80 Homes Lost, 40,000 Acres Charred by Fires

Erratic winds, low humidity, steep terrain--and arson--combined to make life miserable for firefighters Monday as they battled an epidemic of fires that have already destroyed at least 80 homes and charred nearly 40,000 acres in California.

Seven of the 10 blazes that tortured parts of San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles and Ventura counties over the weekend were fully controlled by Monday without loss of life and only minor injuries reported to firefighters and civilians.

But three of the biggest fires--including the blaze that has consumed more than 20,000 acres in the Palm Springs area of Riverside County--were still burning, several more broke out during the day, a new blaze destroyed at least 10 homes and 1,000 acres of sun-dried grassland near Palo Alto and hundreds of people were still unable to return to their homes as night fell.

Best Hope

Fire officials said the best hope for an end to the danger lay in a change of weather.

“We need cooler temperatures, more humidity and less wind,” San Diego County Fire Department spokesman Donald Dean said. “And we need to lock up the fire bugs.”

The latest--and most northerly--of Monday’s major fires broke out at about 3 p.m. in a hilly, rural section of Palo Alto, destroying at least 10 homes in the vicinity of Interstate 280 and Page Mill Road.

Fifty schoolchildren found themselves stranded for about an hour in a park when firefighters blockaded all exits, but fire officials said the children were in no danger and simply spent the time playing before roadblocks were removed and their school bus could proceed on its normal rounds.

Man Questioned

Damage to homes and outbuildings in the area, near Los Altos Hills Country Club, was estimated at $4 million. The flames were finally contained at about 6 p.m. by the combined efforts of firefighters from Palo Alto and six neighboring communities. Fire officials said the blaze appeared to have been set, and one man was being held for questioning.

San Diego Fire Department investigators said they have determined that Sunday’s devastating fire in the Normal Heights area, which destroyed 64 houses, severely damaged 20 others and razed 18 outbuildings, also was the result of arson.

“The cause was incendiary,” San Diego Fire Chief Roger Phillips said. “We have no suspects, though.”

Phillips said close examination of the canyon where the fire began had uncovered evidence definitely indicating that the fire was intentionally set, although he declined to disclose its nature. He and other officials issued an appeal for public assistance in locating suspects.

And while officials praised the help provided by firefighters from five counties, the state and the Navy, questions were raised about the five-hour delay to a request from the California Department of Forestry for air tankers to be flown to the fire scene.

Phillips said the first call to state forestry for air drops was made a short time after noon Sunday. State forestry officials said they received their first call for air drops at the Normal Heights blaze at 12:59 p.m. The tankers, flying down from another fire scene in Ventura County, did not arrive until about 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, Phillips said, as the homes in Normal Heights were burning, other aerial tankers were dumping retardants on a major brush fire in El Cajon, only minutes away by air, even though the risk of property damage was much less. San Diego fire officials made repeated calls for assistance, the fire chief said.

“We made several calls, sure,” Phillips said. There was “a high level of frustration.”

Phillips said the blaze was moving so swiftly that even an earlier arrival by the air tankers would not have necessarily spared some homes. But, he added, “they would have helped.”

“They certainly would have helped,” he said.

As it was, the tankers ultimately played a crucial role in controlling the blaze by dropping six loads of fire retardant at the decisive line of defense--a region running from the tip of Cromwell Court in Normal Heights down the slope of the canyon to Camino del Rio South.

Meanwhile, many Normal Heights residents who had spent Sunday night in an evacuation center returned Monday to find only blackened ruins where their homes had been, and those whose homes were still standing mourned their neighbors’ losses.

“We were given less than 30 seconds to get out of the house . . . . Thank God my wife picked up my reading glasses,” said Abraham R. Nasatir, who has lived with his wife, Ida, at 3440 N. Mountain View Drive since 1952.

Nasatir’s home was destroyed. But for Nasatir, 80, a professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University, the loss is far greater than simply losing a favorite picture or memento. He lost literally hundreds of stacks of important historical documents pertaining to California and the Mississippi Valley, perhaps as many as 500,000, many of which are irreplaceable, according to local historians.

“There is no price value of those documents,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of work in that house. I had used perhaps only 20% of the information.”

Gov. George Deukmejian, responding to the urgings of several San Diego political leaders, Monday declared a state of emergency in San Diego County in response to both the Normal Heights blaze and another in the rural Jamul area of Mt. Miguel. That fire, which began on Sunday, was still only 90% contained after destroying three homes, two sheds, several farm vehicles, killing a number of farm animals and blackening more than 8,000 acres of brushland.

On the Line

More than 500 firefighters were on the line there in 110-degree heat and humidity that dropped below 10% during the afternoon.

To the northeast in Riverside County, 1,675 firefighters managed to forge a firebreak around 70% of the perimeter of a blaze that consumed more than 20,000 acres of brushland in the vicinity of the Palm Springs Tramway. However, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Norman Scott said it might be Sunday before full control could be established.

About 100 campers were evacuated from the path of the blaze Sunday, and hikers were still barred from the area, but for the moment, Scott said, there was no immediate danger to campers or to the tramway, which reopened Monday morning.

Several storage sheds and other outbuildings were destroyed by a fire that authorities said was touched off by power-driven equipment in the Pedley area of northwest Riverside County. The fire was contained after four hours by firefighters of the state Department of Forestry and Riverside County Fire Department. Officials said they hope to establish full control overnight.

A house and a pool shed structure in the 400 block of South San Dimas Avenue were destroyed by a fire that broke out at 2 p.m. Monday in the Walnut Creek Canyon area of San Dimas. Fanned by brisk southwest winds, the blaze scorched more than 50 heavily wooded acres before being controlled by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Fire officials said several condominiums were threatened at one time.

Another blaze in West Covina, near Grand Avenue and the San Bernardino Freeway, damaged several roofs before being extinguished.

And by late afternoon, yet another blaze erupted in the Agoura area, south of the Ventura Freeway in Las Virgenes Canyon. Fire units dispatched to the scene found the flames advancing toward a line of homes but managed to hold the damage to about six acres of seared brushland. The fire was reported 80% contained Monday night.

About 150 children from the Cottontail Ranch summer camp at 1666 Las Virgines Road were briefly moved to the nearby A. E. Wright Middle School as a precautionary measure but were returned to their camp within a few hours. Officials said neither the children nor the camp buildings were ever actually threatened.

Another Blaze

Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Mike Norris said the fire appeared to be an offshoot of another blaze about two miles away in Ventura County.

“The wind simply picked up a handful of burning brush and blew it across the county line,” he said.

The original fire began Sunday near Lake Sherwood in Ventura County and was still burning Monday in Ensenal Canyon.

Erratic winds continued to plague the 600 firefighters, 10 helicopters, 5 airplanes and 6 bulldozers as they struggled to contain the flames that had already claimed one house, one mobile home and 3,500 acres of brushland. They said the blaze was 50% contained by late Monday afternoon.

But fire officials said chaparral and brush in the area was dry and dangerous.

“It hasn’t burned since 1956,” Los Angeles city Fire Battalion Chief Frank Brown said.

Rugged Hills

But another fire broke out in rugged hills of Wheeler Campground, about four miles north of Ojai in Los Padres National Forest, during the afternoon and spread swiftly, urged on by 25-m.p.h. winds, to blacken 3,500 acres of brush and timberland.

California 33--the Maricopa Highway--was closed from Ojai to the Santa Barbara County line, and firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service and Ventura County Fire Department were rushed to the scene.

By 4 p.m., residents of the the small communities of Wheeler Springs and Rose Valley were being evacuated, and firefighters said they could make no estimate of when the fire might be contained.

In Kern County, a fire that began on Friday in Sequoia National Park was finally controlled after destroying 8,700 acres of brush. The fire was said to have been caused accidentally by sparks from power equipment being used in repair work.