'Treacherous' Calif. Blaze Threatens Town

Official cites 'perfect storm of fuels, weather, and topography'
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2009 7:02 PM CDT
'Treacherous' Calif. Blaze Threatens Town
Firefighters monitor the Station Fire as it burns through the Angeles National Forest August 30, 2009 in Acton, Calif.   (Getty Images)

A growing California wildfire that has already scorched 35,000 acres and burned three people is bearing down on a small mountain community, the Los Angeles Times reports. Driven toward Acton, Calif., by wind and triple-digit heat, the blaze is "treacherous," said one fire chief. Firefighters plan “to go defensive, to let the fire come to us, because it has been going so fast," he added.

Calling the blaze "totally out of control," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chided people who ignored evacuation orders and stayed to defend their homes. "There were people that did not listen, and there were three people that got burned and got critically injured because they did not listen," he said. More than 2,000 firefighters are battling the wildfire, which has spread along a 10-mile stretch of mountains above five towns, Reuters reports.
(More California stories.)

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