Tourists can go back to Catalina

Tourists were allowed to begin returning to Catalina Island on Sunday afternoon, just three days after a raging brush fire neared its port city of Avalon and forced an evacuation.

As of 4 p.m., ferry boats from San Pedro and Long Beach were cleared to resume carrying tourists to the island, 22 miles off the Southern California coast, officials said. Visitors will be restricted to the town of Avalon while firefighters continue to fight the blaze in the island's interior, about five to 10 miles from town.

"It will take a short time for us to get up and running, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure our visitors have a great experience," said Pam Albers, the city attorney who was doing double duty as a fire-related public information officer.

As of Sunday evening, fire officials said the fire had burned about 4,750 acres and was 73% contained.

Reopening the town can't come soon enough for business owners who rely on the warm weather to fatten their tills.

"We need to get back to normal," said Sherry Abdelnour, a waitress on the island for 18 years. "We need our tourists back."

Power was slowly being restored to the island, although officials said it could be two weeks before things were back to normal at Two Harbors, a popular snorkeling and scuba-diving spot.

Main Street, normally choked with people in Hawaiian shirts and children clutching ice cream cones, was mostly empty except for the dirty, disheveled firefighters making their way along the fire lines. More than 640 were on hand to fight the fire.

Some businesses opened, but with no customers to serve, closed again.

Meanwhile, in the hills farther above town, helicopters were still making air drops of water on isolated patches of fire.

Some firefighters expressed astonishment at the dryness of the brush surrounding the town, which made the fire so dangerous. Such brittleness would normally be seen in August or September, not early spring, they said.

National Forest Service firefighter John Boehm said this was his first island fire. "The trip out here was quite an experience," he said, referring to the bumpy Hovercraft ride. But once on the island, he settled in.

"Fire is fire," he said.

But those fighting the Catalina fire may long remember this blaze -- and not just because it was a life-or-death struggle against the elements.