Armada of aid reached quickly across the sea

As a fast-moving brush fire marched toward Avalon, it quickly overwhelmed Catalina Island’s small firefighting force -- a mix of professionals and volunteers with just four engines.

But reinforcements came by sea and by air, crossing more than 20 miles of ocean.

The assault that began with 10 island firefighters had in less than a day swelled to 744, who made the trek across the Catalina Channel with hoses, axes and chain saws, not to mention 46 fire engines, bulldozers and water tankers.

Avalon officials and residents on Friday credited the response -- a logistical feat involving L.A. County firefighters, the Navy, L.A. County sheriff’s deputies and the Coast Guard, as well as the private Catalina Express ferry system -- with saving their town.

“Without that response, we wouldn’t be standing in front of you today,” said Avalon Mayor Robert Kennedy on Friday afternoon, announcing that the once-mighty blaze was now 35% contained.

The 4,200-acre fire was fought back on the outskirts of Avalon, ultimately taking one house and a handful of commercial structures.

Some firefighters, who on Thursday night crowded onto ferries to the island after residents fleeing Avalon disembarked in Long Beach, were going back home Friday, just as the evacuees returned to Catalina.

The mobilization began shortly after 12:30 p.m. Thursday when the first report of flames came from a city firefighter on routine patrol near the Airport in the Sky, about 10 winding miles from the homes and businesses of Avalon.

Even before he saw the blaze for himself, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Escoto called for help, asking that immediate reinforcements be flown from the mainland to work the fire.

Escoto had reached the fire within minutes and knew that he would need more than the standard response.

He watched as the blaze ran through light grass, moving in the direction toward town.

“I said: ‘You know what? We’re not going to catch this thing,’ ” he recalled Friday. He called the main Los Angeles County dispatch office and let it know that a lot more help would be needed.

The first helicopters were dispatched from Malibu, Pacoima and Santa Clarita, each with fire crews aboard.

More firefighters were redeployed from around the South Bay and airlifted to the island from a Rancho Palos Verdes helipad.

“When a fire starts out at 2 acres and goes to 80 acres in five minutes, then you know you have something,” said Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Dan Ertel, who is based at the department’s bunker-like command center in East Los Angeles. “You know we have to activate the ‘Catalina plan.’ ”

The plan marshals a response that resembles a military operation more than a firefighting effort, with helicopters, airplanes, Navy hovercraft and Coast Guard cutters called into action from four counties.

The command center mustered a special team of 16 dispatchers, logistical workers and supervisors. They gathered in a second-floor room and began coordinating the campaign on computer screens and a large white marker board.

The command center tapped the state fire department for air tankers that took off from Ryan Airfield in Hemet.

They bombarded the perimeter of the fire with retardant in hopes of directing it away from Avalon.

At the same time, the L.A. County Fire Department sent up five water-dropping helicopters -- three Bell 412s with 360-gallon tanks and two Firehawks with 1,000-gallon tanks.

As the air attack got underway, those on the ground did what they could.

Avalon Mayor Kennedy, one of the island’s volunteer firefighters, was among the first on the front lines.

More than two hours into the effort, Kennedy said the blaze proved too much, and he and others raced through a tunnel of fire to safety.

“It had overrun us,” Kennedy said. “It was questionable if we could get the units that had gone out there back to the city.”

As firefighters on the island regrouped, Los Angeles County dispatch began moving heavy equipment into place.

The command center put a convoy of 35 fire engines on the road to Camp Pendleton, where several hovercraft waited to make the hourlong trip. The first load of five engines reached the island about 8:45 p.m., as flames charged out of the backcountry.

Tossing a two-story-high wake, the massive craft looked as wide as Pacific Coast Highway.

The ships landed on the rocky Catalina shore like a seal throwing its body out of the water, with a deafening roar from the twin propellers. Within seconds, the massive balloon that suspends the ship on the water is deflated and a ramp lowered.

The hovercraft ran throughout the night and into Friday delivering more engines, 1,500-gallon water trucks, bulldozers and trucks full of inmate firefighters.

Joining the fleet were Coast Guard cutters, which gave more firefighters a ride to the island. The command center also enlisted Catalina Express to reserve its ferries for fire crews.

On ships more accustomed to transporting pleasure seekers, Los Angeles County firefighters boarded single file, carrying axes and shovels.

En route to defend the island’s homes and business, they crossed paths on choppy waters with evacuees heading to the mainland.

By midnight, about 500 firefighters were defending Avalon, along with some inmate work crews. Slowly, they began to gain the upper hand on the blaze, aided by cooling temperatures and increasing humidity.

At dawn, the historic town was no longer in imminent danger. The more than 4,000-acre brush fire had been held back.

The firefighters’ work continued Friday as their number reached more than 700, many of them hiking hillsides and canyons.

Up on a backbone of highway running along a canyon known as China Wall on Friday morning, Los Angeles County fire crew foreman Mo Khazaal called out to 10 state prison inmates scraping a fire break around a thick toyon berry bush.

“Keep your dime” -- stay 10 feet apart. “Look sharp. Everybody’s eyes on the green” -- a reference to the green brush that hadn’t yet burned.

Dressed in orange fire suits, they hacked at the brush, cutting a yard-wide line around a patch of fire.

Meanwhile, at the command center in East L.A., Deputy Chief Mike Bryant surveyed the latest assessments of the fire. Someone had scrawled on the marker board the number of blackened acres: 4,157. A map of the island had the fire line sketched out in red.

Asked if Catalina was the department’s toughest assignment, Bryant had a quick response.

“By far.”

paul.pringle@latimes.com

megan.garvey@latimes.com

Times staff writers Seema Mehta, Sam Quinones and Susanna Rosenblatt contributed to this report.