MONTECITO, California (CNN) – One of three major wildfires burning in southern California appears to be “human caused,” a spokesman for the state’s fire agency said Sunday.

This is really crazy stuff. It appears that investigators have eliminated “all accidental causes” of the fires that destroyed 210 homes and injured 2 in Santa Barbara County.

Investigators have eliminated “all accidental causes” of the fire that destroyed 210 homes and injured two in the Santa Barbara County since Thursday, and is suspected of arson, the spokesman said Doug Lannon .

“We need the public’s help to identify any activity in or around the afternoon of November 13″ Lannon said.

The fire burned 1940 acres, including a monastery and several homes in the Montecito community, where celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, have homes. It was 75 percent contained by Sunday, Lannon said.

Authorities believe the fire started in the garden of the estate, a private company several acres of property about a mile north of Santa Barbara’s exclusive Westmont College. On Friday, arson investigators cordoned off the estate after several eyewitnesses told authorities they believed the fire originated in this area, according to Lannon.

Other major fires were burning in the northern region of Los Angeles and Orange County, east of Los Angeles. The three blazes have burned 20,000 acres and forced more than 10,000 people to flee their homes, authorities said.

On Sunday authorities were searching through the debris of nearly 500 mobile homes destroyed on Saturday in northern Los Angeles, known as the fire Sayre.

Earlier Sunday afternoon, a third of mobile homes were searched, and no human remains were found.

The police had received no reports of missing persons in the park. Moore said 134 residents had been accounted for, and that others should check with the city authorities.

Los Angeles County Coroner Ed Winter said authorities believe most people in this mobile home park were evacuated, and that the search was a precaution.

The Sayre fire broke out Friday at the end of the steep terrain of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of the Sylmar neighborhood, about 20 km north of the city of Los Angeles.

The Sayre fire burned about 9500 acres in the San Fernando Valley and was about 30 percent contained, California.

Nine other homes and 10 businesses were destroyed in Los Angeles Saturday evening, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

Firefighters are struggling to contain the third fire in Orange County, said Lynette Round, a spokeswoman for Orange County Fire Authority.

Firefighters were hoping that strong winds in southern California on Sunday was going to die, to help suppress the blazes.

“If the winds do die down, it will give the firefighters an upper hand on the fight against this,”. This is an wind-driven fire with wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour, it’s giving firefighters a very difficult time. It hopscotched throughout the region.

Round said 168 houses were destroyed or damaged in the area of Orange County. The so-called Triangle Freeway Complex fire also damaged a building in a secondary school.

The outbreak, which has burned 10,475 acres, is not contained at all, and is spreading throughout Orange County, posing threats to Yorba Linda, Corona, Brea, Chino Hills and Anaheim Hills neighborhoods, according to Fire California.

Winds - which have joined with low humidity and unusually high temperatures to help build the fire s even more - were gusting up to 80 mph Saturday. The high temperature in Los Angeles reached 92 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for counties affected after the fire damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes and closed the main highways.

The move frees up any state resources necessary to fight against the fire and makes the country eligible for federal grants.

In Los Angeles, Villaraigosa declared a city emergency early Saturday morning and asked for the public ’s cooperation in energy conservation as potential blackouts loomed.

Augustin Reyes and his family left their home in Sylmar about 2 am Saturday when they could no longer bear the heat and smoke to encroach into the hills behind their house.

When Reyes returned to survey the scene Saturday afternoon, all that remains are piles of charred rubble.

Reyes dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief as he worried about how to describe the loss to his 7-year-old son.

By Saturday afternoon, people were taking refuge in evacuation shelters set up in three secondary schools in the region, officials said.

Horses and other large animals were taken to a shelter in the park, Hansen Dam. A mobile cage was set up at Sylmar High School, and small animals can be taken to the Mission animal shelter.

Rate this:

2.5

Tags: stuff //