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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nation in brief: Weather working against firefighters

From Wire Reports

Irwindale, Calif. – Firefighters are racing against the weather to clear brush before heat descends on Southern California, stoking the giant 15-day-old wildfire burning in the Angeles National Forest.

With 19 miles of fireline left to cut in steep and forbidding wilderness, hot and dry conditions on Wednesday pushed plans to set backfires into the night as crews waited for the weather to cooperate.

Containment notched upward to 62 percent and there was no increase in size, said Darryl Jacobs, a spokesman at the fire command post.

The fire has burned across 160,357 acres, or 250 square miles, of the San Gabriel Mountains north and east of Los Angeles since it was started by arson along a forest road on Aug. 26.

Shuttle landing scheduled tonight

Cape Canaveral, Fla. – Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts aimed for a landing tonight to wrap up their successful space station delivery mission, but late summer storms threatened to keep them up an extra day or two.

Mission Control said Wednesday that “the weather will pose a challenge” for bringing Discovery home. The forecast called for a chance of thunderstorms. Conditions were expected to worsen Friday and remain poor Saturday.

In orbit since Aug. 29, Discovery has enough supplies to last until Sunday. If the shuttle cannot return to Florida tonight, NASA will consider landing it in California, but not until Friday at the earliest.