Alex Jimenez with Cal Fire and Jose Ribera, a firefighter with the Crane Valley "Hot Shots" look over a section in the Bottchers Gap area of the Los Padres National Forest on the Basin Complex fire on Tuesday, July 1, 2008. In the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest, about 200 people were ordered to evacuate Tuesday, and evacuation orders remained in place for occupants of at least 75 homes who were forced to leave the region last week.
Haze from smoke obscures a home, sitting on a ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean, near the Burns Creek bridge as a part of the Basin Complex Fire in Big Sur, Calif. on Tuesday July 1, 2008. Airborne ash from the hundreds of lightning-sparked fires have caused a spike in air pollution in the area.
Authorities ordered most of the remaining residents of this scenic coastal community to leave Wednesday because an out-of-control wildfire, one of hundreds of California, had jumped a fire line and was threatening more homes.
New mandatory evacuation notices were issued for a 10-mile stretch along the eastern side of state Highway 1, bringing the total length of the evacuated area to more than 25 miles, emergency officials said.
"The fire is just a big raging animal right now," said Darby Marshall, spokesman for the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services.
Authorities have essentially closed a 25-mile stretch of Highway 1, blocking access to popular resorts, restaurants, shops and art galleries that line the scenic roadway and attract tourists from around the world.
The blaze had destroyed 16 homes and charred about 82 square miles of forest since it was started by lightning on June 21 in the Los Padres National Forest. It was only about 3 percent contained.
The new evacuation notice means that nearly all of the roughly 850 residents who live along the Big Sur coast from Andrew Molera State Park to Limekiln State Park have been ordered to leave, Marshall said.
"This is a very dangerous fire right now because of the wind and because of how dry things are and how early in the year it is," David Paulison, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in a phone interview from the scene. He spoke from inside a tent as the wind audibly roared outside.
Paulison said the evacuation he saw was orderly.
"The only saving grace is that this area is not heavily populated like we saw in Southern California last year," he said. "If people evacuate like they're told to, we shouldn't lose any lives. ... My only concern is that people don't take it seriously enough."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered 200 National Guardsmen to report for fire training to begin assisting on fire lines early next week. The extra hands are expected to boost the nearly 19,000 personnel fighting the fires.
The governor's office said this is the first time since 1977 that California's National Guard troops have been sent to the fire lines. However, guard troops have helped in traffic control and other duties since then, and Air National Guard units have already been assisting firefighting efforts in California and elsewhere this summer.
Drought, heat and lightning storms have contributed to more than 1,100 separate fires that have blackened 680 square miles of land statewide in the past two weeks. The blazes have destroyed 60 homes and other buildings while threatening thousands more, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Federal fire managers predict an increase in severe wildfire activity in northern California through October due to the unusually hot, dry weather and scant rain.
The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Boise, Idaho, issued a 2008 Wildland Fire Outlook on Tuesday forecasting significant fire activity to increase or persist in California, as well as in parts of the western Great Basin in Nevada, the northern Rocky Mountains, Texas, and West Virginia.
In Southern California, a fire in the southern extension of the Los Padres forest north of Santa Barbara prompted mandatory evacuations of about 45 people in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains. Officials said that fire had burned nearly 200 acres of heavy brush Wednesday and about 200 homes were threatened.
Rough terrain in the Santa Ynez area hampered firefighters, said Santa Barbara County spokesman William Boyer. "It's mostly an aerial battle," he said.
Elsewhere, a wildfire threatened 15 homes and the Okanogan tribal bingo casino near Okanogan, Wash., and some residents had been evacuated, said Ron Bowen of the state fire marshal's office. The blaze had covered 1,500 acres - just over 2 square miles - and the state sent people and equipment to help Bureau of Indian Affairs firefighters, officials said.
Officials in Arizona said the wildfire that forced the evacuation of about 120 people from the old mining town of Crown King was no longer directly threatening the mountain community town or homes in nearby Horsethief Basin. But dry, windy weather meant the threat to homes could return, they said.
The 11-square-mile blaze near Crown King was just 5 percent contained, fire information officer Mike King said.
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