$1-Million Blaze Sweeps Project

A fire in a Santa Clarita Valley apartment development Friday morning destroyed two buildings under construction and spread to the rooftops of 19 houses in a nearby neighborhood, causing serious damage to one house.

In spite of Santa Ana winds, Los Angeles County firefighters extinguished all the fires within an hour.

Damage to the development, Sand Canyon Ranch, was estimated at $1 million.

Two firefighters were injured putting out roof fires, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Tom Little said. Both were released after treatment at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, one for back injuries and scrapes and the other for smoke inhalation and scrapes.

The blaze, apparently caused by a plumber’s torch, broke out about 9:30 a.m. in the framework for a six-unit structure in one corner of a 255-unit development near Sand Canyon and Soledad Canyon roads, Little said. Flames engulfed the framework of an adjacent six-unit structure in the development, owned by G. H. Palmer & Associates of Los Angeles.

Both structures burned to the ground.

High winds spread embers from the fire across Sand Canyon Road, igniting small fires on wooden rooftops in the Sierra Hills housing tract. All but one of those were quickly extinguished with only minor damage, Little said.

Residents said one rooftop burst into fire. Damage to that house was estimated at $35,000, Little said.

Some residents used hoses to water down their roofs.

Geri Fethke said she drove through a California Highway Patrol roadblock while rushing from a trip to buy hoses.

“I went down to pick up an extra 150 feet of hose, just in case our neighbors might need some,” Fethke said.

She said she told a CHP officer, “I’m going through here. My house is on fire.’ . . . I broke through the barricade, drove to the house.”

The only damage to her house was a hole in the roof, she said.

CHP Lt. Ray Blackwell said that an officer at the scene traced Fethke to her house and rebuked her for going through the roadblock, but that she was not given a citation.

“Based on the emotional tendencies that exist at the time, it was determined to give a verbal warning,” Blackwell said.