LOS ANGELES — Two huge wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds burned into neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, forcing frantic evacuations on smoke- and traffic-choked highways, destroying homes and causing at least two deaths.
More than 1,000 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft battled the 5,300-acre Marek fire at the northeast end of the San Fernando Valley, and the 3,000-acre Sesnon fire in the Porter Ranch area at the west end. Winds blew up to 45 mph with gusts reaching 70 mph.
Authorities confirmed more than three dozen mobile homes burned at the Marek Fire, and TV news helicopter crews counted about 10 homes destroyed by the Sesnon Fire.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Frank Garrido said one person was killed in a fiery head-on collision around midday when police closed the 118 Freeway because of flames from the Porter Ranch fire. TV news helicopters showed vehicles turning around and driving against traffic to use an on-ramp as an exit.
Earlier, a fatality was discovered at the Marek fire, in an area where neighborhoods abut rugged canyonlands below the mountainous Angeles National Forest. The man appeared to have been a transient living in a makeshift shelter, officials said.
In northern California, a blaze charred more than half of San Francisco Bay’s largest island but spared scores of historical structures.
