That's what the AP says here, that National Guard helicopters were used to fly in 70 "inmate firefighters" to help prevent picturesque Catalina Island from turning into a crisped mound of earth. Could it be another inspired idea on relieving California's prison overcrowding crisis?
Kidding. Losing Avalon is a grim prospect. I've been there only once, to follow up on reports in the Spanish media that undocumented workers were "stranded" on the island after authorities began random papers checks on the ferry to the mainland. People there get around primarily by golf cart. People make eye contact. The town is California in laid-back concentrate: really mixed, lots of brown immigrants, lots of friendly tourists, and still somehow kind of gangsta. (See the guy on the right below from today's evacuation lines.)
L.A. Times reporter Louis Sahagun is on the island tonight writing at the paper's breaking news blog. Channel 22 was speaking earlier on the air to people who stayed behind to stand down the flames. Univision played a taped recording of Mexican Consul General Ruben Beltran urging immigrants to cooperate with authorities.
As of 1 a.m., 4,000 acres are burned and hundreds of people have been evacuated. And it's only May.
* Photo from LATimes.com
