a more sparsely populated area that includes national forest land.

The Boulder fire's toll is likely to rise as firefighters get a clearer picture of the damage. Four people remained unaccounted for, but no deaths or injuries have been reported.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

'I understand people are angry, they're anxious, they want to go home,' Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said during the public meeting. 'Please be patient with us.'

The anger that has flared as homeowners have shouted questions at officials during news briefings was absent at Wednesday night's gathering.

People applauded when speakers mentioned the firefighters. Nine volunteer firefighters have lost their homes.

Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and light rain to attack the wildfire Wednesday and air tankers dumped fire retardant on the flames. A total of 100,000 gallons of retardant has been used and firefighting costs are £1.37m so far.

Fire managers said as many as 500 firefighters and support personnel are at the fire and more are on the way.

Laura McConnell, spokeswoman for the management team, said crews are dealing with downed power lines, debris, poison ivy and rattlesnakes.

They also have to be watchful for propane tanks in the area.

Fire officials tackling the wildfire that has taken hold of a rugged canyon in the Colorado foothills say eight people are reported missing.

The 7,100 acre wildfire broke out on Monday morning in a canyon north-west of Boulder. Police said it did not appear to be arson.

Boulder County Sheriff's Commander Rick Brough revealed that several of the missing people did not vacate their property in time.

Protection: A slurry bomber drops retardant to protect buildings from the wildfire, which has cased 3,000 people to be evacuated from the Boulder area

Evacuated: Some of the people who fled the blaze in Boulder watch as a massive plume of smoke rises from the canyon

Out of control: High winds and dry conditions allowed the fire to take hold, and emergency services battled through the night to contain the blaze

Rubble: Frustrated with not being allowed back into his home this man who did not want to give his name, crossed police lines and hiked in, hoping to find his three cats

Heat probably killed thousands in Moscow, says scientist

Several thousand Muscovites are thought to have died in July alone from this year’s unprecedented heatwave and August could add more fatalities to the grim statistics, a Russian scientist said today.

Moscow, a metropolis of over 10 million people, suffered from intense heat since late June, with day temperatures sometimes nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The crisis shrivelled a third of Russia’s grain crop, shaved billions off this year’s economic growth and killed at least 54 people in wildfires. The heat subsided today.

Citing a report by the Moscow Registry Office, Boris Revich, a senior demography and ecology researcher at Russia’s Academy of Sciences, said 5,840 more Muscovites had died in July than in the same month last year.

Revich said he believed the overwhelming majority of these additional deaths had been caused by the fierce heatwave.





“This situation was absolutely easy to forecast,” he told a news conference. “The only thing I blame myself for ... is that my estimate (of deaths) was too low at the start of the heat.”

“But we have never had experience estimating such monstrous heat, merely because we had never had such heat before.”

The State Statistics Committee (Goskomstat) is due to publish its data on the deaths around August 20, Revich said. Death rate figures for August will be available in September.

Breaking official silence over the adverse affects of the heat and smoke from forest fires which blanketed Moscow since late July, the head of Moscow’s health department, Andrei Seltsovsky, said on Aug. 9 that deaths had almost doubled to 700 a day, with heat being the main killer.

“Nature’s grim experiment”

Revich called the data provided by the Moscow Registry Office as “absolutely reliable”, adding he believed most of those who had died from heat were elderly people suffering from cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases.

He said that globally, Russia’s heat crisis was not a unique phenomenon, highlighting that in 2003 an estimated 45,000-50,000 people had died in a severe heatwave in the European Union.

“But what makes the situation in Moscow and other big cities of central Russia different, is this abnormal heat being coupled with a high level of air pollution as a result of forest fires,” Revich said. “Nature set up such a grim experiment on us.”

A total of 27,724 fires, including 1,133 at burning peat bogs, have been detected in Russia since July, Emergencies Ministry department chief Yuri Brazhnikov told reporters.

He said the fires had affected a total of 134 villages and towns and destroyed some 2,000 homes. Around 1,100 people have been moved to temporary shelters.

The weather is set to get colder by the weekend and Moscow’s air will get cleaner, but it remains unclear how fast the authorities will take steps to be prepared to fight a similar heatwave in the future.

Moscow ambulances, maternity houses and hospitals are not air-conditioned, as well as so-called social centres opened to provide proper shelter from heat to the sick and elderly. Masks and oxygen are in short supply in pharmacies.

“European countries have accumulated vast experience how to act during heat,” Revich said. “Regrettably, we are now just on our way to having such a national plan.” —

Russia: Firefighters battle blaze close to main nuclear site-

Counting the Cost - Egypt pays price for Russia's wheat export ban-Crop Stop: Food crisis fears as heat hits wheat

Russia to keep grain export ban, reap less in 2011

Smoke from a wildfire is seen outside the settlement of Kustarevka in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, August 10, 2010

A ban on Russian grain exports, designed to restrain domestic food prices because of a severe drought, will not be lifted earlier than its December 31 expiry, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said on Friday.

This is the latest twist in the ban saga, which started after the Russian unit of commodities trader Glencore asked the government to impose a ban for 4-6 weeks from September.

But the government imposed it from Aug 15 to December 31.






Then the Russian Grain Union, the industry lobby, asked the government last week to postpone setting the ban to September so that Russian traders could fulfill the existing contracts.

But President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday the ban could be lifted before its planned December 31 expiry, depending on the harvest, although Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said it could last into 2011.

"The decision to impose a temporary grain exports ban has been taken. It will be in effect from August 15 to December 31. There will be no changes," Zubkov told reporters.

Zubkov said that Russian businessmen should not count on changes but start moving grain to regions which because of the drought have a shortage of both milling and feed grain.

He said the number of regions which had declared a state of emergency due to the drought had risen to 29 from 27 a week ago.

SUPPLIES DIRECTED INWARD

Zubkov asked the holders of grain stocks not to raise grain prices or else the government would start selling grain from its stocks. He did not say when the sales could start.

The Russian state grain trader, the United Grain Co, said in a separate statement on Friday that Medvedev had ordered the government to channel the funds meant for export subsidies to UGC to pay for the government stock storage. It did not say how much money it would receive, but the Russian Grain Union said it sought 10 billion roubles for export subsidies.

The government has 9.5 million tonnes of grain in its stocks.

Zubkov also said the drought may cut the area to be sown with winter grains for the 2011 crop by one third to 12 million hectares, citing the Agriculture Ministry's pessimistic forecast.

"Therefore, six million hectares will have to be sown with spring grains," Zubkov told reporters after a government commission meeting on drought.

Sowing the area meant for winter grain with spring grain may result in a lower than average crop. Winter grains, mainly winter wheat, account for around 40 percent of the total Russian grain crop and its yields are bigger than those of spring grain.

Russia expects to harvest 60-65 million tonnes of grain this year after two bumper crops of 97 million tonnes in 2009 and 108 million in 2008.

Historic heat to hit Russian growth, fires rage

A firefighter tries to extinguish a wildfire outside the settlement of Kustarevka in Ryazan region, some 340km southeast of Moscow, today, August 10, 2010. — Reuters pic
Russia’s deadly summer heatwave could wipe up to US$14 billion (RM44.8 billion) off economic growth, economists said today, as wildfires raged on in several provinces and forecasters said sweltering weather won’t abate this week.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has sought to burnish his action-man image and minimise political fallout from wildfires and drought, flew in a firefighting plane that dropped water on a blaze southwest of Moscow, state media reported.

State-run television showed Putin wearing headphones in a cockpit, pressing buttons on a handheld control panel.

The worst heat wave on record could knock one percentage point off gross domestic product, according to estimates, weakening a recovery from a 2009 slump due to the global financial crisis.







Before blistering temperatures parched crops and stoked wildfires that have shrouded Moscow in smoke, the economy had been expected to grow about 4 per cent in 2010 after dropping by 7.9 per cent last year — the first contraction in a decade.

The drought also threw up a fresh barrier to the Kremlin’s dream of cutting dependence on oil and commodities by developing and modernising other sectors such as agriculture.

With elections in the next two years, Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev are eager to avert a repeat of the fires that have killed at least 52 people and provided fuel for critics who accuse them of mismanagement.

The government backed a proposal by Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu late yesterday to pump 54 billion roubles (RM5.8 billion) over the next three years into the firefighting force, whose weaknesses have been exposed by the wildfires.

Critics called the investment too little, too late, warning it would not fix a fire-protection system they say has been gutted by shortsighted legislation and sorely lacks equipment.

Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and Kremlin critic, said the spending “will not solve the problem at all”.

Russia needs tens of thousands of firetrucks and dozens of planes that are no longer made domestically, he said.

The Emergencies Ministry said the area covered by wildfires was unchanged today, with firefighters battling 557 fires covering 1,740 square km. A spokeswoman said 42 aircraft and almost 166,000 people were fighting the blazes.

Acrid smoke has hung over the sweltering Russian capital for weeks, and the city’s top health official said yesterday that twice as many people were dying every day as in normal weather.

Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, whose absence on vacation last week drew opposition demands for his resignation, said nobody was to blame but the forces of nature.

“This is a new challenge from the heavens,” Luzhkov told Russian daily Izvestiya in an interview published today.

However, the Kremlin scolded Luzhkov, saying he should have returned earlier.

“The absence of the mayor clearly did not aid having the necessary decisions taken promptly,” a Kremlin source was quoted as saying by Russia’s three main news agencies — the chosen vehicle for reprimands from senior officials. A Kremlin official confirmed the comments to Reuters but declined to be named.

Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik fired the head of forest management for Moscow and the surrounding province.

The death rate in that province was up by one-quarter over the last three weeks, Interfax quoted the provincial health minister as saying.

The heat wave — probably the worst in Russian history, according to the state weather forecaster — has aggravated a drought that has driven world wheat prices up at the fastest rate in over 30 years and raised the spectre of a food crisis.

Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia and CIS at HSBC, expects the heat wave and its aftermath to shave one percentage point off GDP growth.

“The losses in agriculture now look more serious, and I expect that will contribute 0.5 percentage points. The remaining half a per cent will come from other sectors — lower industrial output, lower demand and lower productivity,” he said.

The toxic smog over Moscow has cast a pall over Russia’s commercial centre and is expected to eat into profits for restaurants and shops. Some economists, however, believe the total loss in GDP will be closer to 0.5 per cent.

Kremlin critics blame Putin and other authorities for the extent and persistence of the wildfires and smog.

Average highs of at least 35°C are expected to persist throughout the week in central Russian regions and the south, the deputy head of Russia’s state-run forecasting service, Dmitry Kiktyov, told Reuters.

Planes diverted, offices close as smoke chokes Moscow

People walk in central Moscow as a heavy smog caused by peat fires in nearby forests shrouded the capital yesterday, August 6, 2010

Dense clouds of acrid smoke from peat and forest fires choked Russia’s capital yesterday, seeping into homes and offices, diverting planes and prompting exhausted Muscovites to wear surgical masks to filter the foul air.

Air pollution surged to five times normal levels in the city of 10.5 million, the highest sustained contamination since Russia’s worst heat wave in over a century began a month ago.

“It feels like I’m in a burning house and I can’t escape,” said Yelena Petrenko, 32, who used a handkerchief to cover her mouth because drugstores she visited had run out of facemasks.

Officials urged Muscovites to stay indoors because of the dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and fine particles in the air. Weather forecasts said the smoke, which has reached even underground metro stations, would persist until Monday.






On Red Square, smoke shrouded the onion domes of St Basil’s cathedral. The weekly changing of the guard ceremony in the Kremlin was cancelled for today.

Nasa satellite images showed a 3,000km-long smoke cloud covering swathes of European Russia.

Moscow temperatures reached 36°C yesterday, breaking a daily record for the fifth straight day.

The deadliest wildfires in nearly four decades have killed at least 52 people and left more than 3,500 homeless as entire villages of wooden homes burnt down, official figures say.

The true toll from the smoke and heat wave may be much higher. Interfax news agency quoted an “informed source” yesterday saying death rates in Moscow surged nearly 30 per cent in July because of the “disastrous heat and smoke cloud.”

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has been silent on the smoke engulfing his city. A city government spokeswoman said he had left on holiday earlier in the week.

One of the world’s top grains producers, Russia has announced a temporary ban on exports after crops were ravaged by the dry weather. The news sent world wheat prices soaring.

Despite a huge effort involving more than 160,000 people fighting fires, authorities appeared to be losing the battle.

The size of peat fires burning in the Moscow region almost doubled from 37.5 hectares on Thursday to 65.7 hectares yesterday, the regional Emergencies Ministry branch said.

The emergency has prompted the country’s enfeebled opposition to complain of poor fire safety readiness and a slow, ineffective government response.

President Dmitry Medvedev visited an ambulance station in Moscow yesterday and expressed solidarity with smoke-choked Muscovites.

“I woke up this morning and looked around — it’s a monstrous situation,” Medvedev said. “Have patience, because I hope this will all end.”

Russia’s state-controlled media have been at pains to show a vigorous government effort to fight the blazes and have avoided detailed reporting on the hazards to health.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has toured fire-stricken regions promising generous compensation to residents and ordering officials to step up efforts to extinguish the blazes.

The government has warned that the fires could pose a nuclear threat by releasing radioactive particles buried in trees and plants by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

A senior Emergencies Ministry official, Vladimir Stepankov, said the most difficult fire situations were in the regions ringing Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, including the closed town of Sarov, home to a nuclear arms facility.

Russia’s nuclear chief on Thursday assured Medvedev that all explosive and radioactive material had been removed.

Sarov’s firefighting headquarters said firefighters were trying to extinguish two blazes inside the perimeter of the closed city yesterday, while soldiers cut firebreaks in a burning forest to the south, state-run news agency RIA reported.

The first Soviet nuclear weapon was made in 1949 in Sarov at the Institute of Experimental Physics, which remains the main nuclear design and production facility in Russia.

With visibility low, Russia’s aviation authority said at least 60 planes had been diverted to as far away as Ukraine from Moscow’s busy airports. Flights and trains out of Moscow were booked solid as residents tried to flee the smoke.

Office workers were sent home as smoke crept into buildings. A spokesman for Russia’s No. 1 retailer X5 said all 1,500 staff were ordered home.

“I can smell smoke right here in the office,” an employee at a bank, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

A trader at another bank said smoke had entered the building and staff were given permission to leave

Russia declares emergency as wildfires kill 34

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire in a pine forest outside Voronezh, Russia today August 2, 2010

Russia declared a state of emergency in seven regions today after wildfires killed at least 34 people and left thousands homeless in the worst heat wave since records began 130 years ago.

Fires raging across European Russia have destroyed homes, forests and fields, already scorched for weeks by an unprecedented heat wave.





Drought in some regions of Russia, one of the world’s biggest wheat exporters, has sent global prices soaring to 22-month highs and driven thousands of farmers to the brink of bankruptcy.

Officials said firefighting manpower was increased 10-fold near a nuclear research centre in Sarov, Niznhy Novgorod region, one of the hardest-hit provinces, around 350km east of Moscow.

Nearly 700 wildfires were burning over 1,210 square kilometres of land, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Situations Ministry told Reuters.

In the capital Moscow, residents wore masks against the choking smog caused by peat fires stoked by the hot weather.

President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in the Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Ryazan, Mordovia and Mari El regions as well as the province that rings the capital, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The toll rose from 28 dead yesterday to at least 34 today, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said. He would not give details about the locations or specific cause of death for the new fatalities.

More than 180,000 people were fighting the blazes and 18 aircraft dumped 3,000 tons of water on the fires and threatened areas yesterday, the ministry said.

Firefighters near Maslovka in the southern Voronezh province, where the temperature today hit 44°C, welcomed a respite from high winds that have fanned flames.

Authorities dramatically stepped up firefighting manpower to fight blazes near a nuclear centre in Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Interfax news agency quoted Emergencies Ministry official Pavel Plat as saying.

The nuclear centre, now a research facility, was a top-secret location in Soviet times codenamed Arzamas-16, where the first Soviet atom and hydrogen bombs were designed.

A spokesman for state nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, told Ekho Moskvy radio the centre was not currently in danger but said firefighters were on guard in case new blazes broke out on land south of the centre.

Thick smoke blanketing the area prevented Emergencies Ministry aircraft from dropping water on the flames. ITAR-TASS news agency reported that at least five civilian flights were cancelled at Nizhny Novgorod airport because of the smoke.

Smog returned to the capital after a hiatus over the weekend. The concentration of pollutants, which has caused health concerns, was slightly lower than the absolute summer high recorded last week, an air monitoring expert said.

“The concentration of carbon monoxide and suspended particles surged three to eight times in the morning hours,” Alexei Popikov, chief specialist at Mosekomonitoring, a government agency monitoring air pollution, told Reuters.

Pollution rose up to 10 times above the norm on Wednesday, the agency said, the worst this summer but lower than a record high reached during wildfires in 2002.

Russia’s heat wave is expected to last through the week at least.

Russia Mobilizes Army to Fight Deadly Fires-Dozens dead in Russian forest fires-Wildfires wreak havoc across Russia-Scorched Land: 25 killed as raging fires destroy homes, forests

Russian wildfires still spreading

A man walks at the court yard of his house after it was burned by a forest fire near the town of Voronezh some 500 km (294 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Russia sent the army on Saturday to battle wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and were threatening dozens of towns and villages. Thick smoke and ash slowed firefighting efforts and thousands of people were being evacuated.

Firefighters have brought wildfires under control in some parts of Russia, but new fires are breaking out elsewhere.

The wildfires that began threatening much of western Russia last week have killed 28 people and destroyed or damaged 77 towns or villages. Thousands have been evacuated from areas in the path of encroaching flames.

In the southern Voronezh region, one of the worst hit, officials said Sunday the fires are under control and no longer threaten any population centers.

But Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Chernova said new fires are breaking out elsewhere, particularly in the Mordovia region and around the industrial city of Togliatti.

Much of Russia is suffering a severe drought in the hottest summer since record keeping began 130 years ago.






Residents search for belongings from the ruin of their houses which were destroyed by a forest fire in the town of Voronezh some 500 km (294 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Russia sent the army on Saturday to battle wildfires that have killed at least 28 people and were threatening dozens of towns and villages. Thick smoke and ash slowed firefighting efforts and thousands of people were being evacuated.


People whose houses was destroyed by a forest fire stand in a queue for a handout of government money, at the hotel in the town of Voronezh some 500 km (294 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, July 31, 2010. The fires have spread quickly across more than 200,000 acres (90,000 hectares) in recent days after a record heat wave and severe drought that has plagued Russia for weeks


General view showing some of the ruined houses which were destroyed by a forest fire at the outskirts of the town Voronezh some 500 km (294 miles) south of Moscow, Saturday, July 31, 2010. The fires have spread quickly across more than 200,000 acres (90,000 hectares) in recent days after a record heat wave and severe drought that has plagued Russia for weeks.

Brazilian blaze: Raging fire destroys Rio de Janeiro national park... and lights up the night sky

A raging fire consumed around 40,000 square metres of vegetation in an environmental park in the south of Rio de Janeiro yesterday

A raging fire consumed around 40,000 square metres of vegetation in a national park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil early yesterday morning.

Firefighters blamed the blaze on mini hot air balloons, released during parties to celebrate the Festas Juninas.


Firefighters blamed the blaze on mini hot air balloons with flaming wicks of wax-coated cotton, released during parties to celebrate the Festas Juninas

The balloons, which contained flaming wicks made of cotton coated in wax, are said to be responsible for half of all Rio's forest fires.
The fire devoured vegetation on the Dos Cabritos hill, which separates the tourist neighbourhoods of Copacabana, Lagoa and Botafogo, in the south of Rio de Janeiro.

No one was injured, but many local residents left their homes at dawn, terrified by the growing flames.

Firefighters brought the fire under control using buckets of water drawn from a nearby pond and flown over the blaze by two helicopters.

The strong wind at night and low humidity hampered the work in the city and increased the chance of further outbreaks.

Yesterday afternoon, flames appeared on the hillside across the hill in Copacabana, and later an outbreak was spotted in an area called Finca.
At dawn, the fire could still be seen raging in the south of the city.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Eduardo Paes visited a leisure area near where firefighters worked, and today he announced that the authorities would put in place an 'emergency plan for reforestation in the area.'

He then flew over the affected area. 'I want to remind people that releasing balloons devastates green areas and endangers aircraft. I call on people to denounce this game.'

The Secretary of State for Health and Civil Defence, Sergio Cortes, followed the work of firefighters during the night and also criticised the practice of releasing balloons.

'I'm sure that the authorities will investigate the causes and punish those responsible with the accuracy required,' he said.

Police yesterday began their probe into the fire. The fire department will provide reports to assist in the investigation of causes of the fire.

Raging fire destroys Rio de Janeiro national park

Feds didn't clear brush in wildfire area alleged can prevent the current disaster.

Firefighters monitor a fire in the suburb of Glendale on the outskirts of Los Angeles city, California, 01 Sep 2009

Firefighters watches over the fire.


Left over after the bush fires swepts across the California hills.



Federal authorities failed to follow through on plans earlier this year to burn away highly flammable brush in a forest on the edge of Los Angeles to avoid the very kind of wildfire now raging there, The Associated Press has learned.

Months before the huge blaze erupted, the U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away the undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres of the Angeles National Forest. But just 193 acres had been cleared by the time the fire broke out, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear said.

The agency defended its efforts, saying weather, wind and environmental rules tightly limit how often these "prescribed burns" can be conducted.

"This brush was ready to explode," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose district overlaps the forest. "The environmentalists have gone to the extreme to prevent controlled burns, and as a result we have this catastrophe today."

Prescribed burns are intended to protect homes and lives by eliminating fuel that can cause explosive wildfires. The wildfire that has blackened 140,000 acres — or nearly 219 square miles — in the forest over the past week has been fed by the kind of tinder-dry vegetation that prescribed burns are designed to safely devour.

Government firefighters set thousands of blazes each year to reduce the wildfire risk in overgrown forests and grasslands around the nation. Prescribed burns can also be used to improve overall forest health and increase forage for wildlife.

Obtaining the necessary permits is a complicated process, and such efforts often draw protests from environmentalists.

"Our air quality, for a variety of factors, doesn't need to be further reduced by these controlled burns," she said.

Setting pre-emptive fires can be especially risky near heavily populated urban areas like Los Angeles because of the danger of flames burning out of control. Last month, a 90-acre prescribed burn near Foresta, on the edge of Yosemite National Park, jumped fire lines and consumed more than 7 square miles in the park.

Meanwhile , The blaze moved toward suburban homes and Mount Wilson, home of the space observatory and dozens of mobile phone, radio and television transmission towers about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Smoke was visible throughout the city. Crews returned to Mount Wilson today to defend it, the Forest Service said. May cause disruptions to thousands of residents.

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2 firefighter dies in California forest fire. Vehicle Crash kill 2. Reason crash unknown

Fire officials expanded evacuation orders in the Acton, La Canada Flintridge and Altadena areas and closed more of the Angeles National Forest as the Station Fire grew to more than 42,000 acres.


Wildfire rages , going towards Mount Wilson , about 150 firefighters and 15 fire engines are struggling to protect the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904


A helicopter drops water on hot spots as it flies through dense smoke near Acton, Calif.


Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and residents help evacuate horses as fires burn the hills above Acton, Calif.


A firefighter clears brush from a propane tank in Acton as a fire races through the Angeles National Forest, where 18 structures were confirmed destroyed.


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.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. He did not release their identities or other details.

Two firefighters died in a wildfire Sunday in the San Gabriel Mountains that threatened about 12,000 homes and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory.

Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said the two firefighters died in the Angeles National Forest when their vehicle went off the road and over a hillside amid intense flames. He did not release their identities.

"This is a very difficult time," he said.

We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," county Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a Sunday press conference.

Fire Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, were killed in the crash, the department said. Authorities did not give a cause for the crash.

Hall was a 26-year veteran, and Quinones had been a county firefighter for eight years.

"Our hearts are heavy as we are tragically reminded of the sacrifices our firefighters and their families make daily to keep us safe," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement

The blaze, which has burned 42,500 acres in four days, was only 5% contained and its southern edge was just 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the U.S. Forest Service said.

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.

On Sunday, it was threatening the city of Acton in the Apple Valley, a high-desert area at the northern perimeter of the Angeles National Forest. The fire command center said at least three homes burned and it expected more destruction.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire Sunday and urged residents to move quickly when ordered out by firefighters.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported two people were severely burned and evacuated by county helicopter after resisting orders to leave. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the pair "totally underestimated the fire."

"They ran and jumped into a hot tub thinking the water would provide some kind of relief," he said.

The historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904, was in danger. Director Hal McAlister reported on the observatory's website that more than 150 firefighters and 15 firetrucks were fighting to protect the facility.

A dozen or more of the residents took refuge at the Eagles Club Lodge in Azusa — which provided food, showers and tents — after they said their menagerie of pet dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and hamsters were turned away from a Red Cross shelter.

"The Eagles are saving us, man," said Jack Wagstaff, an engineer.

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Calif. firefighters wage fierce wildfire battles- 10 000 affected

A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, destroying at least three homes, knocking out power to many more and spurring evacuations in a number of mountain communities.

Mandatory evacuations were extended into neighborhoods in the canyons on the northwestern edge of Altadena, Glendale, Pasadena, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said.



A member of the Vista Grande Hot Shots helps to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.


The Vista Grande Hot Shots walk past a tree in a La Canada Flintridge neighborhood as they prepare to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.


In this photo taken from Monterey Park, Calif., smoke billows from a fire in the foothill above La Canada Filintridge Calif., filling the San Gabriel Valley. Wildfire threatened hundreds of homes in the foothill canyons near Los Angeles.


The Vista Grande Hot Shots run a fire hose to maintain a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009.


The Vista Grande Hot Shots prepare to cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday,


A structure is shown engulfed in flames near Big Tujunga Road in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, knocking out power to homes and prompting evacuations in a number of mountain communities.


In this photo taken from Monterey Park, Calif., smoke billows from a fire in the foothill above La Canada Flintridge, Calif., filling the San Gabriel Valley. Wildfire threatened hundreds of homes in the foothill canyons near Los Angeles.


A DC-10 jet dumps chemical fire retardant in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009


The Vista Grande Hot Shots cut a fire line with hand tools in order to slow the advance of the Station Fire that is burning in the San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge, 20 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009

The flames crept lower down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite winds blowing predominantly in the other direction, threatening more than 2,000 homes in the La Canada Flintridge area. Officials estimated that 1,000 homes had been evacuated.

The fire was the largest and most dangerous of several burning around southern and central California and in Yosemite National Park.

Flames knocked out power to at least 164 residences in La Canada Flintridge on Saturday, according to Southern California Edison. Repair crews were ordered to stay out of the area because of fire danger.

More than 31 square miles of dry forest was scorched by the fire. It was only 5 percent contained.

Air crews waged a fierce battle against the southeast corner of the fire, burning dangerously close to canyon homes. Spotter planes with tankers on their tails dove well below ridge lines to lay bright orange retardant then pulled up dramatically over neighborhoods, and giant sky crane helicopters swooped in to unleash showers on the biggest flareups.

A major goal was to keep the fire from spreading up Mount Wilson, where many of the region's broadcast and communications antennas and the historic Mount Wilson Observatory are located, officials said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday in Los Angeles and Monterey counties.

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