4,000 Abandon Homes in Fire Near Los Gatos

A lightning-caused fire roared through the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos today, forcing as many as 4,000 people to abandon their homes and cabins.

Dubbed the Lexington fire, the 13,800-acre blaze was only one of nine major fires burning out of control in California.

All totaled, an estimated 256 square miles of brush and timberland were ablaze in what U.S. Forest Service information officer Bob Swinford said was the worst fire season in California since 1980. “It is getting close to 1977 (in total acreage), and ’77 was the historic year--the whole state was burning up that year.”

The Lexington fire, driven by erratic 30- to 40-m.p.h. winds, was the most dangerous, destroying or damaging at least six homes in the mountains of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

The fire is burning in both forest and brushland, where there are scattered dwellings, some of them expensive hideaways for the wealthy, some of them small cabins and shacks.

Swinford said the communities of Idlewild, Chemeketa Park, Holy City and Redwood Estates were threatened. The fire is burning southward, about six miles from Los Gatos, which Swinford said is not threatened. Nearly 700 firefighters are battling the fire.

Another dangerous blaze, code-named the Rat fire, flared up overnight from 3,000 to 11,185 acres in Monterey County, about four to five miles below Big Sur. The same winds that were fanning the Lexington conflagration were also spreading the Rat fire, according to Swinford. It also was started by lightning.

Swinford said the blaze is actually three fires that merged into one. So far it has destroyed two homes and three other structures.

The Wheeler Canyon fire in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County remains the largest in the state at 85,600 acres. Early today it burned back toward Ojai but was halted three or four miles outside of the town, which has been threatened several times by flames.

In the Las Pilitas fire, which had threatened San Luis Obispo on Monday and forced several thousand people to flee their homes, firefighters succeeded in holding off the flames. The city was out of danger today, according to State Division of Forests spokeswoman Mary Neumann. The huge fire is now 80% contained.

She said firefighters are literally fighting fire with fire, setting a backburn in brushland along La Cuesta Ridge north of San Luis Obispo to keep the fire from burning into the Santa Margarita Valley. She said the backfire will add about 10,000 acres to the current acreage burn figure of 64,000 acres.

The Las Pilitas fire, which started 8 days ago, has destroyed 7 homes, 5 large buildings, 10 vehicles, 3 cabins, 3 barns and 8 garages, she said.

There have been at least 14 injuries. The Cherry Valley fire in Monterey County, two miles south of King City, has burned 15,000 acres and destroyed three dwellings and three barns as it raced across ranch land near the farm town.

In Fresno County, fires started by lightning had scorched 7,700 acres in rugged foothill country.

Far to the north, in Lassen County, yet another fire was burning through pine forest, with about 1,000 acres destroyed since it started Monday. It is reported 50% contained. The blaze was centered near Eagle Lake, 15 miles north of Susanville.

Also burning out of control were the 9,750-acre Onion fire in Inyo County, which is 75% contained, and the Finley fire in Santa Clara, an arson blaze which has burned 1,660 acres and is 20% contained. The Finley fire has burned three outbuildings and one cabin.