Almost 2,000 residents evacuated as wildfire rages outside Los Angeles

Nearly 2,000 residents were evacuated and two homes burned in a wildfire that started when three people lit a campfire in the dry foothills of Southern California's San Gabriel Mountains, authorities said. Embers from the fire fanned by Santa Ana winds quickly spread into an area below where residents were awakened in the pre-dawn darkness and ordered to evacuate. The three suspects, all men in their 20s, were arrested on charges of recklessly starting the fire that spread smoke across the Los Angeles basin. One resident suffered minor burns in the area abutting Angeles National Forest, just north of the San Gabriel Valley community of Glendora, according to Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl L Osby. Between 1,700 and 2,000 residents were evacuated and the order included 880 homes in Glendora and the neighbouring foothill city of Azusa. Many residents, some wearing masks, used garden hoses to wet the brush around their houses, even as firefighters ordered them to leave. At least two and a half square miles of dry brush were charred in the wilderness area about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles...more