Etiwanda Residents Flee Flames

Residents fled their homes today as firefighters struggled to slow two wind-swept wildfires that burned nearly 6,000 acres before roaring out of the foothills toward a housing tract.

Flames riding 60-m.p.h. winds and feeding on dry brush burned 675 acres in Glen Helen, while a larger blaze set by an arsonist consumed more than 5,200 acres, a ranch home and two outbuildings as it swept across the foothills 60 miles east of Los Angeles. About 150 residents in an 1,800-home Etiwanda housing area were evacuated as Southern California’s first major fall brush fire raged untamed. By late morning, however, it appeared the danger had passed as the flames skirted the homes.