(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency)
Los Angeles, Shawwal 20, 1437, July 25, 2016, SPA -- More than 20,000 people have been forced to flee a wildfire north of Los Angeles that had scorched thousands of hectares by Monday, as firefighters battled for control of the region's biggest fire to date this year, according to dpa.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the Sand Fire had burned more than 13,000 hectares in the Angeles National Forest and destroyed at least 18 structures since it began along a rural highway Friday afternoon.
One person has died in the fire, a man whose burned body was found inside a parked car in a driveway, according to media reports.
Fire authorities Monday nearly doubled the firefighters battling the blaze to 3,000, hoping to turn the tide on a fire that was for the moment only 10 per cent contained.
The blaze started Friday afternoon alongside a canyon highway near Santa Clarita, 56 kilometres north of Los Angeles, fire authorities said. On Saturday it charged through the drought-parched hills "like a freight train," fire chief John Tripp told the Los Angeles Times.
--SPA
00:35 LOCAL TIME 21:35 GMT
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