Deadly Wildfires in Southern California Cause Road Closures

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

eadly wildfires in Southern California have closed roads and significantly disrupted air travel, news services reported.

From the Mexican border to the suburbs north of Los Angeles, large sections of the region were under siege Monday by six major fires and several smaller ones, the Associated Press reported.

A state of emergency has been declared in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura. At least 13 deaths have been caused by the fires.

Throughout the weekend, hundreds of miles of freeways and mountain roads were closed, including Interstate 210, an east-west highway running north of Los Angeles, and Interstate 15, the main route from Southern California to Las Vegas.

In addition, a stretch of Interstate 8 from Yuma, Ariz., to San Diego was closed intermittently on Sunday as fire and smoke from fire near San Diego threatened the highway, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

Flights into Southern California airports including Los Angeles International Airport and Lindbergh Field in San Diego were canceled for much of Sunday, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

In San Diego, only the most essential services would be operating on Monday.

The death toll is the worst since the 1991 fire in the Oakland hills of Alameda County that killed 25 and destroyed more than 3,200 homes and apartments.

10769