"The city is threatened right now," Los Angeles County fire Capt. Ron Haralson said.

The blaze scorched more than 500 acres, including a commercial building and several storage buildings, but no homes had been destroyed as of Thursday night.

Smoke hung over Avalon's quaint crescent harbor, the landmark 1929 Catalina Casino and homes, restaurants and tiny hotels that cling to slopes rising sharply above the waterfront. The scene belied the idyllic image of the island cultivated in its 1930s and '40s heyday as a playground for movie stars and in The Four Preps' 1950s hit "26 Miles."

Part of the city was under a mandatory evacuation order, Haralson said. Visitors were directed to the historic art deco Casino that rises over one end of the harbor, while residents were sent to another part of the harbor.

The island's school and hospital voluntarily evacuated earlier, Teckenoff said.

The Catalina Express ferry service added a third evening departure from Avalon, said spokeswoman Elaine Vaughn. Each vessel can carry up to 400 people.

The blaze erupted at about 12:30 p.m. five miles east of the island's airport. It was fanned by winds moving at 15 mph and gusts of up to 20 mph, Haralson said.

"That's not good, not when it's dry and the terrain is hard to access by ground," he said.

About 160 firefighters, aided by four water-dropping helicopters, were battling the blaze. Three air tankers swooped low over ridges and canyons to drop lines of orange fire retardant ahead of the flames. One county firefighter was overcome by smoke and hospitalized in stable condition.

State and county fire crews and engines were being shipped from to the island by hovercraft from the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton, said Daniel Berlant, a state forestry and fire protection department spokesman.

The state also received permission to use National Guard helicopters to fly 70 inmate firefighters across the channel.

Catalina is a long, narrow island covering 76 square miles and is served by ferry boats from Los Angeles, Long Beach and other mainland harbors. Avalon has a population of 3,200 that swells to more than 10,000 on weekends and in summer, according to the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

Resident Steve Adams said he was watching from his deck as helicopters dropped water on flames burning down a ridge toward town.

"Half the town has already been evacuated," Adams said by telephone.

A family of eight said they had just enough time to pack some clothes and personal papers before fleeing to the beach to catch a ferry.

"I'm scared," said Angelica Romero, 30, holding her 7-month-old daughter. "But what's important is I have my children. The rest doesn't matter."

At the mainland port of Long Beach, island resident Kathy Troeger arrived on a ferry with her three children and a friend's daughter. Her husband, a captain in county fire's Baywatch division, stayed behind to help fight the fire.

"It was like a nightmare when we left," she said. "You couldn't breathe and ash was falling like snow."

A lack of rainfall has made Southern California especially susceptible to wildfires like the one that hit Griffith Park this week, threatening its landmark observatory and zoo.

Cooler nighttime temperatures helped firefighters rein in the 817-acre park blaze.

By Thursday, firefighters had the fire zone close to contained and were working on smoldering tree stumps and clearing away smoky debris. Still, officials cautioned that a sudden change in the weather could stoke remaining embers.

Authorities were still trying to determine the cause of the park fire.

They questioned a man who said he had fallen asleep in the park smoking a cigarette and woke up with his shirt on fire. The mayor said the man remained a person of interest, but officials said the fire did not appear to have been intentionally set.

"At this point, there's no indication that it was anything but an accident," Battalion Chief John Miller said.

Aside from the booming white letters that mark Hollywood, Griffith Park's most famous landmark is the Griffith Observatory, where James Dean's character in "Rebel Without a Cause" learned about the solar system.

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Blazs Burden Firefighters in Florida, California

By Alan Gomexz, USA Today

From: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-05-11-fla-wildfires-fight_N.htm

Wildfires raged on both coasts Friday, but were most widespread in Florida where the blazes are so spread out — across 12 counties — that the roughly 1,200 emergency responders may be reaching their breaking point, according to the state Forestry Division.

As of Friday morning, at least 223 fires were burning more than 89,000 acres around the drought-plagued state, division officials said. Most were started by lightning. Three firefighters have suffered minor injuries. Six homes have been destroyed, and an additional 13 have been damaged.

"It's on the verge of taxing our ability to keep up with it," said Jim Harrell, spokesman for the Forestry Division.

Harrell said the state has put out a call to neighboring states for assistance — a team from Kentucky is expected to arrive in Florida on Monday — but many are struggling with their own wildfires.

A large plume of smoke from the fires in northern Florida and Georgia have wafted along the west central coast of the state, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a dense smoke advisory for the Tampa area. The NWS said visibility along I-75 and U.S. 19 could at times be less than a quarter mile.

In other fires nationwide:

•A wind-driven wildfire threatens Santa Catalina Island's main city, Avalon, and residents and visitors have been urged to leave the resort isle more than 20 miles off Southern California.

Flames towered at the edge of the city of Avalon at dusk as hundreds of people lined up at its harbor to board a ferry back to the mainland, 26 miles away. Many covered their faces with towels and bandanas as ashes fell.

"The city is threatened right now," Los Angeles County fire Capt. Ron Haralson said.

Catalina is a long, narrow island covering 76 square miles and is served by ferry boats from Los Angeles, Long Beach and other mainland harbors. Avalon's population of 3,200 swells to more than 10,000 on weekends and in summer, according to the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

The fire has scorched more than 500 acres, including a commercial building and several storage buildings, but no homes had been destroyed as of Thursday night.

•In Los Angeles, cool nighttime temperatures helped firefighters rein in a fire in the 817-acre Griffith Park that has threatened its landmark observatory and zoo. The park also contains the booming white letters that mark Hollywood.

By Friday morning, the fire zone was close to contained. Firefighters were concentrating on putting out smoldering tree stumps and clearing away smoky debris. Still, officials cautioned that a sudden change in the weather could stoke remaining embers. Authorities were still trying to determine the cause of the park fire.

•In Georgia, a second wildfire in the Okefenokee Swamp has burned more than 100,000 acres, rivaling in just five days the vast record-setting fire that has scorched southeast Georgia for more than three weeks, firefighters said.

The rapidly growing fire, stated by lightning and fed by fast-burning swamp grasses, swelled by more than 30,000 acres in one day. Though mostly well within the swamp, it was spreading mostly to the west toward the town of Fargo, a tiny city of 380 about eight miles west of the swamp.

Mark Ruggiero, commander of the joint team battling the swamp blazes, said the fire had eclipsed the 116,480-acre fire that has been burning in the same part of the state since April 16.

State officials issued a mandatory evacuation in southern Charlton County, saying about 300 homes may be in the path of what had been the state's largest wildfire since 1957, when record-keeping began.

•In northern Minnesota, high winds fanned a fire around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That fire has destroyed about 45 structures and has burned its way into Canada.

In the Florida fires, officials are hoping that a weekend storm front will bring some much-needed rain to help quell the widespread burning.

The Florida fires have been widespread. One wildfire, in Baker County, Fla., started when Georgia's fire jumped the St. Mary's River. It has kept residents of the tiny community of Taylor away from their homes for a third day. Nearly 20,000 acres of the county had burned as of Thursday.

In Lee County, north of Fort Myers, about 600 residents of a mobile home park were forced from their homes for several hours after a fire sprouted and quickly grew to 20 acres Thursday morning.

Freeman Dowling, 77, a Baker County Red Cross volunteer, said about 250 people were evacuated from their homes.

"With this wind blowing at 30 mph, I know they're having a time of it trying to get it under control," he said.

Officials tightened water-use restrictions for South Florida residents and golf courses in an effort to offset unprecedented drought conditions.

The moves follow a similar decision last month to try to halve agricultural water use there.

The fires even affected counties that weren't ablaze, as heavy smoke drifted over most counties in the state.

All outdoor activities for Broward County's 260,000 students were canceled through Wednesday. Outdoor activities resumed Thursday, but school officials said students with respiratory ailments were encouraged to stay indoors.

"It looked foggy," school district spokesman Andrew Feirstein said.

Gov. Charlie Crist had expressed hope that Florida would receive help from Subtropical Depression Andrea. The system was very dry, however. It dropped at most 0.57 inches of rain in Woodbine, Ga., according to the National Weather Service.

Melissa Hurlbut, a meteorologist with the weather service's Jacksonville office, said a storm front expected to move into the state Sunday will bring a 50% chance of rain. Until then, the state will remain dangerously dry.

"I think it's going to be several days, probably a week," Crist said Thursday morning on the CBS' The Early Show.

Contributing: Douglas Stanglin in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press