4 firefighters die in Calif. wildfire labeled arson
1 other critically injured; 200 people evacuated; 400 trapped in RV park
POPPET FLAT, Calif. - A wind-whipped wildfire started by an arsonist killed four firefighters Thursday and stranded up to 400 people in an RV park when flames burned to the edge of the only road out, officials said.
“Everybody is hunkered down here. They’re fighting the fire around us. It’s across the street from us,” said Charles Van Brunt, a ranger at the station at the entrance to Silent Valley Club, the recreational vehicle park near Palm Springs. The residents were in no immediate danger, he said.
Authorities asked people in the RV park to stay put to leave roads clear for firefighters. Hundreds of others in the area were forced from their homes.
Fire officials said the blaze was deliberately set around 1 a.m. Fire Chief John Hawkins said the arson “constitutes murder.”
It was the deadliest wildfire firefighting disaster in the United States since July 10, 2001, when four firefighters were killed in Washington’s Okanogan National Forest. They died after becoming trapped by flames on a dusty dead-end road in a remote canyon.