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 News from Around the Americas | October 2007 
One Dead, Thousands Evacuated in US Fires
 LATimes/Reuters
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| | A Los Angeles County fire helicopter drops water on a fire where a wildfire driven by powerful Santa Ana winds threatened a university and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007, in Malibu, Calif. Flames destroyed a church and several homes, one of them a landmark castle. (AP/Mark J. Terrill) |
Los Angeles - Thousands of Southern Californian homes could be at risk in the coming days as powerful winds continue to stoke fires that have killed one person, destroyed 31 houses and forced thousands of people to evacuate homes from the celebrity enclave of Malibu to the Mexican border.
Another fire in rural San Diego County forced the evacuation of all 36,000 residents of the town of Ramona.
A stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway at Malibu was closed on Sunday as smoke and flames billowed from the hillsides and canyons opposite the multimillion-dollar beachfront homes of the rich and famous.
The Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared a state of emergency in seven counties hardest hit by the fires. Weather forecasts indicated that firefighters and residents faced two more days of high winds, hot temperatures and low humidity in the drought-stricken region.
The Malibu fire burned 900 hectares between dawn and dusk, and destroyed at least 10 buildings, including a landmark castle-like mansion and a church, officials said.
Residents said the pre-dawn fire took them by surprise and gave them little time to pack belongings and get out.
"We were in the house and the fire was burning all around us," said a Malibu philanthropist, Lilly Lawrence, whose Castle Kashan was engulfed by the flames after she and a house guest escaped.
"The loss is way up in the double-digit millions," she said. |
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