Firefighters monitor a brush in the foothills outside of Calabasas, Calif. on Saturday, June 4, 2016. A fast-moving brush fire sweeping through hills northwest of downtown Los Angeles has damaged homes and prompted neighborhood evacuations. The blaze is one of several that erupted late Saturday afternoon in Calabasas and West Hills. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Republished June 06, 2016 - 5:42 AM
Original Publication Date June 06, 2016 - 2:20 AM
CALABASAS, Calif. - A wildfire sparked when a car accident brought down power lines near an upscale suburb of Los Angeles has been reduced to mostly embers, and thousands of people driven from their homes have all been cleared to return.
A weekend that arrived with blazing heat went out with milder temperatures. That allowed firefighters to get the blaze near the prosperous and semi-rural neighbourhoods of Calabasas 80 per cent contained by Sunday night up from 30 per cent at daybreak.
Firefighters hiked up steep canyons to get to the fire, whose growth stopped at just over 500 acres, and used aircraft to make water drops along its edges, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.
At the height of the fire, about 3,000 homes were threatened and about 5,000 residents were under evacuation orders. The fire destroyed one commercial building, Tripp said.
To the southeast, a smoky wildfire burning in Riverside County was 65 per cent contained Sunday. The blaze that broke out a day earlier along Interstate 15 in Temecula charred about 140 acres of dry brush.
To the north in Monterey County, a wildfire that has charred 3,500 acres of grass and brush in the Los Padres National Forest has prompted some evacuations and is threatening structures.
About 400 firefighters battled the blaze Sunday on land and by air with air tankers and helicopters. The fire started Saturday afternoon west of King City. It is 10 per cent contained.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016