Car crash blamed for large Calabasas wildfire near L.A.
CALABASAS, Calif. - A car crash that downed power lines turned the hills northwest of Los Angeles into torches, forcing thousands from their homes and putting entire neighborhoods at risk in this prosperous semi-rural enclave.
The fire in the Calabasas area was 80 percent contained by sunset. That was up from only about 35 percent contained Sunday morning, fire officials told CBS Los Angeles.
Two homes sustained minor damage and one commercial structure was destroyed, firefighters said.
Firefighters using aircraft made water drops along the eastern and southern edges of the blaze, which was held to just over 500 acres, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
He said the fire was hung up on the mid-slope of steep canyons, making a direct attack difficult. "The fire was not down against a road, it was up against a cliff," Tripp said. "So firefighters had to hike up."
"We had fires flaring up all around us, in front of us, behind us, on either side of us," he said.
All the evacuations, most of them in Calabasas but some in nearby Topanga, were canceled starting at 6 p.m.
At the height of the fire, about 3,000 homes were threatened and about 5,000 residents were under evacuation orders. The blaze was sparked by a car crash that downed power lines.
"It was like a scene out of a Hollywood movie, and eventually it jumped the road and got behind us, and to the left and to the front of us and we had to get evacuated and the whole area was up in flames in just minutes," said one of the residents who had to evacuate.
Fifty-foot-high flames erupted on the ridges and embers turned trees into candles Saturday afternoon. The fire flared as Southern California sweltered under temperatures that hit the mid-90s in many places. Calabasas reported a high of 91 on Sunday afternoon.
Elsewhere in the region, a fire in the West Hills area of Los Angeles was quickly doused but other blazes in Calabasas joined and raced through drought-dry brush in hills surrounded by developments.
The smoke could be seen for miles.
Some horse-owners in the area put the animals in trailers and hauled them away.
Authorities set up an evacuation center for people with large animals at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.