Crews battle 2 fires in the San Fernando Valley amid record heat
Triple-digit temperatures bore down on Angelenos on Sunday, Sept. 6 — and the firefighters who tackled at least two fires on opposite ends of the San Fernando Valley.
Flames consumed part of a recreational area along the 15300 block of West Burbank Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Nicholas Prange said. It grew to about six acres, but was not threatening homes and mostly under control by 3:15 p.m.
“Wind speed has been very low so far, maybe between 2-3 mph on average throughout the whole valley, Prange said. “We don’t expect it to jump any of the streets surrounding it, so there doesn’t appear to be an immediate threat to homes.”
One man was seen fleeing the park barefoot and shirtless, with trees fully engulfed by fire at his back in footage recorded at the scene. About 100 firefighters battled towering flames amid a record-breaking heat wave that brought temperatures as high as 115 degrees in Sherman Oaks, Prange said.
The dangerously hot weather raised concerns about the possibility of heat-related injuries, but no firefighters were injured Sunday.
“We had to swap people in and out faster than normal to prevent heat stroke,” Prange said.
The LAFD also dealt with another fire near the Hansen Dam, along the border of Pacoima and Sylmar, on Sunday. It burned close to homes around the 11700 block of Foothill Boulevard at about 2:05 p.m., and grew to five acres before it was contained roughly 43 minutes later. No buildings were damaged, and no injuries were reported.
The cause of the the fires was unclear as of Sunday evening, Prange said.
Meanwhile, investigators in San Bernardino County suspect a fire that consumed more than 3,000 acres and prompted evacuations around Yucaipa may have been “human caused.” No structures had been damaged in the El Dorado fire, which was 5 % contained as of Sunday morning.
Flames shut down a Southern California Edison power plant elsewhere in the Inland Empire. The Plant fire forced the closure of the Mountainview Power Plant in Redlands before crews managed to snuff it out at 4:30 p.m. The incident led to power outages as temperatures rose to 109 degrees in the city and state utilities officials announced a potential shortage of power across California’s electrical grid.
Another fire in Northern Azusa was reported at about 12:15 Sunday, and chewed through at least 1,800 acres of the Angeles National Forest by 4:31 p.m. Some structures near the Cogswell Dam were threatened, but flames were moving deeper into the forest and away from homes.
Catastrophes such as the El Dorado fire, the Ranch 2 fire north Azusa, the Lake fire near Castaic or the SCU and LNU Lighning Complex fires in northern California have charred vasts swathes of the West Coast. More than 2 million acres of the state have burned so far in 2020, more than any other year since Cal Fire began keeping recording statistics in 1987.