Garcetti crossed the finish line of his two-year campaign to lead America’s second-largest city with 54 percent of the votes cast in Tuesday’s election to defeat City Controller Wendy Greuel, who garnered 46 percent.

He is slated to take office July 1, replacing incumbent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer who has served two terms and faced off against the city’s unions to implement budget cuts born of the economic downturn. He was unable to run again because of term limits.

Political analysts say Garcetti’s success may hinge on whether he is able to wring much needed cost-saving concessions from the city’s public employee unions.

The 42-year-old former Rhodes scholar and policy wonk with a reputation for consensus-building becomes the first elected Jewish mayor of Los Angeles.

The son of Jewish mother, he is recognized by many Angelinos as the son of former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who was the top prosecutor during O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in the 1990s.

“Thank you Los Angeles — the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years,” Garcetti said in a tweet early on Wednesday. “Let’s make this a great city again.”

Greuel, who was seeking to become the city’s first woman elected mayor, congratulated Garcetti in her concession speech.

“This was a hard-fought campaign, a hard-fought campaign, but I want to send a message everyone, that we have to roll up our sleeves and we have to fight for the future of Los Angeles. We have to help mayor-elect Eric Garcetti to make that happen,” she told reporters.

The results remain preliminary as some mail-in ballots have not been counted, said Jose Heras, a senior official in the City Clerk’s Office. The outstanding ballots are not expected to alter the election results.

The influence of organized labor became an issue during the race, with Garcetti questioning Greuel’s ability to obtain concessions from organized labor after unions representing city workers contributed heavily to her campaign.

The two liberal Democrats, once allies on the City Council, spent record sums vying for the city’s highest office. The race saw the Garcetti and Greuel campaigns spending $23.7 million combined, as outside groups poured in another $10.4 million in independent expenditures, according to the latest figures from the City Ethics Commission.

The election was marked by low voter turnout, with just over 19 percent of registered voters casting a ballot, according to election figures from the City Clerk’s Office.

First elected to City Council in 2001, he served as council president from 2006 to 2011 and has called attention to his record on environmental initiatives and his role in the urban revival of once-blighted areas in Hollywood, the area he has represented.

Garcetti has pledged to balance the city’s budget and stimulate job growth by expanding on green-tech initiatives such as converting more buildings to solar power and overhauling the city’s job-training program.

Marc Stanley, chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said in a statement that his group is “extraordinarily proud” that Garcetti is the “first Jewish American elected to serve as the mayor of America’s second largest city.”

In another contest, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich lost a combative race to former state Assemblyman Mike Feuer, who won with 62 percent of the vote on Tuesday, based on preliminary totals from the city’s election division.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman, Andrew Hay and Leslie Gevirtz)

The proposal appeared headed for passage. Returns showed 63 percent of voters supporting it compared with 37 percent opposed, after tabulation of more than 40 percent of ballots cast at polling stations on Tuesday, and all of the mail-in ballots received as of last Friday.

Two rival measures seemed likely to be defeated, with “no” votes far surpassing “yes” votes for each.

At least 800 storefront medical cannabis shops are estimated to be operating in Los Angeles, more than in any other U.S. city, and some residents have complained that the dispensaries are a blight on their neighborhoods.

Proposition D, placed on Tuesday’s ballot by the City Council, would cap the number of dispensaries allowed to remain open at 135, said Rigo Valdez, director of organizing for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, a union that supports the measure.

The UFCW has sought to expand its reach into the state-sanctioned marijuana industry by organizing dispensary workers. Many of the shops permitted to stay in business under the Proposition D already have union ties, according to the UFCW.

Despite the prospect of greater city controls, campaign officials say many medical marijuana dispensaries have joined the push for local regulation in an effort to gain legitimacy and stave off a potential federal crackdown.

California was the first of 18 states to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes. But pot remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law, and a number of dispensaries in Los Angeles and elsewhere have been raided or forced to shut down by federal authorities who said the facilities were fronts for large-scale drug trafficking.

Under Proposition D, taxes on medicinal pot would be increased from $50 per $1,000 in gross sales to $60 per $1,000 in gross sales.

Valdez said the push to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the city reflects “a community outcry” over proliferation of the facilities.

“I think that if the city attorney and the city of L.A. says, ‘We’ve got this,’” that the federal government stays out” of enforcement in Los Angeles, he said.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and W Simon)

The semi-hollow-body guitar, manufactured by the VOX company, was sold to an unidentified U.S. buyer at the “Music Icons” event organized by Beverly Hills, California-based Julien’s Auctions and held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan.

Julien’s said previously it expected the guitar, which was the centerpiece of Saturday’s sale, to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000.

Harrison played the instrument, distinguished by two symmetrical flared shoulders on the upper body, while practicing “I Am The Walrus,” and Lennon used it in a video session for the song “Hello, Goodbye,” according to a statement from Julien’s Auctions.

Both songs were on the Beatles’ 1967 album “Magical Mystery Tour.”

The VOX guitar was a prototype instrument custom-built for Lennon in 1966, said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s. Lennon gave the VOX guitar as a gift in 1967 to Yanni “Magic Alex” Mardas, who was the electronics engineer for the band’s Apple Records label, the auction house said.

The instrument, displayed in recent weeks at a museum in Ireland before the sale, was sold a few years ago by Christie’s Auction House for a little over $100,000. Nolan said the latest buyer, who sent a representative to Saturday’s auction to bid on his behalf, wished to remain anonymous.

Lennon was shot to death in New York in 1980 by a deranged fan, and Harrison died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 2001. The surviving members of the Beatles are Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

(Reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

The poll released late on Friday by the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy and the Los Angeles Times showed Garcetti favored by 48 percent of likely voters, compared with 41 percent for Greuel. Eleven percent of respondents said they were undecided.

The survey, conducted from Tuesday through Thursday, showed a narrowing of the race since a survey a month earlier by the same researchers gave Garcetti a 10-point lead over Greuel.

Garcetti was also the favored candidate among the 48 percent of poll respondents who had already voted by mail, versus 42 percent for Greuel.

Tuesday’s vote is a runoff between the two veteran Democrats, who in March were the top vote-getters in a primary election in which Garcetti got 33 percent and Greuel 29 percent. One of them would have had to have won more than 50 percent of the ballots cast to have been elected outright.

They are vying to replace Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is stepping down after eight years because of term limits.

The non-partisan campaign has centered on what Greuel and Garcetti agree is a dire financial outlook facing America’s second most populous metropolis, and the political clout commanded by the city’s public employee unions.

The city’s chief accountant has projected a $1.1 billion cumulative deficit over the next four years.

Garcetti, 42, is a former president of the Los Angeles City Council, where he has held office since 2001. He is also the son of former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who was the city’s top prosecutor during the murder trial of O.J. Simpson in the mid-1990s.

Greuel, 51, was a councilwoman before she became controller in 2009. She also served in former Mayor Tom Bradley’s administration.

Surveys released earlier this month by the Edmund G. Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs and Survey USA found the two candidates in a statistical tie.

The latest USC Price/LA Times poll indicated Garcetti had built a lead by forging an unusual coalition of liberal and conservative supporters and by winning over voters in the suburban and largely middle-class San Fernando Valley, which had been expected to be Greuel’s stronghold.

‘RACE CERTAINLY NOT OVER’

Dan Schnur, director of the USC Price/LA Times poll, said in a statement that “this race is certainly not over,” given expectations for low voter turnout on Tuesday and the high number of voters who remain undecided.

“This campaign has turned into a referendum on Wendy Greuel, and more specifically her support from public employee unions,” Schnur said.

Greuel has the backing of the union for workers at the city Department of Water and Power, which has contributed about $2 million to her campaign, while the police officers’ union has given over $1.4 million to groups supporting her candidacy.

Garcetti leads Greuel in campaign spending overall, with $9.4 million, compared with her expenditures of $8.9 million, according to figures from the City Ethics Commission. Much of that money has gone to a slew of negative television ads from both sides.

The USC Price/LA Times poll sampled 500 likely voters and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Cooney)

Jacob has become a standby for boys’ names, topping that category for the 14th straight year. Liam and Elizabeth broke into the Top 10 at No. 6 and No. 10 respectively, the SSA said in a statement.

But rising on the list are a couple of less traditional, but more attention-grabbing names. Messiah was the fourth fastest-growing name for boys, rising to 387th in 2012 from the 633th spot in 2011, according to the federal agency.

King became the seventh fastest-growing boy’s name, reaching the 256th most popular spot in 2012, compared with 389th the year before, the agency said.

“Bold names for boys are very hot right now,” said Laura Wattenberg, creator of the website BabyNameWizard.com.

“So for people who are appalled by the idea, most of us are not appalled by names like Emmanuel, which is very common today, and it wasn’t that long ago that the name Emmanuel was shocking to a lot of people,” she said.

That is partly because a passage in the Bible’s Book of Matthew links the ancient Israelite name to Jesus Christ, which Wattenberg said was seen in the past as too jarring an allusion for a baby name.

The name Major ranked as the fastest-growing boy’s name on the SSA list, jumping to 483rd most popular in 2012 from 988th in 2011.

“I have no doubt Major’s rising popularity as a boy’s name is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we’ll see more boys named General in the future,” Carolyn Colvin, acting commissioner of the SSA, said in a statement.

For girls, the fastest-growing name was Cataleya, Wattenberg said. It jumped to 479th in 2012 from 1,680 the previous year, she said, adding that could be attributed to actress Zoe Saldana playing an alluring assassin with that name in the 2011 film “Colombiana.”

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

Ramsey responded to cries from Amanda Berry and helped get her away from a neighbor’s house on Monday. He also got on the phone with emergency responders, actions that police say led to the rescue of two other women and a child from the home and could earn Ramsey reward money.

Ramsey, 43, has had brushes with the law in the past.

In 1993, he was convicted of receiving stolen property and received a one-year prison sentence, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Corrections. In 2003, he was convicted of domestic violence, for which he served a nine-month sentence, she said.

A court document from the 2003 case posted on the news website The Smoking Gun said Ramsey was arrested in Cleveland after assaulting his wife and that he had prior domestic violence convictions.

The woman, who is listed on Facebook as Rochelle Paschal and also by the last name Dukes, told The Smoking Gun she was now on an “okay basis” with Ramsey but that the abuse led her to file for divorce from him in 2003 while he was in prison.

Paschal did not respond to a Facebook message seeking comment, and she could not be reached by telephone.

On her Facebook page on Wednesday, Paschal wrote that people “do change and you shouldn’t hold the past against someone.” “The (main) thing is Charles Ramsey did a good deed and those girls are safe is that not the most important thing?” she wrote.

A voice-mail system for Ramsey was full on Wednesday and he could not be reached for comment. Mitchell Yelsky, who was Ramsey’s attorney in the 2003 case, said he remembered him as a “great guy to work for.”

“And now he’s Cleveland’s hero and he’s the hero of these three women and the child, so whatever he did in the past he’s redeemed for his heroic actions on Monday,” Yelsky said. He did not elaborate on details of the case.

‘TROUBLE SLEEPING’

Ramsey’s interview on Monday evening with local television reporters propelled him into the spotlight and was given the auto-tune treatment – when speech is digitally given a melody – with a backing music track, in a parody video that has been seen over 400,000 times on YouTube.

In the same interview, Ramsey mentioned he was eating a McDonald’s burger when he heard Berry’s screams, which led the restaurant chain to say in a tweet on Tuesday, “Way to go Charles Ramsey – we’ll be in touch.”

In interviews with ABC and CNN, Ramsey said he was not a hero. He told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday he was “having trouble sleeping” at the thought of having been a neighbor to Ariel Castro, who is accused of holding the three women and a child captive inside his house.

“See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey was the first person cast into the spotlight, but another neighbor of Ariel Castro, Angel Cordero, said in television interviews that he was the first one, not Ramsey, to arrive at the door in response to Berry’s screams.

“I pulled the door but it was locked with a chain, so I tried to open the door but I couldn’t, so I had to give it a few kicks,” he told CNN in Spanish.

Hodge’s restaurant, where Ramsey works as a dishwasher, produced a printed T-shirt featuring his face and the words “Cleveland’s Hero,” with the proceeds dedicated to the three kidnapped women.

The interest in the shirt, sold over the restaurant’s website, caused the site to crash on Wednesday, said the owner, Scott Kuhn. Kuhn said Ramsey had worked there for 10 months, adding he was a “character and he can get you to laugh, and I love that.”

Ramsey’s father, Charles Ramsey, 75, said in a phone interview that his son in coming to the aid of Berry had acted out the values of helping others that he instilled in him.

“I’m very proud and I’m also not surprised,” the elder Ramsey said.

In the 1990s, Ramsey served in the Army for four years, his father said. Ramsey’s family declined to comment on his past arrests.

Robert Thompson, who lectures on pop culture at Syracuse University, said Ramsey’s sudden fame, while it might distract from the suffering of the three women, was unavoidable in the digital age.

McDonald’s received some criticism for its public support for Ramsey.

“The idea of kind of going after a breaking news, I don’t know, product endorsement while the news is still breaking, yeah I think there are a lot of people who would consider that kind of crass,” Thompson said.

Asked about such criticism, McDonald’s spokeswoman Danya Proud said in a statement that “out of respect for the victims involved, as well as Mr. Ramsey, both McDonald’s and the local franchisees will personally be reaching out to Mr. Ramsey directly as we said we would in our tweet.”

Officials were still discussing how to distribute the reward money for the missing women, Cleveland deputy police chief Ed Tomba told reporters on Wednesday.

“Mr. Ramsey deserves something, a lot of credit and he is a true key to this case,” Tomba said.

(Additional reporting by Chris Francescani in New York; Editing by Frances Kerry)

The council, which represents more than 14,000 scouts and ranks as the nation’s 14th-largest scouting chapter, called for the Texas-based youth organization to go further by welcoming gays into the ranks of its adult volunteers as well.

In issuing its declaration on Tuesday urging a “true and authentic inclusion policy,” the Los Angeles group joined at least two branches in New York state that have pushed for allowing gays to work as troop leaders or staff members.

The Boy Scouts of America holds its annual national meeting on May 23 in Texas, where a resolution will be voted on that would end the century-old group’s policy denying membership to youths on the basis of sexual orientation.

The compromise proposal unveiled last month, which stopped short of allowing gay adults to work within the organization, drew criticism from both gay rights groups that want the scouts to go further and conservative religious organizations that sponsor troops and want no change to existing policy.

Alan Snyder, chairman of the board for the Western Los Angeles County Council of the Boy Scouts, said the members of his chapter’s board have for more than a year discussed what should be its stance on the role of gays.

“We’re hoping that by being visible on the issue, we can encourage others to have the temerity to join us,” Snyder said.

The council is backing a resolution stating that no youth or adult shall be denied membership “as a leader, volunteer or staff member solely based on their sexual orientation or preference.”

Patrick Boyle, author of the book “Scouts’ Honor,” about sexual abuse in the organization, said groups within the scouts, such as the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, have long called for being more accepting toward gays.

“Normally it’s just one voice in the woods, but now they’re joining a much larger chorus so it might have a little larger impact now,” he said.

The conservative Family Research Council earlier this year ran an advertisement in the newspaper USA Today urging the scouts not to change their policy on gays.

“As a father, I wouldn’t want my sons to go on a camping trip with a teenage girl and stay in the same tent. Similarly, I think it’s unwise to put boys or young men in a tent with boys or young men who are homosexual,” said Rob Schwarzwalder, senior vice president for the Family Research Council.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Scott Malone and Maureen Bavdek)

More than 950 firefighters had built containment lines by
late afternoon around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has
blackened 18,000 acres (7,280 hectares) of dry, dense brush and
chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning. More firefighters
were said to be on the way.

Fire managers said they expected it would take until next
Monday to achieve full containment of the blaze, which sent a
pall of thick smoke drifting over the beach community of Malibu
and farther inland across Los Angeles County.

Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were
engulfed and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, along
with five commercial properties. While 25 outbuildings were
destroyed, no residential structures were lost and no injuries
had been reported to firefighters or civilians.

Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with
evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the
Ventura County fire and sheriff’s departments said.

The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes
around the state this week marked a sudden start to a California
fire season that some weather forecasters predict will be
worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout
much of the U.S. West.

“We’re seeing fires burning like we usually see in late
summer, at the height of the fire season, and it’s only May,”
Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke told
Reuters.

The temperature in Camarillo hit a record high of 96 degrees
F (36 C) by late morning on Friday, according to the National
Weather Service.

Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to combat the
Springs Fire through much of the first day were calmer on
Friday, officials said. The improved wind conditions allowed
several air-tanker planes equipped for dumping payloads of
fire-retardant chemicals to return to the air along with a fleet
of eight water-dropping helicopters.

NEW WILDFIRE BREAKS OUT

The Springs Fire, which may have been ignited by a tossed
cigarette butt, broke out at 6:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT) on
Thursday beside the U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles (16 km)
from the Pacific coast, and spread quickly to the edges of the
communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park.

By Friday morning, flames had advanced to within a short
distance of the ocean’s edge in some places, forcing authorities
to close several miles of Pacific Coast Highway.

At the Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station on the coast, all
non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home for a second
day as flames encroached on a firing range at the extreme
western end of the base, spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said. She
said no ammunition was stored at that location, bordered on two
sides by coastline and wetlands.

But a base housing unit that is home to 110 active-duty
military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday
because of heavy smoke, Gearhart said, adding there was no
immediate fire threat to that vicinity and military aircraft
were continuing routine flights between the base and a
communications post on San Nicolas Island offshore.

In mid-afternoon, residents were ordered to clear out of
more than 900 homes in Hidden Valley, an enclave of ranches and
estate-type properties southeast of Camarillo. Some 200
dwellings were evacuated earlier along the coastal highway and
adjacent canyon roads, sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Buschow said.

Previous evacuation orders for two housing subdivisions at
the northern end of the fire zone closer to Camarillo were
lifted, but those neighborhoods remained restricted to residents
carrying identification, Buschow said.

California State University at Channel Islands campus,
including student housing, was closed for a second day, the
university said, although official evacuation orders for the
school were lifted.

A separate late-afternoon brush fire in the hills above
Glendale, a suburb just north of Los Angeles and about 50 miles
(80 km) east of Camarillo, prompted the evacuation of a number
of homes and an elementary school. But water-dropping
helicopters and ground crews moved in to quickly contain it.

A larger fire in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, on
Thursday destroyed two houses and damaged two others before
firefighters halted its spread, and at least five additional
wildfires burned in Northern California.

Hot, dry conditions in Southern California were fed largely
by Santa Ana winds blowing in from desert areas to the east.

A force of more than 900 firefighters had managed by
daybreak to carve containment lines around about 10 percent of
the perimeter of the inferno, which has scorched some 10,000
acres (4,047 hectares) of dry, dense brush and chaparral since
erupting on Thursday morning.

Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were
engulfed, and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, though
no residential structures were lost and no injuries have been
reported, authorities said.

Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with
evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the
Ventura County Fire and Sheriff’s departments said.

The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes
around the state this week marked an abrupt start to a
California fire season that weather forecasters predict will be
worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout
much of the U.S. West.

“We’re seeing fires burning like we usually see in late
summer, at the height of the fire season, and it’s only May,”
Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke told
Reuters.

The temperature in Camarillo hit a record high of 96 degrees
Fahrenheit by late morning on Friday, according to the National
Weather Service.

Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to combat the
Springs Fire through much of the first day abated somewhat
Friday morning but seemed to be picking up again, Kruschke said.

In the meantime, wind conditions had improved enough to
allow several air-tanker planes equipped for dumping payloads of
fire-retardant chemicals to return to the air at dawn along with
a fleet of eight water-dropping helicopters, he said.

Fire crew reinforcements were also called in, he said.

STRETCH OF PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY CLOSED

The blaze broke out at about 6:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT)
on Thursday beside the U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles (16
kms) north of the Pacific coast, and quickly spread to the
fringes of the communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park.

By Friday morning, flames had advanced to within a short
distance of the ocean’s edge in some places, forcing authorities
to close several miles of Pacific Coast Highway.

At the Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station on the coast, all
non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home for a second
day as flames encroached on a firing range at the extreme
western end of the base, far from the heart of the complex,
spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said. She said no ammunition was
stored at that location, bordered on two sides by coastline and
wetlands.

But a base housing unit that is home to 110 active-duty
military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday
because of heavy smoke, Gearhart said, adding there was no
immediate fire threat to that vicinity.

Military aircraft were continuing routine flights between
the base and a communications post on San Nicolas Island
offshore, she said.

In mid-afternoon, residents were ordered to clear out of
more than 900 homes in Hidden Valley, an enclave of ranches and
estate-type properties southeast of Camarillo. Some 200
dwellings were evacuated earlier along the coastal highway and
adjacent canyon roads, sheriff’s Sergeant Eric Buschow said.

Previous evacuation orders for two housing subdivisions at
the northern end of the fire zone closer to Camarillo were
lifted, but those neighborhoods remained restricted to residents
carrying identification, Buschow said.

California State University at Channel Islands campus,
including student housing, was closed for a second day, the
university said in a website posting, though official evacuation
orders for the school were lifted.

A smaller blaze east of Los Angeles in Riverside County on
Thursday destroyed two houses and damaged two others before
firefighters halted its spread, and at least five additional
wildfires burned in northern California.

Hot, dry conditions in Southern California were fed largely
by Santa Ana winds blowing in from desert areas to the east.

A smaller blaze in Riverside County, 80 miles (128 km) to
the east, destroyed two houses and damaged two others before
firefighters halted its spread, and at least five additional
wildfires were burning in Northern California.

The outbreak of brush and wildfires marked a fierce start to
a fire season in California that weather forecasters predict
will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought
throughout much of the U.S. West.

The largest of the blazes erupted about 6:30 a.m. beside the
U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles (16 km) inland from the
Pacific coast, and quickly consumed 6,500 acres (2,630 hectares)
of dry, dense chaparral and brush near the communities of
Camarillo and Newbury Park, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Los
Angeles.

Hot, dry Santa Ana winds fanned the so-called Springs Fire
southward toward the ocean for much of the day, prompting
authorities to close a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway.
Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said no
injuries were reported.

News footage broadcast by KTLA-TV showed heavy smoke in the
area and flames engulfing recreational vehicles parked near the
evacuation zone. Later footage showed several farm sheds and
other structures at the edge of an agricultural field going up
in flames, apparently ignited by burning embers.

Fire department spokesman Tom McHale told KTLA that
authorities were worried people could be exposed to toxic fumes
that might be released from agricultural facilities.

‘NERVE-WRACKING’

“The winds are a big factor in this firefight,” he said.
“Our concern is with pesticides and fumigants and things of that
nature.”

Ventura fire department spokeswoman Lori Ross later
confirmed that a number of homes, vehicles and farm buildings
had been damaged, but she had no details about the extent of
property losses.

Emergency calls were placed to residents of two subdivisions
near Camarillo and scattered houses along the coastal highway
telling them to flee the fire zone, an evacuation encompassing
855 homes and thousands of people, Ventura County sheriff’s
spokesman Eric Buschow said.

Evacuations were also ordered for the California State
University at Channel Islands campus, according to a bulletin
posted on the fire department website.

“It was nerve-wracking,” said Shannon Morris, 19, a
first-year psychology major at the school, recounting the
ominous sight of flames creeping over a nearby hill as she and a
friend drove away from the campus in her car. “The whole sky was
gray and the sun was like burning red.”

Phil Gibbons, 57, a writer who works from home near the
campus, said he realized the fire was close when he looked out
his back window and saw heavy smoke blanketing his normally
pristine view of a canyon.

“When I left, I was actually really, really frightened,”
said Gibbons, one of 70 evacuees at a Camarillo shelter. “I
thought it was only a matter of time that the houses (in his
neighborhood) would catch fire.”

WATER-DROPPING AIRCRAFT

More than 500 firefighters were dispatched to battle the
blaze, along with six water-dropping helicopters and several
bulldozers. Airplanes equipped to drop payloads of
fire-retardant chemicals were grounded by high winds and thick
smoke in the area, officials said.

At Point Mugu Naval Air Station, a coastal installation
south of Camarillo, all non-essential personnel on the coast
south of the fire were sent home early, spokesman Vance Vasquez
said, adding that the base was not in immediate danger.

Evacuation orders were lifted for some areas on Thursday
afternoon as the Santa Ana winds eased and cooler offshore
breezes picked up, allowing firefighters to gain 10 percent
containment of the blaze.

Officials said it would be up to administrators at the
university to decide whether students could return on Friday,
when temperatures were expected to reach into the 90s (30s C)
again, complicating efforts to fully contain the fire.

“We’re not going to call this thing caught until we have a
good line around it and that line can hold the conditions that
are presenting at the time,” Ventura County Fire Captain Mike
Lindbery said.

“There’s a real good chance that right after the sun goes
down, we could have heavy winds blowing once again,” he said.

The separate blaze east of Los Angeles in Riverside County
erupted on vegetation in a roadway center divider and quickly
swept across 12 acres (5 hectares) of brush, destroying two
houses before firefighters managed to halt the advancing flames.

That blaze, apparently triggered by a discarded cigarette or
some other hot object, was reported completely contained within
hours. It destroyed five outbuildings, 10 vehicles and a parked
boat, Riverside County fire spokesman Mark Annas said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los
Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston,
Tim Dobbyn and Peter Cooney)