Page 3 - aruba-today-20180811

A3
U.S. NEWS Saturday 11 auguSt 2018

California crews scramble to

keep flames from reaching homes

By MARCIO SANCHEZ and more destructive wild- couple and left quietly for
AMANDA LEE MYERS fire seasons because of her house in the city of Lake
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (AP) drought, warmer weath- Elsinore to grab important
— Firefighters worked Friday er attributed to climate documents.
to keep a growing South- change and home con- Since then, Reyes and her
ern California forest fire that struction deeper into for- husband have been stay-
is feeding on dry brush and ests. ing at a hotel with a faulty
trees from reaching foothill Firefighters aided by cooler air conditioner while their
neighborhoods a day after weather have made good three dogs and cat are
flames roared to new feroc- progress against a blaze holed up at the family's Volunteers with Samaritan's Purse sift through the charred re-
ity and came within yards burning for nearly a month plumbing business. mains of a home burned in the Carr Fire, Friday, Aug. 10, 2018,
of homes.Gov. Jerry Brown near Yosemite National "It is nerve-wracking and in Redding, Calif.
declared a state of emer- Park in the northern part of unreal," she said. "We were Associated Press
gency for Orange and Riv- the state. The park was set on pins and needles for a
erside counties as the fire to reopen Tuesday after little while there because it cal communication infra- mento has destroyed more
carved its way along ridges a two-week closure, park got real close." structure is located. than 100 homes and black-
in the Cleveland National spokesman Scott Gediman The fire was deliberately Crews turned a corner in ened an area about the
Forest. said Friday. set. A resident of the small their battle against North- size of Los Angeles.
Some hillsides were allowed Visitors should expect lim- community of Holy Jim ern California's Mendocino Near the Northern Califor-
to burn under the watchful ited hours and visitor ser- Canyon in the national for- Complex Fire, the largest- nia city of Redding, the
eyes of firefighters as a way vices next week as the park est has been charged with ever in California, getting it year's deadliest fire was
to reduce fuel and make it returns to normal, he said. arson and other crimes and halfway contained. The fire nearly half-surrounded and
harder for flames to jump The blaze didn't reach the appeared in a jailhouse more than 100 miles (160 was burning into remote
roadways into communities heart of the park and in- courtroom Friday. kilometers) north of Sacra- and rugged forest land.q
if winds pick up again. stead burned in remote ar- Forrest Clark, 51, made sev-
Aircraft dropped liquid that eas, making roads inacces- eral outbursts, claiming his
suppresses flames as peo- sible and polluting the area life was being threatened.
ple sprayed their houses with smoke. A court commissioner post-
with water from garden The closure dealt a finan- poned his arraignment until
hoses when the blaze south cial blow to Yosemite at Aug. 17 and ordered bail to
of Los Angeles flared again the height of the summer remain at $1 million.
Thursday evening, pro- season and caused up- "May I pay for that imme-
pelled by 20-mph (30-kph) heaval for thousands of diately?" asked Clark, who
gusts. tourists whose summer trips could face life in prison if
Shannon Hicks, 59, defied were canceled. convicted.
an evacuation order and Officials also gained more At one point, Clark cov-
watched in awe as firefight- control over two other ma- ered his face with his long
ers faced down a storm of jor Northern California wild- hair and later stared direct-
flames that descended to- fires, including the largest in ly at a camera providing a
ward her street in the city of recorded state history. video feed to reporters out-
Lake Elsinore. In the south, Cleveland Na- side the courtroom.
"It looked like a tornado. tional Forest officials tweet- Michael Milligan, chief of
The flames were just twirl- ed that the flames outside the Holy Jim Volunteer Fire
ing and twirling," she said. Los Angeles were growing Department, has told the
"I thought, there's no way as fast as crews can build Orange County Register
they're saving my house. lines to contain them. that Clark had a decade-
But somehow they did." "We continue to actively long feud with neighbors
Hundreds more firefighters engage, but cannot get and had sent him threat-
joined the battle, bring- ahead of the fire," the ening emails last week, in-
ing the total to 1,200. The statement said. cluding one that said, "This
so-called Holy Fire has Teresita Reyes was among place will burn."
chewed through 28 square some 20,000 people forced The fire — named for the
miles (72 square kilometers) to evacuate, saying she canyon where it started —
of dense chaparral and is was attending a wedding destroyed a dozen cabins
only partially contained. Wednesday when she after it broke out Monday.
It's one of nearly 20 blazes received the order. The Firefighters were trying to
across the state, which is 51-year-old state health in- keep flames away from
seeing earlier, longer and spector congratulated the Santiago Peak, where criti-