Burned area is seen after a brush fire in Burbank, California, the United States, on Sept. 3, 2017. Governor Jerry Brown of California on Sunday issued an emergency proclamation for Los Angeles County in response to a massive brush fire on the northern edge of Los Angeles. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Governor Jerry Brown of California on Sunday issued an emergency proclamation for Los Angeles County in response to a massive brush fire on the northern edge of Los Angeles.
The fire, threatening homes and critical infrastructure, has forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and triggered the closure of a major highway.
The governor's declaration will ensure that state and federal assistance will be provided as quickly as possible. It came at the urging of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said that the fire is the largest in the city's history in terms of sheer acreage.
"Extreme weather conditions and high temperatures have further increased the risk of fires," the declaration said.
More than 1,000 firefighters are battling the fire, dubbed the La Tuna Fire, which started in Los Angeles County on Friday and has rapidly burned thousands of acres of land and continues to spread.
At one point the fire was estimated at 8,000 acres, but later on Saturday night fire officials issued a revised estimate.
The estimate of burned area remained at 5,895 acres, but that figure apparently did not include newly-burned acreage on the fire's northern and western sides, according to the City News Service.
The fast-moving wildfire remained at 10 percent contained with the effort of 206 engine companies, nine helicopters, five water tenders, four bulldozers, 12 hand crews and nine ambulances,
Xinhua reporters at the scene saw the smoke blowing across the San Fernando Valley. "The fire near the Country Club Road was contained," a firefighter from LA Fire Department told Xinhua. "However, the fire in the valley continues to grow."
The massive wildfire prompted a new round of evacuation orders on Sunday affecting residents in roughly 700 homes, according to the City News Service. On Saturday, at least 200 homes remained under evacuation orders as the large wildfire threatened to destroy structures in the Sunland-Tujunga area, which is home to about 60,000 people and is located some 20 miles (about 32 km) north of downtown Los Angeles.
Authorities ordered those living in the Brace Canyon Park area and Castleman Estates to "leave immediately" and head to evacuation shelters, according to an alert issued late Friday night by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
"The air quality is bad," the City News Service cited Burbank police Sgt. Derek Green as saying. "With temperatures expected to reach the triple digits again today, we are asking people to please stay indoors and limit your recreational activities. Keep pets indoors and take care of each other."
The "dangerously high temperatures" are the result of a strong high pressure and weak onshore flow, according to the National Weather Service.
On Thursday, Gov. Brown declared a state of emergency in Trinity County north of San Francisco due to the Helena Fire.
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.
