Saturday November 15, 2008--10,000 people have been evacuated from the Sylmar area of Los Angeles as devastating fires surge. Driven by 60-mph gusts, fire ripped through the northern San Fernando Valley overnight, burning homes before leaping both the 210 and 5 freeways.
The fast-moving fire drove residents scrambling from their hillside homes, as a storm of embers ignited spot fires across a broad swath of the Sylmar area. Not to be confused with the Montecito fires near Santa Barbara of the previous two days, these fires are located in Los Angles county. Most freeways in that part of the valley were closed, including the 5, 210 and 405. More than 2,500 acres had burned...
by 5 o'clock Saturday morning, with more than 1,000 structures threatened by uncontrolled flames and more than 10,000 residents under mandatory evacuation.
Authorities said an unknown number of homes had been destroyed. Numerous mobile homes were lost north of Sylmar. Firefighters said they were dealing with near-hurricane-force winds that are not expected to let up until midmorning.
Fire officials said the blaze was burning west, jumping the 5 Freeway and heading toward areas burned last month in the Sesnon fire in Porter Ranch. Officials said a branch of the current fire was burning north toward Santa Clarita as well. The latest evacuations extended as far west as Reseda Boulevard near Sesnon Boulevard.
"The fire is ripping and tearing through everything," said Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Bowman.
"Our No. 1 priority right now is life, and people have to get out of the path of the fire," said John Tripp, incident commander for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "We have citizens that are in harm's way right now, and that is our priority."