Wildfires consume 2,500 acres in southern California
Wind-driven brush fires scorched nearly 2,500 acres north of Los Angeles, killing thousands of chickens at a farm while destroying at least one home and threatening others.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered in Box Canyon and a freeway was closed as the blaze jumped the road and burned at the west end of the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Ron Haralson said more than 700 firefighters were on the scene. One firefighter was struck on the head by a 40-pound boulder and was taken to a hospital for treatment, Capt. Carlos Calvillo said.
The fire had burned more than 1,200 acres and was 5 per cent contained by evening, Haralson said. A blaze in Riverside County spread over 1,300 acres between the cities of Redlands and Moreno Valley, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. That fire destroyed three chicken coops at a ranch believed to have housed 70,000 to 90,000 chickens, said Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Cheri Patterson.
Thousands of chickens died. “It’s a vast number,” Patterson said.
