Brush Fires, Heat Scorch Southland

Brush fires damaged at least four homes in the Los Angeles area Tuesday as dry heat moved in from Mexico, breaking temperature records and triggering smog alerts in several places.

The fires were blamed for only one injury, but damage was estimated at more than $200,000, and several families were briefly driven from their homes in Glendale, Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge.

The National Weather Service blamed the heat and aridity on an inland high-pressure system and said things will be just about the same today and Thursday.

Tuesday’s high at Los Angeles Civic Center was 97 degrees--a full nine degrees below the old record of 106 degrees set in 1885. But a record had already been shattered overnight by a low of 76 degrees, which was a full three degrees above the old record high minimum of 73 degrees set in 1967.

And at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, a 101-year-old temperature record fell a few minutes after noon Tuesday when the mercury reached 87 degrees, shattering the old record of 86, also set during that 1885 heat wave.

Desert Inferno

It was much hotter elsewhere: Death Valley reported an afternoon high of 111 degrees, closely followed by Blythe with 110, Needles with 109 and Palm Springs with 107, while in the Los Angeles area, the mercury rose to 104 degrees at Monrovia, 103 at San Gabriel, 102 at Woodland Hills and Ontario and 100 at Pasadena, Montebello, Burbank and Northridge.

First-stage smog alerts were called during the afternoon in the Corona-Norco area, in the central and northwest portions of the San Bernardino Valley and the east San Gabriel Valley, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District predicted poor air quality again today in the Pomona and San Gabriel valleys.

It was also high-risk time for fires.

Relative humidity in the Los Angeles Basin ranged from 35% in the early morning to an afternoon low of 15%, leaving summer-growth brush tinder dry on hillsides and in canyons, and by late afternoon firefighters were struggling with brush fires in Pasadena, Diamond Bar, Westlake, Valencia, La Canada Flintridge, Bouquet Canyon and Glendale.

Firefighters said two blazes that broke out about 3 p.m. along Knollwood Drive and Linda Vista Road, not far from the campus of the Art Center College of Design on the Pasadena-Glendale border, were nearly under control when a sudden shift of the wind caused them to unite in the Scholl Canyon area and rush northward, damaging two homes in the 1700 block of Knollwood Drive, destroying a trailer and two sheds in the same area and threatening several others.

Some residents of the area turned garden hoses on their roofs in an effort to ward off the flames, while Verdugo Fire Dispatcher Debbie Moss said others had voluntarily followed firefighters’ advice to evacuate the area.

About 1,100 students were evacuated from the Art Center campus, and school officials said classes had been canceled for the rest of the day.

By late evening, with an estimated 800 acres of brushland blackened and 300 firefighters still on the scene, the fire was reported fully contained.

Pasadena Assistant Fire Chief Don Hughes estimated damage to structures at more than $100,000 and said he could offer no prediction as to when the blaze might be fully controlled.

One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion, but the only major injury came when a Glendale Fire Department captain broke his ankle while unsuccessfully pursuing a man seen lighting flares and throwing them into underbrush in the vicinity of the fire.

More Damage Elsewhere

Damage from two other fires that broke out earlier in La Canada Flintridge was also estimated at more than $100,000.

Authorities said the first of these fires began in dense brush at the bottom of a canyon and spread quickly to a home at 551 Meadow Grove St., damaging the roof and attic before it could be brought under control. And at about the same time, a hillside grass fire touched off the roof of a house at 555 Paulette Place.

Both blazes were controlled in less than 30 minutes, and firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to other nearby structures. But officials said the origins of both fires would be closely investigated; arson blazes have been reported in the vicinity during recent weeks.

Little Good News

The National Weather Service had little encouragement to offer for more pleasant weather:

Meteorologists said a strong upper-altitude high-pressure system over Arizona is pumping hot air into Southern California from northern Mexico, and while this system is expected to drift westward during the next few days, forecasters said its movement could only serve to continue the siege of hot weather.