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Faye Ranch

Saturday
October 12, 2019

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Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper ruba’s ONLY English newspaper
Authorities order 100,000 evacuated in California wildfire

By STEFANIE DAZIO and
JOHN ANTCZAK
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A
wildfire raged out of con-
trol along the northern
edge of Los Angeles early
Friday, forcing tens of thou-
sands of people from their
homes as firefighters bat-
tled flames from the air and
on the ground.
Police Chief Michel Moore
said about 100,000 people
in over 20,000 homes were
ordered to evacuate.
Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas
said the fire had grown to
more than 7 square miles
(18 square kilometers) and
at least 25 homes had
been damaged. A middle-
aged man who was near
the fire went into cardiac
arrest and died, the chief
said, but he did not have
details. A death was also
confirmed at an earlier
wildfire east of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles blaze
erupted around 9 p.m.
Thursday along the north-
ern tier of the San Fernando Jerry Rowe uses a garden hose to save his home on Beaufait Avenue from the Saddleridge fire in Granada Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct.
Valley as powerful Santa 11, 2019.
Ana winds swept through Associated Press
Southern California. Smoke
streamed across the city "As you can imagine the of the valley, and spread wasn’t immediately known. ral gas well operated by
and out to sea. embers from the wind have westward at a rate of 800 Porter Ranch, an upper Southern California Gas
Terrazas said there were been traveling a significant acres (324 hectares) an middle-class suburb that Co. in the neighboring Aliso
sustained winds of 20-25 distance which causes an- hour into Granada Hills and was the backdrop for the Canyon storage facility
mph (32-40 kph) with gusts other fire to start," Terrazas Porter Ranch, where subdi- 1982 movie “E.T.” is no drove 8,000 families from
over 50 mph (80 kph) and said. visions crowd against the stranger to evacuations. their homes.
relative humidity levels had The fire erupted in Sylmar, foothills of the Santa Su- Four years ago, a blowout
fallen as low as 3%. the northernmost portion sana Mountains. The cause at an underground natu- Continued on Page 3