Word: blazes
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...most mammoth blaze along the West Coast is in the Los Padres National Forest, just east of California's lovely Big Sur. Roaring on for two weeks, the inferno has consumed 92,200 acres, feeding on miles and miles of vegetation turned bone-dry by a two-year drought. A Forest Service official says the energy ignited in every 1,000 acres of the compacted underbrush is equivalent to that of the "bomb dropped on Hiroshima...
...young man was flying his box kite in a posh residential neighborhood to the northeast of Santa Barbara, Calif. Suddenly the kite swooped into power lines, causing a short circuit that showered sparks and ignited the drought-dried chaparral below. Whipped by winds of up to 40 m.p.h., the blaze roared down the hills on a one-mile front toward the coastal city (pop. 73,000). Said one awed witness: "Homes went up with a huge whoosh and puff. Palm trees exploded like Roman candles...
...fire scorched 700 acres in all and destroyed almost 200 houses, some of them worth as much as $350,000. There were no fatalities or serious injuries, but the total damage-estimated at up to $20 million-made the blaze the worst ever in Santa Barbara's history. Fire Chief William Patterson warned that because of the drought the fire season would last several months longer than usual. Said he: "This is only the prelude...
...arsonists were as busy as the looters. Firemen fought 1,037 blazes, six times the normal number, and received nearly 1,700 false alarms. They were set either to divert the attention of the cops or just for the fun of it. When the firemen showed up, their sirens screaming, the crowds pelted them with rocks and bottles. Of the fires, 65 were considered serious, including a store fire in Brooklyn at which 22 firemen were hurt. Another blaze began in a looted factory warehouse in Brooklyn, then leaped across the street to destroy four tenements and finally spread...
Vulnerable Target. With reason, evidently. On the morning of May 7, firemen, summoned by a neighbor, broke into the Jackson house to put out a smoky blaze. They found Mrs. Jackson dead on the kitchen floor, a .22-cal. bullet wound in her stomach. Police, searching the house, soon found bizarre confirmation of the tales about her wealth. Stashed around the place, in toolboxes, drawers, a vacuum-cleaner bag and a garbage can, was some $5 million in crisp bank notes, mostly hundred-dollar bills. An investigation revealed that over a period of time, she had withdrawn at least...