Smoke still fills the air

Although La Crescenta was spared from the destruction of this week’s Southern California fires, the effects of the blazes have reached us nonetheless.

Smoke filled the skies over the city on Tuesday afternoon, blotting out the sun. Students in Glendale Unified School District were placed on a restricted outdoor recess schedule and outdoor games were canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of Thursday afternoon 12 fires were still burning in Southern California; over 400,000 acres had been burned; over 880,000 people had been evacuated from fire danger areas. Around Crescenta Valley, firefighters and sheriff’s station personnel had been deployed to fire areas, primarily those within this county.

“We are on 12-hour shifts,” said Sgt. Ray Harley of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“We just get in and are called out again,” affirmed Battalion Chief Ed Broomfield of Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 82 in La Cañada, as he headed back out to the Santa Clarita area.

Tom Propst of the Glendale Fire Department said that the department had deployed equipment and personnel as support where needed. While they were deployed, other Glendale firefighters took their place at local stations so as not to leave the area short-handed.

Sheriff personnel and California Highway Patrol were on tactical alert, according to spokespersons at both agencies. All vacations and days off were canceled. In the CHP everyone was on call, said CHP Officer Todd Workman.

On Tuesday, the Angeles National Forest invoked an emergency shut down due to extreme fire danger. Angeles Crest Highway remained open, but U.S. Forestry Service personnel and CHP officers patrolling the forest advised visitors to leave immediately and all forest use permits were canceled, reported Stanton Florea, fire information officer for the U.S. Forestry Service.

For some time firefighters had warned Southern California residents that the dry vegetation and lack of moisture created an elevated fire danger. Last year’s fire season, normally beginning in October and ending in the spring, was never-ending because fire officials said the danger continued unabated. The Santa Ana winds blowing through the Southland this week heightened the danger and hindered firefighting.