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10/13/2008

on pins and needles: very nervous

Two huge wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned into neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, forcing frantic evacuations on smoke- and traffic-choked highways, destroying homes and causing at least two deaths.

More than 1,000 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft battled the 4,700-acre Marek Fire at the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley, and the 5,000-acre Sesnon Fire at the west end.

Winds blew up to 45 mph with gusts reaching 70 mph at midday. They were forecast to diminish in the evening before roaring over 60 mph after 11 p.m


You can imagine, it\'s a devastating situation, he said. A lot of people on pins and needles waiting to hear news about their communities.

In San Diego County, a wildfire that began on an explosives training range at Camp Pendleton forced the evacuation of a military housing area and 100 nearby homes in Oceanside.

Firefighters also contained smaller blazes elsewhere in southern California.

In northern California, a blaze charred more than half of Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but spared historical structures on the island, including an immigration station that was the first stop for millions of immigrants, mostly from China, in the early 1900s.