More than 40 Los Angeles firefighters have been sent to Monterey County to battle a fire that has claimed one life, burned at least 1,200 acres and consumed at least 10 homes, city and county firefighters said Sunday.
The City of Los Angeles sent 25 firefighters and a battalion chief, plus five fire trucks, to the Tassajara Fire. Los Angeles County sent a camp crew with about 16 prison inmate/firefighters, plus three county firefighters, officials with each agency told City News Service.
The city crews will be in Central California for at least 14 days to help battle the fire, which is burning near the town of Jamesburg, said Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department. That fire is burning near wineries in the Santa Lucia Mountains, 20 miles east of Big Sur and 40 miles south of Salinas. and
Nearly 600 firefighters were battling the blaze, one of 10 large fires burning in the northern half of the state.
The Tassajara Fire is 10 percent contained, according to Cal Fire, and 25 houses have been destroyed in Monterey County.
More than 880 homes have been destroyed by fires north of Napa, in Lake County. And fires burning in Calaveras County, in the Sierra foothills, have taken out more than 250 homes and still threaten 6,400 homes today.
— City News Service