May 11, 2007, 18:23 GMT
Los Angeles - Giant military hovercraft ferried firefighters
and their equipment to the Santa Catalina Island off the southern
Californian coast Friday as fires burned more than 1,600 hectares of
the popular tourist destination.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the fire was only
10 per cent contained, though a marine layer of fog that descended
overnight helped keep the fire away from the island's main city of
Avalon.
More than 1,000 houses were evacuated when the fire approached the
suburbs and 3,800 people, including many tourists, left the island
overnight via ferry.
One house and several commercial structures were destroyed by the
flames while many more were damaged. One fireman was slightly injured
in the blaze, which at times was so severe that it was raining ashes,
television network CNN reported.
Schwarzenegger said that more than 40 fire engines, nine
helicopters, five air-tankers and more than 700 firefighters were
working to contain the blaze.
'Everyone is working very hard to make sure that the people are
safe and the animals are safe,' said Schwarzenegger.
The fire broke out Thursday and spread quickly across dry
scrubland on the 200-square-kilometre island, some 35 kilometres off
the coast. The island has some 3,200 residents, but tourism at the
weekend swells the number to 10,000.
As the scale of the danger became clear late Thursday, authorities
called in the Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. Huge Marine
hovercrafts ferried dozens of fire engines to the island early Friday
as helicopters buzzed overhead dumping water on the flames.
Meanwhile on the east coast in Florida, bush fires of varying
sizes broke out in more than 200 locations. The flames came so close
to the Interstate 10 motorway, an east-west link, that it was
threatened by closure.
The fires have been fuelled by a drought-ravaged winter and
unseasonably hot spring weather. Earlier in the week, Los Angeles
experienced its worst fire since 1961, as a blaze burnt large parts
of the landmark Griffith Park near Hollywood.
2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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