LOS ANGELES, USA (Reuters) — Fire officials said that they had effectively stopped the uncontrolled spread of a massive brush fire on the northern edge of Los Angeles on Monday, but were still working to contain it, according to local news sources.
More than 1,000 firefighters are battling the fire, dubbed the La Tuna Fire, which started in Los Angeles County on Friday and has rapidly burned thousands of acres of land.
California Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday issued an emergency proclamation for the county in response to the fire, which has injured two firefighters and other four people.
It came at the urging of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said that the fire is the largest in the city’s history in terms of sheer acreage.
The massive wildfire prompted a new round of evacuation orders on Sunday affecting residents in roughly 700 homes, according to reports.
At one point the fire was estimated at 3,200 hectares, but later on Saturday night fire officials issued a revised estimate of about 2,800 hectares.
The heavy smoke caused by the wildfire has covered Los Angeles for days, leading to health concerns for locals, while major roads have also closed, causing major traffic disruption.
Two weeks before the wildfire occurred, Los Angeles suffered days of extreme hot weather, with the highest temperatures exceeding 42 degrees Celsius.
Wildfires in the U.S. West have burned more than 2.9 million hectares since the beginning of the year, about 50 percent more than during the same time period in 2016, according to figures from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
