Hillside wildfire lights up Los Angeles, blackens skies

LOS ANGELES -- Flames lit up the evening sky as a wildfire marched across hillsides north of Los Angeles, blackening thousands of acres, fire officials said.

The fire also created a huge cloud of smoke that wafted across the metropolis.As of 9:45 p.m. PT, the fire had burned 3,327 acres, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.

The Sand Fire, as it was being called, broke out in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles as afternoon temperatures neared 100 degrees. The wildfire was burning through heavy brush on hillsides tinder dry from a subpar year for rain in Southern California. It broke out along the Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14) near the Sand Canyon Road exit,the county fire department said.

The orange flames were visible from Los Angeles' upscale westside.

No structures were reported destroyed. A single minor injury of a firefighter was reported, fire officials said.

The fire was being attacked by water-dropping fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and bulldozers. The fire was one of several across California, which is seeing a heat wave.