Two Wildfires Ignite Northeast of L.A., Hundreds of Homes Evacuated

Update 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, June 21:

Firefighters hope to begin building containment lines Tuesday around two wildfires in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy says the fires a few miles apart above foothill suburbs have together burned nearly 8½ square miles as of Tuesday morning, but no homes have been lost.

"They’re not burning directly toward each other," Judy said. "They’re both moving in the same direction: north, northwest."

The forest service has named the two fires the San Gabriel Complex Fire. Both fires were 0 percent contained Tuesday morning.

About 700 homes were evacuated Monday, Judy said, displacing approximately 1,000 people from the towns of Duarte and Azusa and campgrounds in San Gabriel Canyon. The Red Cross is operating an emergency shelter at 1600 Huntington Drive in Duarte.

The heat wave that has seared Southern California since last weekend will not be as extreme as it was on Monday, but firefighters will be facing near-triple-digit temperatures and single-digit humidity.

Judy said winds often shift back overnight toward the coast and foothill homes. He said the southward wind shift early Tuesday morning "wasn't too bad," and firefighters were able to stop part of the fire at Highway 39, which remains closed north of Azusa.

Judy said no firefighters have been injured on the fires, which began separately Monday afternoon.

The fires spread quickly with a boost from hot, dry weather and gusty winds. The Reservoir Fire on the eastern side of the complex is suspected to have started by a fatal vehicle crash, in which a pickup truck caught fire. The cause of the complex's western front, the Fish Fire, is unknown.

West of Santa Barbara, firefighters have increased containment of a nearly 12½-square-mile blaze to 70 percent a week after it started.

Weather is expected to remain favorable for several days and mandatory evacuation orders will start to be reduced Wednesday.

East of San Diego, a wildfire burning near the desert town of Potrero is holding at just under 12 square miles, although it remains only 5 percent contained.

Original Post 6:25 p.m. Monday, June 20:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say two new and surging wildfires in the Southern California suburbs are burning away from hundreds of evacuated homes, but a change in winds could bring serious danger.

The first of the fires, in the Azusa area, was sparked by a fatal car crash. Within a few hours Monday, it had grown to over 2 square miles.

The second fire began burning just a few miles away in the Duarte area, but it's closer to homes than the first. The cause of the second fire is not yet known.

Los Angeles County Deputy Chief John B. Tripp says hundreds of houses were quickly evacuated.

But the blaze started burning away from the foothill houses and into the Angeles National Forest.

Tripp says despite that stroke of luck, nighttime winds pushing the blaze back toward the homes are a strong possibility.

The wildfires erupted Monday near Los Angeles and chased people from their suburban homes as an intense heat wave stretching from the West Coast to New Mexico blistered the region.

Towering columns of smoke rose from the San Gabriel Mountains as the two fires, several miles apart, devoured hundreds of acres of brush on steep slopes above foothill suburbs.

Police in the city of Azusa and parts of Duarte ordered hundreds of homes evacuated. Others were under voluntary evacuations.

"It's crazy. It's super close," said 17-year-old Tawni Atencio, whose family was evacuating their home in Bradbury.

She said the flames were just a couple of miles away and were making the house hot despite air conditioning. She watched as smoke from the fire billowed outside and helicopters dropped retardant on the flames.

"It looked like a bomb exploded," she said. "It's scary. We're just praying it doesn't get to our house."

The two fires had grown to a combined 5 square miles. The first and largest of the two was sparked by a car accident, the California Highway Patrol said.

Officials had warned of extreme fire danger in the region as the heat peaked. Temperatures surpassed 100 degrees across much of Southern California well before noon, while some desert cities sizzled in the 120s.

Elsewhere, crews made progress against a nearly week-old blaze in rugged coastal mountains west of Santa Barbara. Overnight winds pushed flames into previously burned areas, allowing firefighters to boost containment to more than 50 percent.

About 270 homes and other buildings still were threatened by the blaze, which has charred more than 12 square miles since Wednesday.

Another wildfire was growing near Potrero, a small desert town close to the Mexico border. It surged to nearly 3 square miles amid triple-digit temperatures and forced the evacuation of about 75 people from the ranching community about 40 miles southeast of San Diego.

Three firefighters suffered heat-related injuries and were taken to a hospital for evaluations.

Other blazes burned wide swaths across Arizona and New Mexico, where firefighters also faced blistering temperatures.

In central New Mexico, a 28-square-mile fire that erupted last week and destroyed 24 homes in the Manzano Mountains south of Albuquerque was largely uncontained. Higher humidity overnight allowed crews to strengthen lines around the fire.

Farther north, a small blaze ignited in a popular recreation area where Santa Fe National Forest officials considered some youth camps and campgrounds threatened. Both camps posted social media updates saying the facilities were fine and there was no immediate threat.

In eastern Arizona, a fire doubled to nearly 42 square miles and led officials to warn a community of 300 residents to prepare to evacuate. The blaze on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation southwest of Show Low was not moving quickly toward the community of Cedar Creek because of sparse vegetation and shifting winds.

AP writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.