Weather may help in battling Powerhouse fire

Crews battling the Powerhouse fire not far from Castaic were hoping to catch a break from cooler weather Sunday but rising winds could limit their progress, officials said.

Southwest winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour were expected this afternoon, said David Sweet of the National Weather Service. Highs in the area were expected to be in the low 90s, cooler than Saturday’s triple-digit heat, with humidity around 20% to 25%, Sweet said.

The fire, which broke out Thursday afternoon near a power station, roared through the hamlets of Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth overnight, destroying six homes in the Palmdale area. By Sunday morning, the fire had consumed nearly 20,000 acres and some 2,000 firefighters were deployed.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated during the night from Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, which were directly in the path of the fast-moving flames, but it appeared firefighters had managed to save all the homes in the villages as well as a community center and a school.

At an American Red Cross evacuation facility set up at Marie Kerr Park Recreation Center in Palmdale, 103 residents awaited word on when they could return home.

Katrina Cimmarrusti, a recreational therapist who lives in Lake Elizabeth, said sheriff’s deputies knocked on her door at about 3 a.m. “This is your last chance. The fire is coming right at you,” Cimmarrusti said the deputies told her.

The power already had gone out so Cimmarrusti grabbed a solar light from her yard and made her way through her house, gathering her four dogs, important documents and two cuckoo clocks her father had given her.

The fire “looked like lava when it came over the ridge,” Cimmarrusti said as she munched on an Egg McMuffin under a tree at the evacuation center. “I’ve never seen anything this bad, ever.”

PHOTOS: Powerhouse fire

Retiree Jim Simmons said he’s been through dozens of fires in the decades he has lived in the Lake Elizabeth, but Sunday was the first time he’d ever evacuated.

Shortly after midnight, “I figured it was time to boogie,” he recalled. “This is the first time I’ve seen embers in the street.”

And he was clearly concerned about the possibility of more fires.

“It’s May, for crying out loud,” he said. “I can’t wait for October.”

MAP: Evacuation areas, road closures and more

Firefighters from as far away as the Klamath National Forest and San Diego were helping to battle the blaze, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Corelli said. Three water-dropping helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft flew throughout the night to protect homes from the blaze, Corelli said.

Three firefighters suffered minor heat-related injuries, officials said. In addition to the six homes destroyed, as many as nine other structures were believed to be damaged or destroyed, officials said.

Full containment was originally expected by Wednesday but Corelli said that could be pushed back a day or two.

ALSO:

Three vehicles struck in fatal LAPD pursuit in El Sereno

Museum trustee says legal action possible over USC parking deal

Newport Beach to give Netflix a key to the city for ‘Arrested Development’

ruben.vives@latimes.com

jason.song@latimes.com