2 Southland Fires Char Thousands of Acres

Working furiously through the night in a daring airborne assault, firefighters Wednesday beat back and largely controlled a fire that threatened million-dollar hillside homes in Glendale and La Canada Flintridge.

To the north, however, flames swept out of control through the rugged foothills of Ventura County and threatened to spread unchecked as dry Santa Ana winds acted as a giant bellows.

Only one minor injury was reported in the fires: A firefighter’s ear was burned in Ventura.

The much larger Ventura fire destroyed one house near Ojai. By late Wednesday, it had scorched 3,500 acres of mostly unpopulated brush and timber land in Los Padres National Forest and was moving west into the Ojai Valley and north into Los Padres National Forest.

The fire turned before reaching two boarding schools, a meditation center, orchards and upscale homes in the lush Ojai Valley.

Exhausted from hours of fighting the blaze, about 1,000 firefighters braced for another night of fierce winds and towering flames. Authorities said they expect the fire to burn at least through Christmas.

The 650-acre Glendale-La Canada fire licked within yards of hillside homes, prompting dozens of residents to voluntarily evacuate. The only serious damage reported was to a Glendale police firing range, which was destroyed. Its value was put at $330,000.

Although the fire was considered only 70% contained late Wednesday, authorities released hundreds of firefighters from outside jurisdictions and said they expected to achieve containment by 3 p.m. today. Many of the firefighters said they expected to be sent immediately to Ojai.

Although the origins of the blazes remained under investigation, fire officials agreed that they spread because of Southern California’s lack of rainfall and weeks of desert winds that have dehydrated chaparral.

Under such circumstances, “you can have one heck of a fire,” said Don Feser, deputy forest fire management officer for Angeles National Forest.

Unusually cool water in the equatorial Pacific, known as a La Nina condition, has diverted rain that might usually fall on Southern California and contributed to warm, dry Santa Ana winds. On Tuesday night and Wednesday, those winds were gusting to 70 mph near Ojai and 36 mph in Burbank, the closest spot to Glendale that the National Weather Service monitors.

In the Angeles National Forest, not far from the fire, the moisture content of dead wood and brush was monitored at 3%, a dangerously low level, Feser said.

Help From Moonlight

Realizing the danger, firefighters in Glendale used a potentially dangerous strategy of deploying three fire suppression helicopters to fight the blaze through the night. Choppers, taking advantage of unusually bright moonlight, skimmed just above the flames as they splashed water on the fire time and again--a total of 800 drops by the end of the operation Wednesday.

“If those helicopters hadn’t flown all night long, this could have been real serious,” said Adiyan Haran, whose hillside home stands not far from the spot where the blaze is thought to have started.

As it was, Haran, 46, was astonished at the natural destruction wrought by the fire. Surveying the once-brushy hillsides and canyons from atop Gladys Mountain Way, a fire road where the blaze began Tuesday night, he saw only blackened ash dotted with white patches that marked areas of especially intense heat. The road itself was melted in spots.

The fire began at 9:41 p.m. just west of the Glendale-La Canada Flintridge border. Fire officials at first thought it might have been started by arcing power lines, but they later determined that there were none near the spot where it began. Arson caused the last serious fire in Glendale, the College Hills blaze in June 1990 that destroyed 67 homes.

This week’s fire quickly spread west, through the rugged hills, burning all the way to the Glendale Freeway and jumping across its eight lanes in as many as 10 places. The freeway was closed from 10:30 p.m. Tuesday until about 2 p.m. Wednesday, when two lanes were opened in each direction.

The 500 firefighters, dispatched by 21 agencies throughout Southern California and led by the county, set backfires, used bulldozers to create firebreaks and set up hose lines. They also relied on the three water-dropping helicopters and, after daybreak, two CL415 Super Scooper airplanes that took on 1,400 gallons at a time from the Pacific Ocean. The helicopters alone dumped more than 100,000 gallons, fire authorities estimated.

“This is one of those fires that, because of its rugged terrain, remote location and necessity for quick containment, required many different methods,” said Mark Whaling, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Planes’ Use Questioned

Some firefighters questioned the effectiveness of the Super Scoopers, which are being leased, saying they interfered with the helicopters and were far less accurate, dumping water where it wasn’t needed. “I saw them hit their target once today,” county Fire Capt. Jon Meramble said.

Battalion Chief Thomas G. Page of the county Fire Department’s air operations section conceded that, because of the gusty winds and rugged terrain, conditions were not ideal for the planes. He added that they twice caused power lines to arc by hitting them with water.

Fire officials said the use of helicopters at night was unusual but far from unprecedented. Pilots said they only fly at night when there are buildings threatened and the conditions are good. This time, they benefited from an unusually bright moon caused by an unusual astronomical convergence.

“The moon was a great assist last night,” said Capt. Edward Beneda of the county Fire Department. “It provided what you call ambient lighting.”

Residents whose homes were saved were full of gratitude to the firefighters. “God bless them,” said one homeowner, Margaret Saginian.

Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) said Wednesday’s fire should cause developers to reconsider building in high-risk fire areas. Flames would have come close to several proposed developments, including the controversial Oakmont View V. That development calls for 572 homes on 238 acres in the Verdugo Hills.

“This is a good time to reevaluate development in wilderness areas and areas vulnerable to fires,” Scott said. “Fires are going to happen in Southern California, so we have to make some judgments as to where to build and where not to build.”

‘It’s Just Hell’

The Ojai fire broke out just before 8 p.m. Tuesday in a brushy, open area of the upper Ojai Valley. Dry winds pushed it toward Ojai; at times, firefighters watched helplessly as flames raced down steep hillsides.

“It’s just hell,” said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna. “You can’t see. Your nose is running. Your eyes are watering. Your hose is ineffective. It’s almost impossible to fight a fire like that.”

At the same time, a smaller fire in Ventura County burned about 250 acres of orchards in the Rincon area, just off U.S. 101. It was about 95% contained by Wednesday night.

Fire departments from all over Southern California converged on the larger Ventura County blaze, and authorities asked for 125 more firefighters to keep it from advancing into Ojai. Throughout the day, specially equipped airplanes and helicopters attacked the flames with chemical retardants and water scooped from nearby Lake Casitas.

Homeowners in the eastern end of the Ojai Valley packed their cars, hosed down their homes and peered at burning hillsides through a thick, rust-colored haze. Ash rained down on knots of neighbors sipping coffee outside.

On Thacher Road, Carla Baio rounded up her cats, jammed her car with clothing, and had her mother and her 6-year-old son grab the Christmas gifts.

She was ready to roll, but then watched and waited nervously outside her redwood-and-cedar house. “One ember and it’s gone,” she said.

Tom Forgea and his wife, Gloria, did not have the luxury of waiting. The Sisar Road home they had lived in for 25 years was destroyed. “We got out with the clothes on us, our dogs and our cats,” said Tom, a county probation officer months away from retirement.

On Wednesday morning, he was poking through the rubble of his home for whatever was left of his gun collection, his coin collection and his guitars. The couple had fled about 8:30 p.m. the night before as embers showered down on their trees. They returned early Wednesday as the flames still flickered amid the blackened remains.

With everything else, the fire also had incinerated the couple’s Christmas.

“Everything for my daughter and grandson,” Tom Forgea said, sobbing. “That’s it.”

Flames threatened the campuses of both the Thacher School and the Ojai Valley School, but were stopped just short of any buildings except a tack shed at Thacher.

“It was an amazingly frightening experience,” said Ojai Valley headmaster Carl Cooper. “I’m glad I’m still here.”

Just up the road, that feeling was echoed by staff members at a spiritual retreat called Meditation Mount. More than 100 people had gathered there for a winter solstice ceremony.

“We blessed the world, and as we turned around we saw the flames coming,” said Glenda Young, who stuck it out until fire ringed the hilltop retreat about 3 a.m.

When they returned Wednesday morning, the staff saw bushes smoldering just a few feet from the center’s buildings, but not one structure was damaged.

“I went straight to the meditation room to give thanks,” said staff member Marilyn Mueller.

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Tina Dirmann, Jessica Garrison, Anna Gorman, Annette Kondo, Mitchell Landsberg, Caitlin Liu, George Ramos, Kristina Sauerwein, Tracy Wilson and Richard Winton contributed to this story.

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La Canada Flintridge

Fire started

Area burned

Ojai

Area of fire