Fire officials expanded evacuation orders in the Acton, La Canada Flintridge and Altadena areas and closed more of the Angeles National Forest as the Station Fire grew to more than 42,000 acres.
Wildfire rages , going towards Mount Wilson , about 150 firefighters and 15 fire engines are struggling to protect the historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904
A helicopter drops water on hot spots as it flies through dense smoke near Acton, Calif.
A firefighter clears brush from a propane tank in Acton as a fire races through the Angeles National Forest, where 18 structures were confirmed destroyed.
A giant fire in the Angeles National Forest continued its slow-motion rampage through the mountains yesterday, claiming the lives of two firefighters as it bore down on the semi-rural community of Acton and threatening to overrun Mount Wilson.The two firefighters were killed when they drove off the side of a treacherous road in the Mount Gleason area, south of Acton, around 2:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Deputy Chief Mike Bryant. He did not release their identities or other details.
Two firefighters died in a wildfire Sunday in the San Gabriel Mountains that threatened about 12,000 homes and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory.
Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said the two firefighters died in the Angeles National Forest when their vehicle went off the road and over a hillside amid intense flames. He did not release their identities.
"This is a very difficult time," he said.
We ask for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time, and please, prayers for the families of our two brothers that we lost," county Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said through tears at a Sunday press conference.
Fire Capt. Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County, and firefighter Specialist Arnaldo "Arnie" Quinones, 35, of Palmdale, were killed in the crash, the department said. Authorities did not give a cause for the crash.
Hall was a 26-year veteran, and Quinones had been a county firefighter for eight years.
"Our hearts are heavy as we are tragically reminded of the sacrifices our firefighters and their families make daily to keep us safe," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement
The blaze, which has burned 42,500 acres in four days, was only 5% contained and its southern edge was just 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the U.S. Forest Service said.
The fire had churned through more than 42,500 acres of chaparral and forest, from the edge of metropolitan Los Angeles up to pine-clad ridges and down toward the Mojave desert. More than 12,500 homes were under threat and 6,600 under mandatory evacuation. Eighteen residences were destroyed, fire officials said, mostly in the Big Tujunga Canyon area.
The fire was 5 percent contained, they said, and at least temporarily eased off the foothill communities from La Canada-Flintridge to Altadena on its southern flank.
On Sunday, it was threatening the city of Acton in the Apple Valley, a high-desert area at the northern perimeter of the Angeles National Forest. The fire command center said at least three homes burned and it expected more destruction.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire Sunday and urged residents to move quickly when ordered out by firefighters.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported two people were severely burned and evacuated by county helicopter after resisting orders to leave. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the pair "totally underestimated the fire."
"They ran and jumped into a hot tub thinking the water would provide some kind of relief," he said.
The historic Mount Wilson Observatory, founded in 1904, was in danger. Director Hal McAlister reported on the observatory's website that more than 150 firefighters and 15 firetrucks were fighting to protect the facility.
A dozen or more of the residents took refuge at the Eagles Club Lodge in Azusa — which provided food, showers and tents — after they said their menagerie of pet dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and hamsters were turned away from a Red Cross shelter.
"The Eagles are saving us, man," said Jack Wagstaff, an engineer.
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