FIRES: Bars Trapped 2 Victims; 6 Still Sought

Los Angeles firemen searched the blackened ruins of 53 homes in Baldwin Hills for more bodies today, while in Ventura County firefighters turned back a huge wildfire that threatened to engulf the town of Ojai.

At least two persons died in the arson-set disaster in Baldwin Hills. Fire Chief Donald O. Manning said this morning that “at least six persons are still missing,” but added that the number changes from moment to moment.

Gov. George Deukmejian and Mayor Tom Bradley toured the burned-out area of Baldwin Hills by helicopter and on foot this morning.

“It’s a very, very sad sight,” the governor said as he officially declared all of Los Angeles County an emergency area, a step toward getting federal aid for disaster victims.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Dan Cooke said late this morning that witnesses now say they saw several “incendiary devices” thrown out of a slow-moving white car in several places just before the firestorm blew up in Baldwin Hills Tuesday afternoon. Cooke said there were at least two men in the car, but could provide no other details.

Fire officials said they have found more than one such incendiary device. They declined to elaborate.

Fire Victims

The two known victims of the inferno-like Baldwin Hills blaze were identified as Mary Street, 77, and Robert Allen, 55, both of 4217 Don Carlos Drive. A Los Angeles city Fire Department spokesman said the couple apparently were trapped inside their house because of burglary bars on the windows. Vince Marzo said neighbors had seen them running past the windows on the inside.

“In a hot fire and panic situation,” he said, “they were unable to get out.”

In Ventura County, the 26,300-acre Wheeler fire had burned its way to the northern edge of Ojai early today, threatening to sweep through the whole town of 6,200 before firefighters and nature combined to turn back the flames.

“The battle for Ojai is essentially over,” said Jon Silvius of the U.S. Forest Service.

The blaze burned out its brush-fed fuel and turned back on itself early today. By mid-morning the fire was burning in deserted mountainous terrain north of the town.

The fire destroyed four homes and several barns and other outbuildings, according to Silvius.

Silvius said the fire was 20% contained by mid-morning today. More than 1,500 firefighters were battling the flames.

Blocks From Town Center

Silvius said that early this morning “massive flames were jumping right at the (northern) edge of Ojai. It was pretty hairy. Fire crews were standing toe to toe with the flames. . . . The flames were four or five blocks from the city center.”

He said the firestorm subsided in large part because it had burned through all available fuel on the edge of the city. “Now it is just a traditional brush fire,” he said, although he added he was worried about the blaze spreading toward Santa Paula or Santa Barbara.

Twenty-one wildfires have scorched nearly 100,000 acres in California since last weekend. Several of the most destructive, including the Baldwin Hills disaster in Los Angeles Tuesday and Sunday’s Normal Heights fire in San Diego, were set by arsonists, according to authorities. Seven of the fires were still reported out of control as of noon today.

After his stop in Baldwin Hills, Deukmejian departed to tour other fire disaster areas in San Diego, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

Fire Chief Manning blamed the rapid spread of the Baldwin Hills fire on “the very explosive fuel” provided by dried-out brush.

‘Ready to Burn’

“The houses also were dried out, ready to burn,” he said. “The shake roofs were a big factor.”

The record-breaking heat wave--with temperatures climbing over 100 for three straight days--added to the peril.

“I’ve been with the department 32 years,” Manning said, “and I’m as worried as I’ve ever been. It’s a very volatile situation. Sixty percent of the brush is dead. That is a very high ratio.”

He said that when the brush is that dry “it will burn as fast in still air as it normally will in a 25 m.p.h. wind.”

At least four Baldwin Hills residents were hospitalized with burns. Four firefighters and two police officers were treated for minor injuries.

Asst. Fire Chief Dave Parsons estimated damage at about $16 million.

Because of the two deaths Los Angeles police had a team of homicide investigators on the scene quickly.

The flames reportedly roared eastward up the hillside from La Brea Avenue just north of Stocker Street, flashed across the ridge and into the homes along Don Miguel, Don Carlos and Don Felipe drives and Don Alegre Place. Roofs began to smoke, then burst into fire. Then entire houses were engulfed.

100-Foot Flames

The sun was blotted out by the smoke and flames were leaping 100 feet in the air.

Many of the homes are in the $250,000 class and above. The area is heavily populated by middle- and upper-middle-class black families.

“This is the worst fire in the last seven years in Los Angeles,” Manning said. In October, 1978, a series of fires from Malibu to Mandeville Canyon destroyed 230 homes.

A dozen homes were already ablaze when firefighters arrived after the 2:48 p.m. alarm. Their problems battling the inferno were complicated by an initial lack of water pressure, probably caused by homeowners hosing down their properties throughout the area.

Manning said the Fire Department quickly called the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which diverted extra water to the sector.

Although residents on some streets complained that firefighters took some time to arrive, Manning insisted that the first unit was there within four minutes of the alarm and the second arrived within seven.

“If we were literally sitting on top of that hill,” Manning contended, “the homes still would have burned.”

The chief noted that homes with rock roofs burned as well as those with shake roofs because of the intense heat.

Traffic Nightmare

The scene was one of pandemonium, with fire trucks and civilian vehicles trying to maneuver past each other on the curving streets. Residents packed their cars with what belongings they could grab and fled.

But the fire moved across the neighborhood so fast that it was there before many knew it was coming.

At Brotman Medical Center, Vivian Schertle, 64, was reported in critical but stable condition with burns over 50% of her body. Dr. Steven Hoefflin, chief plastic surgeon, said she will need several skin graft operations.

Her husband, Milton, 77, was in stable condition with burns on his hands and forearms. He also had minor burns on the face and neck.

Ecra Hill, 69, was in stable condition with burns on her right arm and elbow.

The Schertles had lived in their three-bedroom home at 4251 Don Carlos Drive for 24 years. Milton Schertle said he had changed his shingle roof to a composition roof three years ago to prevent a fire.

“There’s nothing there now, I imagine,” he said at the hospital.

Caught by Surprise

Vivian Schertle told doctors that she was hosing down the backyard and house when flames suddenly crowned up close around her. She began to run, her hair and clothing on fire.

Her husband, who was coming home from his job in downtown Los Angeles, saw black smoke on the hill.

“The smoke was terrible,” he recalled. “Really thick. I didn’t think I’d get through it. I don’t know how I got home in the smoke.”

As he tried to get out of his car, he said, “the heat blasted out around around me. I saw our house going up . . . our two cars going up. I walked up the street to get away.”

He found his wife at the corner.

On the street, “everything seemed to be burning,” he said. “You could hardly see. Everybody was running in all directions, sort of stunned.”

He said it was not the flames that burned him, but the heat.

“It was coming at you from both sides,” he said.

As he talked at the hospital, he was wrapped in a sheet. Only his face showed. One side of it was flame-red.

The fire was so hot, Manning said, “that I couldn’t walk down the street.”

The more than 200 firefighters battling the flames had to contend with temperatures up to 115 degrees.

50 Engine Companies

It was more than three hours, during which 50 engine companies were aided by four helicopters making chemical retardant drops, before the fire was contained and subsequently controlled.

After nightfall, when a sea breeze moved in to cast an almost eerie coolness over the smoldering neighborhood, officers were going door to door to determine whether any more bodies were in the charred ruins.

Those forced out by the flames were gathering at a Red Cross evacuation center set up at Dorsey High School, and by late in the day some were still trying to locate family members. Most of the displaced--there was no official estimate of the number--chose to spend the night in hotels or with relatives or friends.

Bradley, City Council President Pat Russell, County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and other public figures were at the scene quickly.

“This is a very devastating situation,” Bradley said before touring the burned-out streets with Manning. “A terrible tragedy.”

Meanwhile, countless other fires broke out around Southern California as the terrible day wore on and as fire departments in several counties posted “red flag” alerts.

In the community of Jesmond Dene near Escondido in northern San Diego County, flames broke out and moved rapidly late Tuesday afternoon through heavy brush. At least 15 structures were destroyed or damaged, but by evening the blaze was said to be nearly contained. The fire broke out shortly before noon west of the Interstate 15 freeway and leaped that busy artery, raging out of control.

Mt. San Bruno foothills on the San Francisco Peninsula. Firefighters from several nearby communities joined the all-night effort that saved those houses.

At Ft. Ord, in Monterey County, small-arms practice set off a 500-acre blaze in brush and manzanita.

A brush fire in Yosemite National Park was partly contained by hand crews after burning about 1,200 acres in Tuolumne River Canyon north of the White Wolf area off Tioga Pass Road. Full containment was expected today.

Times staff writers Boris Yaro, Miles Corwin and Jack Jones also contributed to this story.