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A Catalina Express ferry was leaving from Long Beach, filled with dozens of firefighters with axes, chainsaws and other equipment. They were headed to Avalon Harbor to join fire crews on the lines.
-Seema Mehta
L.A. County Fire Department Inspector Sam Padilla said the fire had grown to 4,000 acres. Some 300 to 400 people have been evacuated voluntarily from the island, he said.
--Rebecca Trounson
L.A. County fire says 4,000 acres have burned on Catalina Island.
-Rebecca Trounson
Several hundred evacuees were in the Catalina Express terminal building in Long Beach. Some were watching the television coverage in the lounge area, while others boarded Long Beach transit buses to shelters at nearby Cesar Chavez Park. Some evacuees were staying with relatives in San Pedro or Wilmington.
Amanda Cervantes said she has lived on the island for 24 years. She said many people who were waiting to board boats on the island were crying and fainting as thick smoke and ash rained down on them.
"It's heartbreaking," she said. "It's not a good scene."
-Jeff Rabin
Assistant City Manager Pete Woolson said the situation was calmer. "It seems to be holding at this point. We went as far as a voluntary evacuation of the entire town, but things are fairly stable right now."
Nonetheless, he said, "the wilder areas of the island are still burning. There's a lot of fuel out there."
-Rebecca Trounson
Avalon Fire Chief Steve Hoefs said, "The operation went extremely well, although we had one or two firefighters who suffered smoke inhalation and were taken off the island. The fire is zero percent contained. We held the fire from expensive homes, from hotels, schools and condominiums. We saved all of those structures. We did lose a few modest homes in Avalon Canyon."
He said the operaton included five water-dropping helicopters and eight fixed-wing aircraft. Late Thursday night two hovercraft arrived from Camp Pendleton, each carrying five engines.
Hoefs said the helicopters would begin flying again about 6 a.m. He said approximately 300 to 400 residents have been evacuated from this island "but the majority of the populaton of about 3,600 is still here." He said many of them are in the harbor area staying in businesses and homes.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
 The evacuation center in downtown Long Beach (at Cesar E. Chavez Park, left) expects more than 700 evacuees, including some from a middle school science camp.
-Ashley Powers
Avalon Fire Chief Steve Hoefs said although much of the attention and the firefighting strategy were devoted to protecintg Avalon, "The fire continues to burn out of control in the interior of the island."
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Avalon City Councilman Scott Nelson said: "We've lost five or six small businesses in Falls Canyon and a construction company building in Birdpark Canyon." He also said that evacuees who took refuge in the casino, which is without power, have been moved to another location.
Nelson said about 100 firefighters were battling the blaze and that another 200 new recruits, arriving by hovercraft and Marine helicopters, were bedding down at the airport to work the day shift in the morning. Catalina Express was also running extra boats through the night to take people off the island.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
L.A. County Fire Department Inspector Sam Padilla said one city-owned commercial building has burned, along with several outbuildings. He did not know the location of the buildings. No homes have been damaged, he said.
-Rebecca Trounson
Bryan Ballard, CEO of Catalina Island Medical Center, said : "The hospital was evacuated at 3 p.m. and we moved our six patients into the City Council chambers," where they remained late Thursday.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. Pete Cacheiro said hundreds of people were being evacuated from Catalina on Catalina Express ferries. One carrying about 180 people had already arrived at San Pedro harbor, with another carrying about 380 soon to arrive at Long Beach Harbor. Other ferries were being loaded in Avalon Harbor.
Cacheiro said those who came in on the boats would be taken to two locations: Cesar Chavez Park at 401 Golden Ave in Long Beach and San Pedro High School, 1001 W. 15th Street in San Pedro. Both were being staffed by the Red Cross, he said.
Cacheiro spoke from the county's emergency operations center in East Los Angeles, which was activated late Thursday afternoon in response to the fire.
-Rebecca Trounson
At 8:20 p.m., Avalon Fire Chief Steve Hoefs said: "We're in danger of losing the Birdpark Canyon Housing complex of 30 to 40 homes." He also said that he had received a report that power was out at the historic landmark known as the Avalon Casino. The fire also threatened a city public works area.
Avalon City Counciman Scott Nelson said: "It was due to happen, a hundred year fire."
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Boats are taking hundreds of Avalon evacuees off the island to Long Beach and San Pedro. One just arrived in San Pedro, the other should arrive soon in Long Beach.
-Rebecca Trounson
Standing outside a nearly empty Avalon City Hall about 8 p.m., his hands on his hips, Joe Voci, 85, a resident of Avalon since 1956, shook his head in dismay, muttering, "The biggest mistake the Catalina Conservancy ever made was getting rid of those goats -- the goats kept the darn brush down."
About 8:10 p.m., 30- to 40-foot-high wind-whipped flames could be seen about an eighth of a mile from the entrance of the Avalon fire station at the base of the foothills as a water-dropping helicopter whirled overhead.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Dozens of people watched the fire from the top of Signal Hill, 26 miles away. Even from that vantage point, the wall of flames on the islands were clearly seen.
"It looks like a volcano erupting," said Kevin Lembke of Long Beach.
-Jeff Rabin
About 7:45 p.m., the fire had reached the edge of town. Enormous 20 to 25 foot high flames could be seen near the high school and cemetery by many residents along the corner of Beacon Street and Sumner Avenue, where there are many vintage woodframe and stucco homes.
"This is it," said resident Terri Hernandez. "It's on its way now."
L.A. County Fire Department officials say the fire is still about 500 plus acres and is now a quarter to half mile from the city.
Capt. Mike Brown said there are 160 firefighters on the ground, with additional units arriving at Catalina by land and air. He said the department has requested help from Los Angeles City Fire Department, as well as Orange County and the state.
Brown said he did not anticipate a need to evacuate the island itself, but said there were contingency plans in case that is needed. "If we need to get people off the island, we do have the ability to transport people via Catalina Express and other vessels," Brown said. "I don't think it's going to evolve to that. I strongly believe we have the resources on the ground and enroute to handle this."
-Rebecca Trounson
Several residents in town could be seen on rooftops hosing down the homes as the fire marched forward. City workers were telling residents that they may have to evacuate the entire island.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
About 7:30 p.m., the fire continued to move over the ridge and down the hill toward the city, in some cases flames could be seen about a quarter mile away. About a dozen hotel workers, who appeared to be among the last people to leave the area, were traipsing down to the waterfront, covering ther faces with towels, bandanas, scarves and jacket sleeves.
--Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Avalon assistant city manager Pete Woolson spoke from an open vehicle as he toured the town: "There are a lot of helicopters overhead ... the fire is getting real close, it's licking at the outskirts of town. I hope they can hold it off."
-Rebecca Trounson
 At 7 p.m. flames were marching down the hill toward the city just north of town. Island resident Jessie Lomeli, 23, was rocking her 8-month-old daughter in a carry all covered with a blanket.
She was rocking her baby with her left hand and waving off falling ashes with her right hand. "I wish I had a mask because of all the smoke," said Lomeli, who has lived on the island for seven years. "It's hard to breathe."
No sooner had she completed that comment when a golf cart roared to a stop and hospital workers leaped out to begin passing out face masks.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Firefighters were concerned that the island relies on two reservoirs filled with 500,000 gallons of seawater that's pumped into them to fight fires.
"A half a million gallons of water goes pretty fast if there's a large structure fire," said volunteer firefither Ryan Ramming, 33, shaking his head.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Among those herding to the Catalina Express dock to leave the island, Michael E. Gallery stood out in his Panama hat, blue blazer with gold buttons and red power tie. Gallery said he had just completed a speech before the Western Area Chambers of Commerce on "The Seven Measures of Success" at the island's Zane Grey golf course resort when "firefighters calmly urged us to move down to the beach."
At 6:45 p.m., he was hoping to get to LAX in time to catch the redeye to Chicago. Looking out at the enormous orange gray and white cloud rising off the surrounding hills and water-dropping helicopters crisscrossing overhead, Gallery said, with a smile, "this will all be good fodder for future lectures on surviving catastrophes."
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Assistant City Manager Pete Woolson was feeling somewhat optimistic with the huge air response to the fire. "It looks promising right now. The fire bombers seem to be doing pretty good work. I just heard that the landing craft have arrived, the Hovercraft from Camp Pendleton, bringing more personnel and equipment....They seem to be holding it off."
-Rebecca Trounson
Scott Dennis, director of visitor and volunteer services for the Catalina Island Conservancy, said the aircraft appeared to be having an effect.
"The fire crested the ridgeline about 20 minutes ago and was coming down the hill," Dennis said. But he said with aircraft making regular drops of fire retardant, flames that had been perhaps 40 or 50 feet high had dropped significantly, to around 10 or 15 feet, he said.
"It looks like the fire on the ridge has really slowed dramatically now. I'm seeing small flames now, not the big leaping flames. It's really good to see that they're abating quite a bit."
-Rebecca Trounson
Avalon City Planner Amanda Cook said the situation appeared to be improving. "It looks better at the moment," Cook said. "There have been some pretty regular drops by the airplanes and the fire doesn't seem to be advancing as much now." She said the smoke appeared whiter as well.
Cook said the evacuations had included the Hamilton Cove condominium project and apartment complexes on the western edge of town, along with the Avalon Municipal Hospital, a facility of about a dozen beds.
-Rebecca Trounson
At about 2 p.m., emergency sirens blared over Avalon: an urgent call for volunteers to stop whatever they were doing and report for duty to fight a fire out of control. An hour later firefighters were traversing Avalon streets with bullhorns telling people to evacuate.
"The trouble is the island is so dry everything just went up like crazy," said Michael Mead, manager of Island Rentals.
By 6:30 p.m. The streets were filled with pickup trucks leaving residences with antique furniture strapped down with ropes. Tourist industry workers were also gathering their belongings and gawking at the advancing fire.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
L.A. County Fire Department officials now say the wildfire is at least 500 acres and growing at a rapid clip.
-Richard Winton
Denise Leary, a vacationer from Washington, D.C., was kayaking about noon toward Long Point and about 45 minutes later saw the cloud of white smoke appear over the horizon.
"I saw the cloud rise and realized it was a wildfire. I went down the island a little further to Gallagher's Beach and I could see the flames licking the top of the ridge."
Leary said she could still see the kids at the camp nearby playing.
"I saw the clouds of smoke get bigger and bigger and didn't see the resources move in to around 2 p.m. to tackle the fire," she said. Then authorities began evacuating the camp with the kids and as she paddled back into the harbor they began to evacuate parts of town nearest the hills. "It was very disorganized. Some of the locals believed they'd bring in a cruise ship for them - which I found out was wrong. There's a lot of people vacationing. Some people told me they went to their hotel and it was shut up. They couldn't get thousands of dollars of luggage. There is sooty white stuff coming down all over town," she said.
-Richard Winton
About 200 people were waiting at the Avalon Harbor dock to board a vessel back to the mainland. A few feet away, dozens of firefighters from the mainland were getting ready to join the battle.
Smoke cast long dark shadows on the sea as eerie amber light and ash fell like light snow over Avalon.
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Several hundred people amassed around the water's edge about 6:30 p.m. as rumors spread that the entire island might be evacuated. Some had masks on their faces, their belongings in bulging backpacks and suitcases. The town was nearly empty. Stores are closed.
Some residents said that they heard that two Coast Guard cutters were enroute to evacuate people from the island.
"I've lived here 53 years. I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Michael Mead, manager of Island Rentals, which rents golf carts to tool around the community. "It's pretty scary. This happened 100 years ago and now it's happening again. You can see the flames now coming over the ridge into town. It's horrible."
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Standing at the bow of the Catalina Express taxi as it pulled into Avalon Harbor, Avalon volunteer fireighter Ryan Ramming, 33, surveyed flames just a mile north of the city and said, "Oh, man. This is the biggest fire I've ever seen this close to town. A lot of older people live on the fireside of Avalon. It just doesn't seem real. We've been trianing for this for two months. We've been doing wildland training for the last four fire drills since Christmas. It's the dryest year in decades, and it's going to be a long night."
-Louis Sahagun in Avalon
Dan Teckenoff, publisher of the Catalina Islander, reached by telephone, said he was ripping up part of the front page to get in a picture and story of the fire.
"The hills of Catalina are on fire," he said by telephone.
He said he could hear aircraft dropping retardant. City Hall was closed and officials had moved to a Catholic Church that was serving as an ad hoc evacuation center.
"There’s an eerie glow over the town. We need to leave," Teckenoff said. He said his priorities are getting out the paper then, "I need to pack my things and move out of my house." He said he doesn’t know where he will sleep tonight. The island is noted for the bison that roam the hills in the fire-damaged area. "They’re probably running for cover.
-Michael Muskal
Wayne Griffin, president and executive director of Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, said, "We have fixed winged aircraft dropping fire retardant between the fire and the city. We are seeing flames on the top of the ridge. It is getting somewhat scarier. Some of the hotels have been evacuated and we are making plans to accommodate people elsewhere."
Griffin said the fire response by hovercraft from Camp Pendleton was used last year to quash a wildfire and the firefighters are experienced in the island's mountainous terrain.
-Richard Winton
Prospective island visitors received the bad news at the Catalina Express counter with a terse message: "The island is on fire."
Among those anxiously waiting to board the last boat out of San Pedro was Karin Sharafi, 48, who was concerned about the fate of her family's 1,000-square-foot, 99-year-old home on Sumner Avenue in Avalon. The wood house survived a major fire in 1915 that destroyed much of the city, Sharafi said.
"I was just going over there today to relax," said the Torrance Police Department computer specialist. "Now I'm just hoping they can keep the fire away and that the wind blows in another direction."
-Louis Sahagun
A firefighter is injured and being treated for smoke inhalation on Catalina.
-Richard Winton
Lisa Bradley, 61, owner of Brown's Bikes rental, said some friends were leaving their homes and heading toward the town's harbor and beaches.
"I'm going to get things from my house and come back closer to the beach," said Bradley, who was waiting for the return of a few bikes before closing up shop. "You can see the flames on the hill now."
-Jesus Sanchez
Pete Woolson, Avalon's assistant city manager, said there was a precautionary evacuation on the west side of town only, including the hospital, school and warehouse area. "What I'm hearing from the chatter on the radio, they're getting an upper hand on it now," Woolson said. "I'm observing the fire bombers. They're working and it sounds like they're making progress. I'm pretty hopeful."
-Rebecca Trounson
The Santa Catalina Island Co. website has a webcam showing the view from Avalon Harbor, the mountains and other vantage points.
-Richard Winton
Leslie Shannon, speaking by telephone from the rectory of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Avalon, said she was ordered out of her condo so she went to the church for safety. The building and courtyard are filling up with people, she said.
"We came over to the church because it was a place to go. Everybody is leaving their homes."
"The fire is moving very quickly toward the town. Every person who can fight the fire is out there fighting it right now."
The fast-moving flames are being fanned by the wind, which she estimated at 15 to 20 miles an hour.
-Michael Muskal
Visitors to the island are being refunded by the boat company and hotels, according to Catalina Express officials. The next boat, which leaves at 5:05, was restricted to firefighters and residents.
-Louis Sahagun
At the San Pedro berth for the Catalina Express water taxi, several passengers were demanding refunds for the scheduled 5:05 p.m. trip to the island as the fire continued to burn. A towering plume of smoke from the southern end of the island was visible from dockside.
Army Col. Charles Lane, 44, and his wife, both on vacation from Atlanta, Ga., were among those who had to change their plans at the last minute after learning of the disconcerting news at the ticket counter.
"We're canceling because they're evacuating the island," Lane said. "We don't want regrets. We're disappointed but not disuaded."
Added Lane: "We'll definitely be back."
--Louis Sahagun
The Catalina Island fire is now over 400 acres with evacuations in progress and major fire resources on the way to the island on a massive Navy hovercraft, L.A. County fire officials said. Capt. Mike Brown said with fire heading eastward toward Avalon, some evacuations are under way in the areas near to the fire.
Brown said large Navy hovercrafts are bringing in additional firefighters and engines from Camp Pendleton to battle the wildfire. At least two camps on the island have been evacuated.
-Richard Winton
Bob Rhein of the Catalina Island Conservancy said he could see the flames and several aircraft dropping fire retardant on the blaze from where he waited on the Catalina Express in Avalon Harbor for a return trip to the mainland.
He said the fire was visible just over the ridgeline to the west of town, but had not jumped the hill, at least so far. Rhein, media relations director for the conservancy, said he could see two fixed wing aircraft dropping retardant and several helicopters fighting the fire.
"It's smoky and there's lots of thick ash dropping right now," Rhein said. "I can see an entire hillside going up in flames, but it's still quite a way from Avalon."
Rhein said the west side of town was being evacuated, including the Avalon Canyon area north of town, near the golf course.
-Rebecca Trounson
Continue reading "West side of Avalon evacuated" »
At the Catalina Canyon Resort & Spa on Country Club Road in Avalon, a clerk who answered the phone just before 4 p.m. said she was too busy to talk. "We're being evacuated," she said. "Got to go. Right now."
-Rebecca Trounson
At least one fixed-wing water-dropping aircraft has joined choppers in fighting the Catalina Island blaze. L.A. Fire Dept. Capt Michael Brown said more resources are coming from Camp Pendleton.
-Richard Winton
The fire started around 12:30 p.m. between Hay Press and the KBIG radio station tower, about three miles outside Avalon, according to Wayne Griffin, executive director of the Catalina Chamber of Commerce.
Two camps nearby have been evacuated. But Avalon remains calm, he said, and residents are taking a wait and see attitude. One problem is getting accurate information because most fire officials are on the lines.
-Richard Winton
An out-of-control brush fire burned more than 100 acres on Catalina Island today as fire officials rushed resources to the island to fight the blaze.
L.A. County fire officials said the blaze was burning about three miles from Avalon, pushed by moderate westerly winds.
Officials said the fire was being held back from populated areas by a dirt road that runs around the perimeter of Avalon.
"The good news is that it is being held by one of our dirt roads," said Assistant City Manager Pete Woolson.
Avalon has not been evacuated.
Sixty firefighters were en route by boat and helicopter from the mainland more than 20 miles away, said L.A. County Fire Capt, Mike Brown.
"We may get the Coast Guard involved."
-Richard Winton and Rebecca Trounson
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