Wind-Driven Fire Destroys 13 Homes : 23 Others Damaged as Flames Race Through Porter Ranch Area

For the third time in two days, a fire driven by fierce Santa Ana winds roared through a sleeping suburban neighborhood Friday, this time sending an estimated 8,000 residents of the northern San Fernando Valley fleeing into the night, destroying 13 homes and damaging 23 others.

Residents in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles said they woke to find the sky brilliant with flames, smoke pouring into their bedrooms and their houses igniting under a “a rain of fire”--clouds of blazing embers hurled out of the burning brush by winds of up to 70 m.p.h.

Gov. George Deukmejian and Los Angeles city and county authorities declared states of emergency as the fire consumed more than 3,000 acres of brush and roared out of control, battled by a force of about 1,000 firefighters from as far away as Ventura and Santa Fe Springs.

The high winds grounded fixed-wing aircraft, but eight retardant-dropping helicopters fought the flames, weaving through the air perilously close to the hillsides under the battering of the winds.

About 50 firefighters suffered minor injuries; several were treated for embers in their eyes and two inhaled chlorine from burning pool supplies, said Los Angeles Fire Department Inspector Ed Reed. At least five residents were treated for minor injuries at local hospitals.

Blowtorch Strength

The Los Angeles Fire Department estimated damage at almost $3.9 million.

The fire was first reported about 4:28 a.m. near the Sunshine Canyon Landfill north of Granada Hills. Pumped to blowtorch strength by the dry winds from the desert that have raked Southern California for three days, it blazed furiously westward into the Porter Ranch neighborhood of expensive homes on the slopes of the Santa Susana Mountains north of Northridge.

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

“Everything we worked for is gone,” said a sobbing Ann Friedman, his neighbor on Beaufait Avenue.

Cause of the blaze was under investigation. Fire officials were seeking two men seen near where the fire broke out but said no evidence of arson had been found.

By nightfall Friday, the fire was burning westward and was almost into Limekiln Canyon, which runs north from the end of Tampa Avenue, where firefighters were clearing a firebreak and planning to set a backfire.

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

City Fire Department spokesmen said the wind was gusting from 40 to 70 m.p.h. as the flames closed in on Beaufait Avenue, a neighborhood of homes in the $400,000 range.

The wind was so strong “it would actually blow couches across the street,” said Fire Chief Donald O. Manning. Although firefighters took up positions on Beaufait Avenue before the fire arrived, “we were still overwhelmed,” he said. “It was an incredible situation.”

All but four of the homes damaged or destroyed were on Beaufait, said Los Angeles Fire Department inspector Vince Marzo. On neighboring Eddleston Drive, some homeowners stayed and fought the flames as the fire swept through the neighborhood and leaped nearby Aliso Creek.

About 5 a.m., residents said, police cars and fire trucks raced through the neighborhood, and residents were advised, over public address systems, to evacuate.

“It was bumper-to-bumper cars, trying to get out of here,” said Mike Miller, 46, who stayed on his roof with a garden hose. “If you leave, you lose your house. I was lucky to save mine, but I stayed. Others left.”

Neighbor Charles Kunz, 50, said he was also fighting the rain of embers with a garden hose when “the whole sky lit up, and then all of a sudden the hillside over there all burst into flames at once.”

Voluntary Evacuation

Judging from the number of cars that tried to return to the neighborhood later in the day, at least 8,000 residents fled the area at one time or another, said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Kent Setty. Reed said there was “absolutely no way to guess at all at the number of people evacuated.” The evacuation was voluntary and no count was kept, he said.

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

Mayor Tom Bradley toured Beaufait Avenue with City Councilman Hal Bernson, state Assemblywoman Marian LaFollete and Manning.

“This is an incredible tragedy,” Bradley said. “But when you consider it could have been worse, you have good feelings about the Fire Department.”

Manning said a major factor in determining which houses were lost was the type of roofing: Wood shingles ignite easily after years of drying in the sun. Many of the houses that burned had such wood shingle roofs, the fire chief said, calling them “a disaster waiting to happen.”

‘Beyond ... Control’

Before Bradley returned Friday from a meeting of the National League of Cities in Boston, Acting Mayor John Ferraro declared a state of emergency, telling the City Council that “the emergency has, or is likely to become, beyond the control of normal” city emergency services. The declaration activated the city’s emergency operations center to coordinate the battle and allowed the city to call on outside agencies for asssistance.

Later Deukmejian, at the request of the Board of Supervisors, declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, noting three disastrous Santa Ana-spawned fires in two days.

On Thursday, firestorms destroyed 22 houses and damaged nine others in Baldwin Park and the La Verne area, causing hundreds to flee. Damage from those fires was estimated at more than $10 million.

The cause of Friday’s fire remained a mystery.

Investigators had not ruled out the possibility that the fire was caused by downed power wires on Sunshine Canyon Landfill property. “There were downed power lines in that area,” Manning said. “But at this point in time, the arson investigators are looking at a number of possible causes.”

“It could have been power lines, it could have been spontaneous, it could have been a number of things,” County Fire Department Inspector John Lenihan said.

2 Men Sought

Arson investigators announced late in the afternoon that they want to question two men seen leaving Bee Canyon, near the fire’s origin, just before the flames were spotted. “They may be responsible, but then again they may just have seen something,” Marzo said.

Reed said a park ranger saw the men on a road near the landfill. “The ranger later told us about it, and we decided we’d like to talk to them. I’ve got no idea what two people would be doing up there at 4:30 in the morning.”

One of the men was described by witnesses as white, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with a mustache. He was driving a white pickup truck. The other was black, with a ponytail, about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 165 pounds and wearing a U.S. Army fatigue jacket. Witnesses said both appeared to be about 21 years old.

Los Angeles school district officials closed five schools in the area, affecting more than 5,000 students.

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Stephanie Chavez, Sam Enriquez, Gabe Fuentes, Amy Pyle and Eric Malnic.