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As the San Gabriel Complex fire keeps burning, some Duarte residents return home

Liz Reilly, left, talks to fellow evacuees Richard Evans, wife Dorothy and son Richard J. Evans, all of whom spent the night in a Red Cross shelter in Duarte after being forced to flee their homes.

Liz Reilly, left, talks to fellow evacuees Richard Evans, wife Dorothy and son Richard J. Evans, all of whom spent the night in a Red Cross shelter in Duarte after being forced to flee their homes.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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With the Fish fire burning uncomfortably close, Roger Bosch and his wife fled their Duarte home Monday, unsure if they’d ever again see their picturesque neighborhood with its two-story houses backed right up to the canyon.

“When we drove away, I thought we had a 50/50 chance of seeing our house again,” Bosch said.

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On Wednesday, relief washed over the 73-year-old: He got to go home.

That’s because authorities lifted mandatory evacuation orders for hundreds of Duarte residents issued this week as the Fish and Reservoir fires burned in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Of the 858 homes evacuated in the foothills areas, 534 households were allowed to return, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. David Halm said. Mandatory evacuations remained in place for other parts of Duarte and Azusa, authorities said.

The fires, which started Monday and are being handled as a single incident called the San Gabriel Complex fire, have burned 4,900 acres and were 15% contained.

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The battle against the flames was aided by cooler temperatures and higher humidity in the days following Monday’s record-breaking heat, authorities said. On Wednesday night, forecasters expected a brief bout of gusty winds and higher humidity from an onshore flow.

But steep, challenging terrain has presented a problem, said Mike Wakowski, the commander for the multi-agency wildfire effort.

“We’re trying to secure as much as possible before the next heat wave comes,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Vince Peña said. Triple-digit heat is possible again this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

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Firefighters have been instructed to avoid a 1,000-foot radius area around a nest where a young bald eagle is getting ready to fledge, according to a U.S. Forest Service official.

The bald eagle’s nest is not located in a part of the forest where the fire is burning. The buffer zone above and around it is intended for water-dumping helicopters, which create noise and air turbulence that could disturb the chick, said Ann Berkley, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service.

It is extremely unusual, she said, for bald eagles to nest in the San Gabriel Mountains.

“The fact that this one nested so successfully -- we’re doing everything we can to protect it,” she said.

Back in Duarte, Paul Chow also returned to his evacuated house -- which had a “For Sale” sign in the yard. It was already in escrow, he said, and he was just glad he hadn’t heard from the buyers since the fire began. He didn’t want them to back out.

“No news is good news, right?” he said.

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nina.agrawal@latimes.com

hailey.branson@latimes.com


UPDATES:

11:09 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about Wednesday night’s weather forecast.

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This article was originally published at 6:09 p.m.

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