UPDATE 1-Firefighters hold line on two California wildfires
July 5th, 2008 | by admin |(Recasts first paragraph, adds updated containment figures,details throughout)
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES, July 4 (Reuters) - Exhausted Californiafirefighters worked on Friday to contain two wildfiresthreatening homes along the coast before sundown, when shiftingwinds were expected to give the blazes more power.
Fire crews have been battling a siege of more than 1,000blazes that have blackened nearly a half million acres acrossthe state since lightning storms in early June ignited drought-and disease-plagued brush and trees.
The Basin Complex and Gap fires, burning about 170 miles(273 km) apart, are being fed by dense, tall grass and brushchaparral in steep, rocky terrain that has not burned in someplaces for more than half a century.
The Gap fire, considered the state’s top priority becauseof its proximity to homes in Goleta, a town of about 30,000about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Los Angeles, burnedwithin a few feet of dozens of homes overnight and stillthreatens some 2,600 homes.
The fire started on Tuesday evening along a ridge in theLos Padres National Forest, about 3 miles north of Goleta, andhas since grown to 5,400 acres (2,185 hectares). The cause isstill under investigation, said U.S. Forest Service spokesmanStanton Florea.
Fire crews on the ground spent Friday afternoon buildinglines around the main blaze and clearing brush around homes andbuildings, while air crews tried to smother flames with waterand fire retardant in the fire’s path.
“(The afternoon) is when the fire is most active,” Floreasaid. “The humidity has come up a little today. That helped.”
