The second major Southern California brushfire last week continued to burn on Friday on the resort island of Santa Catalina. But Avalon, the island's major town, appeared to have been spared and some of the thousands of people who had been evacuated began returning from the mainland.
The fire, whose cause remains undetermined, broke out on Thursday afternoon and for a time threatened Avalon, which has a population of about 3,300.
But hundreds of firefighters, aided by dampening air, wind shifts, and a swarm of helicopters and planes dropping water and fire retardant, beat back the blaze, which by late on Friday afternoon was confined to the tinder-dry mountains of the island, about 35km off the coast.
PHOTO: AP
In all, about 3,800 people, including tourists, were evacuated overnight from Catalina and brought here to Long Beach aboard ferries.
About 140 people spent Thursday night at an evacuation post at a high school in Long Beach.
The blaze charred more than 1,700 hectares of the narrow, 196.8km2 island whose vast, hilly parkland, abundant wildlife, and winding, cobblestone roads dotted with colorful bungalows make it a favorite getaway for Angelenos.
A herd of bison, whose forebears were brought over decades ago for a movie shoot, and four newly hatched eaglets were reported safe.
Only one house and a handful of small structures were burned. No serious injuries were reported.
Ferries carried people off the island while military hovercraft had to be used to take dozens of fire trucks and other apparatus to the island. In all, more than 700 firefighters, 44 fire engines, nine helicopters, and five airplanes from state, federal, and local agencies fought the blaze.
Many of the evacuees were workers originally from Jalisco, Mexico. Representatives from the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles arrived in Long Beach to assist them.
"When we got on the boat, we were in a panic because we could feel the heat in the air," said Elsa Contreras, 33, who evacuated with her husband and their seven children, one of whom was vomiting from the smoke.
"It was very stressful, getting all the children," Contreras said. "I didn't want to leave separately without my husband and children."
Rogelio Hernandez, 33, with his wife and two-year-old son, said the police had given residents of his apartment building five minutes to evacuate as flames encroached on Thursday.
"We didn't think it was going to get this bad," Hernandez said.
The fire was a testament to just how dry the region is, having received only two inches of rain since January.
Catalina has experienced wildfires before, including one that burned Avalon in 1915, but its offshore location with cool, damp winds tends to keep fires in check.
Once again, officials urged residents to take precautions such as clearing brush away from homes.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS