Firefighters losing ground against Sierra Madre blaze

The evacuation zone of the 490-acre blaze expands as containment slips, Times staffers report.

The blaze was about 23% contained this morning, officials said, down from 30% Sunday night. No homes have burned, but structures are still threatened.

Read The Times' full story here.

Meanwhile, the evacuation zone has been expanded, the SGV Trib reports.

The evacuation zone is being extended west to Michillinda Avenue at the border of Sierra Madre and Pasadena, said Marc Peebler, battalion chief of Southern California Incident Management Team 3, an emergency response group made up of area fire agencies.

A total of 1,100 people have been evacuated. Officials plan to meet again this afternoon to reassess the situation. Trib's full story here.  More updates on Sierra Madre News Net.

Pix and video from Times photogs here.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: AP

Comments

[Kris]

Is this caused by global cooling?

[LAFD]

While dramatic, the headline "Firefighters losing ground..." seems needlessly alarming and simplistic given the facts of the fire.

[John Anderson]

I could never figure out why the US media, LA Times especially,
could not find its way to the Il-76 waterbomber story until I read
Vladimir Putin say to Reuters the US leadership wishes not to
accept the Russian hand in friendship and Vitaly Churkin say
(to Charlie Rose) very little published in the US paints Russia
in any favorable way.

ergo - because the US leadership wishes not to see the Russians
as friends and because the US media is complicit, the US wildfire
victim community suffers for it.