Wildfire on edge of Los Angeles spreads after triggering evacuations

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A wildfire on the northwest edge of Los Angeles spread rapidly on Saturday despite light rainfall, a day after it forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and triggered the closure of a major highway.

Fire officials told residents of about 200 houses in northwest Los Angeles and nearby Burbank to leave their homes on Friday as the so-called La Tuna Fire tore through brush, officials said.

A light rain sprinkled the area, but it was not enough to contain the 5,000-acre (2,023-hectare) blaze, which grew tenfold in size overnight, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart. It is 10 percent contained.

“The primary help we’re getting from weather right now is we don’t have high winds,” Stewart said.

The region was under a red flag warning from the National Weather Service until at least Saturday evening as temperatures were expected to climb above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) with strong winds and low humidity.

Video posted online by local media showed the fire burning along the 210 Freeway when it broke out on Friday, with smoke hovering over the roadway as cars passed by flames. Officials quickly closed a section of the freeway, which remained shut down on Saturday.

The fire has not caused any injuries or property damage, Stewart said.

More than 400 miles (644 km) to the north, the so-called Ponderosa Fire has burned 3,880 acres, or about 1,570 hectares, and destroyed 30 homes in Butte County since it broke out on Tuesday. It prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders earlier this week to residents of some 500 homes.

The blaze, which grew from a campfire that was started outside a designated area, was 45 percent contained, officials said.

California Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency declaration on Friday to free up additional resources to battle the blaze.

The man charged with starting the fire, John Ballenger, made his first court appearance in Butte County Superior Court on Friday, District Attorney Michael Ramsey said.

Ballenger was charged with two counts of arson and was ordered held on a $1 million bond.

In Montana, Governor Steve Bullock declared a state of disaster on Friday due to wildfires as dozens raged across tens of thousands of acres during one of the worst fire seasons in state history.

Wildfires in the U.S. West have burned more than 7.1 million acres (2.9 million hectares) since the beginning of the year, about 50 percent more than during the same time period in 2016, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Helen Popper and Mary Milliken

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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