Wildfire forces power outages in Los Angeles

This is getting serious..take care down there


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Raging wildfires threatened high-voltage transmission lines along southern California's Interstate 5, causing the utility that serves Los Angeles to orchestrate rotating power outages in some districts for nearly an hour Saturday.
A helicopter drops water on on the Sayre fire early Saturday in Los Angeles County, California.

A firefighter sprays water on a mobile home in vain Saturday in the Sylmar section of Los Angeles.

Four firefighters have been injured, and more than 10,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the northern San Fernando Valley by the wind-driven Sayre Fire, which has burned more than 6,500 acres since it began Friday night, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Saturday.

As of about 1 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), the fire was 10 percent contained, Villaraigosa said.

The brush-fueled fire erupted late Friday in the steep terrain of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of Sylmar, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It covered 1,500 acres and threatened at least 1,000 homes just three hours after it was reported, according to Los Angeles Fire spokesman Armando Hogan.

By Saturday afternoon, the fire was moving ½ mph to 1 mph, said Los Angeles Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda, forcing the closures of most freeways in the valley, including Interstates 5, 405 and 210.

The I-5 corridor through the city of Sylmar is a major utility corridor carrying power to the city's Department of Water and Power and other utilities from plants in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest.

"The LADWP turned off these lines to ensure the safety of firefighters and the public," the utility said on its Web site. Power was turned off to the Mid-City, Crenshaw and Harbor Gateway neighborhoods for 45 minutes.

For many, the damage was already done. Augustine Reyes and his family left their home in Sylmar about 2 a.m. Saturday when they could no longer stand the oppressive heat and smoke encroaching from the hills behind their home.

When Reyes returned to survey the scene Saturday afternoon, all that remained were heaps of charred rubble.

Reyes dabbed his eyes with a bandana as he worried over how to describe the loss to his 7-year-old son.

"He's autistic and doesn't do well with change, so this is going to be very hard to explain to him," Reyes said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles County on Saturday afternoon after the fire damaged or destroyed more than 165 homes and closed major freeways.

The move frees up any state resources needed for fire-fighting and makes the county eligible for a federal assistance grant.

Earlier Saturday, Villaraigosa warned that the fire threatened the city's electrical supply. He declared a city emergency early Saturday morning.

"We need everyone to conserve power today," the mayor said. "Our resources are strained at this moment."

The fire jumped I-5 Saturday as it headed west toward areas burned last month by the Sesnon fire in Porter Ranch.

About 500 mobile homes at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park near Sylmar were among the structural victims. At least 5,000 residents of Sylmar were ordered to flee early Saturday.

Winds gusting up to 80 mph pushed the flames into canyons and rugged terrain, where firefighters struggled to contain it. The temperature in the valley reached 90 degrees, with humidity remaining at only 10 to 15 percent.

Residents in the Granada Hills and Puerto Ranch communities were among those ordered to leave their homes Saturday, said Deputy Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore.

"This fire is moving so quickly that they can't wait," Moore said, warning residents not to wait until they see flames to get out.

John Tripp of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said his department was contributing bulldozers, hand crews and water-dropping helicopters to the firefighting effort. A dozen helicopters and six fixed-wing planes were to be available by Sunday morning, he said. Video Watch expensive real estate go up in flames »

Tripp said firefighters were trying to stay in front of the fire and create control lines, especially to keep it from spreading farther north toward Santa Clarita. Twenty-five strike teams, equal to 125 engines, were being used, he said.

At the Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, about 200 patients were sheltered in place as flames approached, according to hospital spokeswoman Carla Nino.

The hospital lost power early Saturday, and there were problems with the emergency generators, but they finally kicked in, Nino said.

Five infants and six adults in the intensive care unit were evacuated by ambulance to other health facilities, and the hospital's day care center caught fire. Empty cribs were outside the building.

A storage building, which housed hospital records, was destroyed, said Chris Negretti, a hospital maintenance worker.

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