Flames Sweep Posh Homes in Granada Hills; 8,000 Flee

Santa Ana winds gusting up to 70 m.p.h. blew a storm of flames through the posh Porter Ranch area before dawn today, damaging or destroying 22 houses and forcing at least 8,000 residents to flee.

The fire had swept through 3,000 acres just west of Granada Hills by midday and was blazing out of control toward the northwest, into the Santa Susana Mountains. It was fought by more than 1,000 firefighters from Los Angeles city and county fire departments, Ventura County and prisoner crews.

“It was raining fire, just orange everywhere,” said Eric Struthoff, as he surveyed the ruins of his home, his trousers pockmarked with holes burnt by wind-driven embers.

“Everything we worked for is gone,” sobbed Ann Friedman, his neighbor on Beaufait Avenue, where most of the damage occurred, whose home also was destroyed.

Acting Mayor John Ferraro declared a state of emergency, declaring that “the emergency has or is likely to become beyond the control of normal services, personnel, equipment and facilities of the regularly constituted branches and departments of the city government.”

‘Engine at . . . Every House’

Winds gusting from 40 to 70 m.p.h. grounded fixed-wing aircraft, said Los Angeles Fire Department Inspector Ed Reed. Retardant-dropping helicopters were buffeted perilously close to hillsides by the winds.

County Fire Inspector John Lenihan said firefighters were trying “to set an engine at almost every house along its way.”

The powerful winds made a volatile combination with thick dry brush on the mountains on the city’s northern rim. “Pound for pound it’s equivalent to gasoline,” said Fire Battalion Chief Dean Cathey.

Two firefighters were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Williamson reported that 17 people suffered various minor injuries.

At least 8,000 residents fled the area at one time or another, said Sgt. Kent Setty, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division.

2 Earlier Firestorms

The blaze came just a day after two other firestorms driven by Santa Ana winds destroyed 22 houses and damaged nine others in Baldwin Park and the La Verne area, forcing hundreds to flee from their homes. Damage from those fires was estimated at more than $10 million.

This morning’s fire is believed to have originated in the area of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills. The cause is still under investigation, Reed said.

Struthoff said that the smell of smoke awakened him about 4:30 a.m. and that he saw the fire about two ridges from his home.

He wakened his family and in only 45 minutes the firestorm was upon them, he said. He put his wife, two daughters, the family dog and photo album in a car in front of the house, with the engine running, and tried to go back through the house to the back yard to turn on the lawn sprinklers before fleeing, he said.

His yard was filled with embers the size of marbles, hurled by the wind, he said.

‘A Wall of Fire’

“There was a wall of fire. It was so bad I couldn’t go outside. I pulled the hood of my sweat shirt over my head and ran blindly back out the front door to the car.”

The Struthoff home was one of 18 expensive homes damaged or destroyed on Beaufait Avenue.

About 60 persons checked into an emergency shelter set up by Red Cross officials at the Ahavat Shalom Temple in Northridge, Rabbi Jerry Brown said. About 75 horses evacuated from a farm in Aliso Canyon were being housed on the Granada Hills High School football field, school officials said.