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TV Stations Lose Power : El Cajon Fire Burns 3,000 Acres, 3 Homes

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Times Staff Writers

The Normal Heights blaze, which destroyed 47 homes, was the most damaging--but by no means the largest--fire in San Diego County.

A second brush fire swept across more than 3,000 acres in eastern El Cajon near Mt. Miguel, where three San Diego television stations have transmitters. All three stations were forced to turn off power because of the flames, a California Department of Forestry spokeswoman said.

Department of Forestry information officer Cele Cundari said three homes and a two-story storage shed had burned, and the fire had not been contained by late Sunday.

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About 350 firefighters from the state forestry department, the U.S. Forestry Department, and the El Cajon, Inland Valley, Spring Valley and Santee fire departments are fighting the fire, she said.

The San Diego County Humane Society was summoned to evacuate livestock, and the fire burned into the night, uncontained, fought by 21 engine crews and four helicopters.

The fire broke out just before noon near Millar Ranch Road and State Highway 94, which was closed for a short time this afternoon because of the thick smoke.

Elsewhere in Southern California, fires fanned by hot, dry winds destroyed thousands of acres.

In Riverside County, the largest of the state’s fires raged into its fourth day in the San Jacinto Mountains outside Palm Springs, where more than 1,200 firefighters were deployed to face a blaze that had consumed nearly 20,000 acres of brushland by Sunday night.

Flames were within a mile of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The U.S. Forest Service closed the tram Saturday and evacuated 400 campers.

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There was concern for the tramway’s upper station, a three-story building housing machinery and a restaurant, she said, “but the Forest Service says the mountain station is in no danger yet.”

Firefighters were aided by a drop in the wind velocity, from about 25 m.p.h. to about 10 m.p.h., but were hampered by temperatures of more than 100 degrees and rough terrain.

Northwest of Los Angeles, a 1,500-acre fire burned through Carlisle Canyon near Lake Sherwood, fought by 400 firefighters from 55 engine companies from the Los Angeles and Ventura County fire departments, backed by seven airplanes and seven helicopters dropping chemicals.

One mobil home was reported destroyed but no other houses were believed to have been damaged although several families were forced from their homes in the semi-rural area. The fire threatened small ranches but stopped when the flames reached an area cleared by a backfire.

A fire on South Mountain Road west of Texaco Canyon and about five miles east of Santa Paula burned through more than 70 acres and was advancing toward an area of citrus ranches and oil fields, the Ventura County Fire Department reported.

Both Ventura County fires remained out of control Sunday night.

In Sequoia National Forest, the Kern County Fire Department announced it had contained an 8,700-acre fire that began Friday and spread to within 10 miles of Bakersfield. The blaze was contained at 6 a.m. Sunday and was expected to be controlled by 6 a.m. today.

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