Brush Fire Ignites 3 Santa Clarita Houses

A brush fire that may have been started by youths playing in an open field Sunday nearly destroyed two homes in Santa Clarita and damaged a third.

Four firefighters were slightly injured in the blaze, which started about 2:30 p.m. near a creek north of Bouquet Canyon Road and Newhall Ranch Road. The fire burned between two and three acres of brush before flames ignited the roof of a two-story house in the 22900 block of Las Mananitas Drive, causing approximately $150,000 in damage, said Battalion Chief Larry G. Rohrer of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Embers from the burning house were blown over several other homes and landed on a house in the 23000 block of Conde Drive, causing an estimated $140,000 in damage, Rohrer said.

Investigators were questioning several teen-agers seen playing near the creek moments before the fire broke out, Rohrer said. The exact cause of the blaze was under investigation, he said.

More than 100 firefighters, aided by two water-dropping helicopters, contained the fire in about 45 minutes, Rohrer said.

“It was so sudden,” said Leticia Caranto, who was inside the house on Conde Drive with her husband and son when their home caught on fire. “I couldn’t believe it. I was talking to my neighbor, telling her there was a fire down the street, and then all of a sudden my house was on fire.”

Caranto, her husband and son fled the burning house and were uninjured. The family of six who lives at the home on Las Mananitas Drive was away when the fire occurred, authorities said. A neighbor, Jessi Chessnut, said she ran to the house and opened the garage door to let out the family’s dog, which immediately jumped into a swimming pool to escape the heat and flames. The dog did not appear to be injured, Chessnut said.

Firefighters quickly doused a third fire that caused several hundred dollars damage to the roof of a house on Cerca Drive, Dobes said.

A firefighter who fell off the roof of the house on Las Mananitas was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital with minor injuries, Rohrer said, and another was treated at the hospital for minor burns. A third firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion, and a fourth was taken to the hospital after he stepped on a nail, authorities said.