今天早上起床拉開窗簾一驚，怎麼～我是睡了一整天嗎？怎麼外面天色是黃昏景致？空氣中還飄盪著粉塵…尤其那火紅的太陽真是嚇人。看看牆上的老時鐘，明明就是晨間時刻，按往常慣例扭開電視開關、泡咖啡啃著可頌麵包，天啊！大火已經快燒到家門口，長達4天的山林野火，竟在附近的Diamond Bar市山區爆發。
由於聖塔安納焚風影響，加上低濕度與高溫使然，在幾天前新聞即發出紅旗警報，代表山區很有可能爆發野火。結果不出所料，幾個區域陸續竄出火苗，萬沒料到的是在十幾分鐘車程外的Diamond Bar，竟然也捲入烈焰肆虐之中。
打開電腦上網，MSN那端朋友傳來問候，想知道我家這邊情況如何，幸好疏散命令也還沒發到家門口，但因距離火場不算非常遠，所以跨出家門口外，只看到飄散的灰屑漂浮著，而我車子已經被一堆灰覆蓋，待這次大火後得好好為其清潔一番。這次南加州大火給我的另一個影響，是空氣品質變得非常差，到處都聞得到焦味，且由於火勢增長，導致部分公路關閉，高速公路不少區段都出現壅塞車潮，加上天空灰濛濛的，真讓人感覺很差…。
今年氣候相當反常，明明進入11月份，但每天熱到可以穿著短褲汗衫趴趴走，白晝開車也要掛著墨鏡，四周景象看來毫無秋意或冬意，真懷疑自己到底是住在哪裡？真希望大火趕快褪散，電視新聞轉播那些房子被焚燬的受災民眾表情，真的是讓人心頭一揪，怎麼樣都快樂不起來。
拿起話筒撥給幾位家住火場不遠的朋友，幸好他們都平安無事，在這種非常時刻真得要付出點關懷，一般人家都開不了口，而我們能適當雪中送炭的話，也是美事一件，確定周邊沒有需要避難的案例，我終於鬆了一口氣。
照片擷取自YAHOO新聞網站
美國11月16日美聯社更新消息。
DIAMOND BAR, Calif. – More residents of Southern California were urged to leave their homes Sunday despite calming winds that allowed a major aerial attack on wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and blanketed the region in smoke.
Fires burned in Los Angeles County, to the east in Riverside and Orange counties, and to the northwest in Santa Barbara County. More than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments were destroyed by fires that have burned areas more than 34 square miles since breaking out Thursday.
No deaths have been reported, but police brought in trained dogs Sunday morning to search the rubble of a mobile home park where nearly 500 homes were destroyed. They didn’t find any bodies after searching about a third of the homes.
"This has been a very tough few days for the people of Southern California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after touring damage.
The smell of smoke pervaded metropolitan Los Angeles. Downtown skyscrapers were silhouettes in an opaque sky, and concerns about air quality forced organizers to cancel a marathon in suburban Pasadena where 8,000 runners had planned to participate.
Fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the fires on Saturday weakened Sunday morning, allowing firefighters to set backfires to prevent flames from advancing to hillside neighborhoods. Air tankers swooped low over suburbs, red fire retardant billowing from their bellies as they painted defensive lines between brushlands and homes. Big helicopters shuttled back and forth on water drops.
The most threatening blaze had scorched more than 16 square miles in Orange and Riverside counties after erupting Saturday and shooting through subdivisions entwined with wilderness parklands. By midday Sunday, multimillion-dollar homes were being threatened in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County as the out-of-control fire pushed northward.
Fire officials on Sunday morning ordered 1,400 more residents to evacuate, in addition to 26,500 who had already been told to leave.
Retired aerospace engineer Joe Gomez, who has lived in his palm-tree-lined Diamond Bar neighborhood for 45 years, stayed put despite being under a mandatory evacuation.
"I’m trying to use some logic here," said Gomez, 72, trying to gauge the direction of the wind and flames. "I don’t think it’s going to come down this way."
Gomez packed a bag with important documents in case he decided to leave. His wife, a stroke victim, left with their daughters earlier in the day.
"My daughters were really thinking I was nuts. They said, `These are mandatory evacuations." I said, ’You guys just relax.’"
In the early morning, winds pushed flames dangerously close to a church and adjacent mobile home park in the Olinda Village area north of Yorba Linda, but firefighters were able to beat it back. Only one mobile home was lost.
Billy Bagsby, an inmate firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the flames suddenly shifted direction around 2 a.m.
"It was like the church was protecting itself," Bagsby said.
On Saturday, the fire burned 119 homes in the communities of Corona, Yorba Linda and Anaheim. In addition, 50 units of an apartment complex burned, Orange County fire spokeswoman Angela Garbiso said.
Capt. Guy Melker of the Los Angeles County Fire Department stood on a balcony of a multimillion-dollar home in Diamond Bar, looking down into a canyon with flames on the far side.
"It’s an interesting chess game right now," Melker said. "Sometimes Mother Nature puts us in check, and our job is to put her in checkmate."
As Melker spoke, a small spotter plane slipped low across a ridge, followed by a big air tanker that dropped its load along a ridge.
In the Orange County city of Brea, fire destroyed the main building of a high school.
About 50 miles to the northwest, a fire that burned more than 14 square miles in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley was 30 percent contained after devastating a luxury mobile home park early Saturday. The fire was largely burning in a rugged wilderness canyon.
Authorities said Sunday that 484 of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park’s 608 units were lost. The Sylmar fire also destroyed nine single-family homes and 11 commercial buildings.
The park was home to many elderly residents, and though no fatalities were reported and no one was reported missing, investigators were searching the site using trained dogs. The search was about 30 percent complete by midday Sunday.
"To this point no human remains have been found," said Deputy Police Chief Michael Moore.
Fire officials estimated that at the peak of the Sylmar fire, 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate. However, many evacuation orders were lifted Saturday night, Fire Department spokesman Ron Haralson said. Five looting arrests were reported.
About 90 miles northwest of Sylmar, a 3-square-mile fire that began in the upscale Santa Barbara County community of Montecito on Thursday night was 75 percent contained by Sunday morning after injuring at least 25 people.
County spokesman William Boyer said 130 homes burned in the city of Santa Barbara and 80 burned in adjacent Montecito. Some of those destroyed were multimillion-dollar homes with ocean views. Many evacuees have been allowed to return home.
____
Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Alex Veiga and Alicia Chang contributed to this report.
由於南加山林野火的爆發，加上破紀錄的高溫與乾燥氣候肆虐，洛杉磯縣與橙縣地區直到周一，空氣品質均處於不良的狀態。另外，洛杉磯聯合學區（Los Angeles Unified School）位於聖弗南度谷（San Fernando Valley）的校區也被迫關閉。
除了校區因空氣品質和野火爆發關閉，有關的其他體育活動也得暫時終止，周日LAUSD的代表布魯爾（David Brewer）召開記者會，對外宣佈位於火場附近地區的所屬學校，於周日下午4點鐘關閉。南灣空氣品質管理局（South Coast Air Quality Management District）評估，周日在橙縣和洛杉磯大部分區域空氣品質，均是處於不良的狀態，均肇因於聖塔安納焚風（Santa Ana Wind）的山林野火。
接近災區的周邊範圍，南灣空氣品質管理局呼籲民眾要停止戶內與戶外的活動，有呼吸道和心臟疾病者，以及老人、小孩均因盡量留在室內，另家中的門窗亦應緊閉切勿開啟，由於高氣壓籠罩整個洛杉磯盆地，因此在周一南加仍處於高溫的狀態。
由於南加山林野火緣故，9所位於布里亞（Brea）的公立學校周一關閉，包括一些日間育嬰與托兒所在內，這項消息由該地區的學校網站公開。另在約巴琳達（Yorba Linda）當地，普萊遜蒂亞-約巴琳達聯合學區（Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District）33所學校亦被迫關閉。
根據消息指出，布里亞聯合學區關閉學校後，將針對校園進行清掃整理工作，再開放學生陸續返校。另外，布里亞谷非傳統高中（Brea Canyon Alternative High School）校區在這次山火中受損，預定要關閉約3個月左右，該消息由布里亞市府發言人萊恩（Cindie Ryan）向媒體證實。
另在約巴琳達當地，境內的幾所日間育嬰托兒所也暫時關閉，按照學區的網站估計，到周二時便可重新對外開放。周一維修人員將進駐校區，進行安全與環境健康的維護工作。家長與學生欲瞭解最新的校區資訊，可前往
www.bousd.k12.ca.us查詢，或去電714-990-7800專線瞭解。
根據有關單位的消息，兩條高負載的捷運聯結火車（Metrolink）通勤列車線，因為南加山林野火造成最少其中一條路線軌道受損，因此得暫時被迫關閉。穿梭於洛杉磯和聖他克里塔（Santa Clarita）的軌道，和橙縣與河濱縣之間的軌道，因遭到洛杉磯盆地大火影響中斷，這項消息由捷運聯結火車的發言人歐克薩卡（Francisco Oaxaca）證實，至於何時通車，則得等當局進一步通知。
這項暫停通車的命令，還會再經過詳細評估，但是周一通車可能性到截稿為止，仍難以對外確定。由於部分區域電力中斷，使得通勤服務恢復需要更長時間，其中也包括了該局所營運的巴士業務。上周六在紐荷走道（Newhall Pass）的大火，洛杉磯消防局回報鐵軌也遭到了破壞，捷運聯結火車當局立刻暫停了該區的通勤業務。
羚羊谷線（Antelope Valley line）在日常上班周有12班通行，也包括聯合太平洋鐵路公司（Union Pacific）的貨運列車，如今遭到烈焰破壞，得經維修人員重新整理過，才能夠再度通車。歐克薩卡說道：「現在我們沒機會去檢查鐵軌，因為大火仍繼續延燒當中，所以無法評估災情有多嚴重。」在聖他克里塔（Santa Clarita）區域的無線電和信號作業均處於中斷狀態，主要是通信纜線和電塔均遭野火破壞。其他通勤路線是否受到影響，還得等候進一步的通知。
文章定位：
