Three
injured, hundreds evacuated as Southern California wildfire rages
A
wind-whipped California wildfire that doubled in size overnight
torched 15 buildings east of Los Angeles, injured at least five
people and forced the evacuation of 500 homes in about half a dozen
small communities, authorities said on Thursday.
Reuters
,
8
August, 2013
The
fire broke out on Wednesday near a back-country road in Riverside
County, and by early Thursday had blackened more than 10,000 acres,
the Riverside County Fire Department said on its website.
Four
firefighters and one civilian have been hurt in the blaze, which is
raging through tinder-dry brush and is just ten percent contained.
The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Vista
Grande, Mount Edna, Poppet Flats, Twin Pines and Silent Valley were
among several communities under mandatory evacuation orders as the
fire burned toward Cabazon, a city of 2,500 residents about 20 miles
west of Palm Springs.
"The
dry conditions right now that we are seeing are allowing the fire to
burn very quickly, then you add the gusting winds ... and it is
pushing the fire further and further to the east," California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlandt
said.
About
500 homes are under evacuation, Berlandt said. Shelters for evacuees
had been set up at high schools in nearby Hemet and Beaumont.
At
least 15 structures had been destroyed by the fire, although it was
not immediately clear whether any of them were homes.
"We
are still working to confirm what type of structures and how many
were burned. We believe there were 15 structures, but we don't know
if they were barns, outbuildings or homes," Berlandt said.
Authorities
have not yet determined how the fire started.
The
blaze is the latest to break out during what experts say could become
one of the worst U.S. fire seasons.
A
Colorado wildfire in June, ranked as that state's most destructive on
record, ravaged more than 500 homes and killed two people. In
Arizona, 19 members of an elite firefighting crew died on June 30
while battling a wildfire.
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