PALMDALE, Calif. -- A huge wildfire in the high desert wilderness north of Los Angeles jumped an aqueduct Friday, rushing toward hundreds of houses as firefighters also tried to keep flames from damaging power lines that bring electricity to Southern California.
About 2,000 structures were threatened and 300 homes were evacuated, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
Destiny Brown stood beside her family's tan Ford Taurus waiting for her mother and sisters to finish packing so they could leave their home in a smoke-clogged hillside subdivision on the outskirts of Palmdale.
"I never thought it would happen. I only thought it's on TV. It's really scary," the 19-year-old said as flames burned just out of sight.
When their home filled with smoke, the family decided it was time to go. Brown said she was especially concerned about her 10-month-old brother who has asthma.
Winds apparently carried embers across the wide concrete channel, with flames rapidly spreading to backyard fences at the edge of Palmdale. Smoke streamed across the city of 139,000 as a predicted afternoon increase in winds arrived.
Helicopters dipped buckets into the aqueduct to make rapid water drops. No homes immediately appeared to have been damaged. Numerous fire engines were in the area. A giant Boeing 747 supertanker arrived over Palmdale to join the battle.
"As you see, we are deploying everything that we've got," Schwarzenegger said at the fire command post.
Sustained winds of 10 mph to 20 mph were reported, said Los Angeles County fire Inspector Matt Levesque.
"We are actively moving resources to defend that area," he said.
Most of the homes in the area, however, are of recent construction with fire resistant roofs, stucco walls, boxed eaves and landscaped with fire-resistant vegetation, he said.
Temperatures neared 100 degrees with single-digit relative humidity, and the National Weather Service predicted gusts in the area up to 50 mph Friday night. The fire has burned more than 20 square miles since erupting Thursday and was 20 percent contained, Schwarzenegger said.
Elsewhere in the battle, aircraft bombarded flames on ridges above the Antelope Valley on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert, while 1,370 firefighters working in high heat sought to outflank the blaze no matter which way it moved.
Deputy Fire Chief Michael Bryant says an investigation into the cause of the fire was centering on workers who were hammering on some bolts to remove a tire rim. The workers were cooperating with the investigation.
The blaze spread rapidly after breaking out at midafternoon Thursday, triggering overnight evacuations of about 2,000 homes in rural areas and down to the western side of Palmdale.
One house and three mobile homes were destroyed, another house had roof damage, and various other outbuildings and garages were lost in the horse country region, authorities said.
The concrete channel of the California Aqueduct, which runs along the south edge of the Mojave Desert, had helped to contain the blaze.
Southern California Edison said the fire threatened five high-voltage transmission lines, but the California grid operator had put additional generation resources online and customers were not expected to be affected if the utility lost those lines.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power asked its customers to reduce electrical usage until the threat eased, but added that it had begun local generation and its system was functioning normally.
A DC-10 jumbo jet tanker that can carry 12,000- gallon loads dropped retardant, leaving orange slashes across ridges. Four other air tankers and nine helicopters also attacked the flames.
Southern California's big wildfires are usually associated with the fierce Santa Ana winds that blow withering dry air from the interior toward the coast. Winds this week have been blowing inland from out of the southwest as California experiences an unusually cool July with persistent coastal clouds.
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