© Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesA firefighter clears brush from a propane tank in Acton as a fire races through the Angeles National Forest, where 18 structures were confirmed destroyed.
Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said at a news conference Sunday night that the two men were amid intense fire near Mount Gleason in the Angeles National Forest when the vehicle crashed. He did not release their identities or give a cause for the crash.
While thousands fled, two people who tried to ride out the firestorm in a backyard hot tub were critically burned. The pair in Big Tujunga Canyon, on the southwestern edge of the blaze, "completely underestimated the fire" and the hot tub provided "no protection whatsoever," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sunday.
The two made their way to firefighters and were airlifted out by a sheriff's rescue helicopter. One was treated and released, and the other remained hospitalized in stable condition. A third person was burned Saturday in an evacuation area along Highway 2 near Mount Wilson, officials said. Details of that injury were not immediately known.
"There were people that did not listen, and there were three people that got burned and got critically injured because they did not listen," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference at the fire command post.
The blaze was only about 5 percent contained and had scorched 66 square miles in the Angeles National Forest. Mandatory evacuations were in effect for neighborhoods in Glendale, Pasadena and other cities and towns north of Los Angeles. Officials said air quality in parts of the foothills bordered on hazardous.
At least 18 structures were confirmed destroyed, but firefighters were likely to find others, said Forest Service Capt. Mike Dietrich.
© Dan Steinberg / APA United States Forest Service air tanker drops fire retardant next to a line of fire as the Station fire burns in the hills above a home in Acton, Calif.
For the third straight day, humidity was very low and temperatures were in the upper 90s. About 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze.
The fire traveled 6 to 8 miles overnight, burning as actively after dark as it did during the day, Dietrich said.
Rob Driscoll and his wife, Beth Halaas, said they lost their house in Big Tujunga Canyon. By Sunday morning, they were desperate for more information and came to the command post to get answers.
"Our neighbors sent us photos of all the other houses that are lost," Halaas said, her voice breaking as her young son nestled his sunburned face in her arms. "We've heard as many as 30 houses burned."
The fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon, was the largest and most dangerous of several burning around Southern and Central California and in Yosemite National Park.
To the north, in the state's coastal midsection, all evacuation orders were lifted Sunday after a 10-square-mile fire burned near Soledad (Monterey County). The fire destroyed one home.
In Mariposa County, an almost 7-square-mile fire burned in Yosemite National Park. The blaze was 50 percent contained Sunday, said park spokeswoman Vickie Mates. Two people sustained minor injuries, she said.
Park officials closed a campground and a portion of Highway 120, anticipating that the fire would spread north toward Tioga Pass, the highest elevation route through the Sierra.
About 50 homes in the towns of El Portal and Foresta were under evacuation orders, and roads in the area will remain closed through today, Mates said.
Bay Area section: A Placer County blaze burns up to 700 acres, scorching businesses and homes.
And like those homes the govt allows to be built near the shorelines as the cyclones rage around them each year, these homeowners are allowed to built in these firetraps of forests out near LA. I always figured some people, like moths, are just attracted to the flames.