Wildfires threaten Los Angeles

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Wildfires threaten Los Angeles

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Firefighters beat back flames on Los Angeles' doorstep Tuesday, saving hundreds of homes in the city's San Fernando Valley. But exhausted crews were pulled back in San Diego County even though two devastating blazes threatened to merge into a super fire.

Ten thousand firefighters were on the front lines throughout the state, battling California's deadliest wildfires in more than a decade.

The death toll rose to at least 17 Tuesday after two more people were killed in San Bernardino County.

Since Oct. 21, at least 10 wind-driven wildfires -- many of them arson-caused -- have rampaged through Southern California, demolishing neighborhoods, gutting businesses and blackening more than half a million acres of land from the Mexican border to the Ventura-Los Angeles county line. Nearly 1,600 homes have been destroyed. Two burn victims were in critical condition in San Diego.

This may be the worst disaster the state has ever faced and is likely to be the costliest," Gov. Gray Davis said, estimating the cost at nearly $2 billion.

Firefighters had feared they would lose hundreds of homes late Monday and early Tuesday as a fire in the hills between Los Angeles and Ventura counties threatened to push into neighborhoods in the densely populated San Fernando Valley, including one gated community of million-dollar mansions.

Source: Agencies

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