20 Unfinished Houses Burn

A suspected arson fire fanned by high winds roared through a Palmdale housing development Tuesday evening, destroying 20 homes under construction and damaging two others.

Fire officials estimated the damage at the California Dawn development, by Kaufman & Broad, near Avenue S and 50th Street East, at as much as $1.5 million. There were no injuries.

“It’s lucky the fire didn’t take the whole block out,” said Battalion Chief Mike Balzano of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Nearly 100 firefighters struggled for 45 minutes to control the fire, officials said. Arson investigators for both the Sheriff’s and County Fire departments will investigate.

The fire broke out shortly before 6 p.m. in a house under construction about a block away from occupied homes in the tract. The development contains about 200 completed homes and had 200 under construction, a spokesman for the developer said.

“It’s definitely suspicious circumstances,” said Battalion Chief Jerry Peskett. Fire investigators said the blaze apparently began in the rafters of one of the buildings, which they said was an unlikely ignition point for an accidental fire.

Winds gusting at up to 30 m.p.h. spread the flames rapidly down a row of lots on Sunburst Drive containing wooden frames of houses, and caused the fire to jump to other houses under construction across the street.

The homes, priced at $100,000 to $140,000, had already been reserved for buyers, said Jim Adair, president of the developer’s Antelope Valley division. The homes were insured, he said.

Point of Origin

Cheryl Green, 23, a security guard at the construction site, said she saw the fire consume the house where it apparently originated.

“It’s like the house went from a little-bitty fire to poof!” she said.

Two county firefighters who lived in the development were among the first on the scene, aided by a plumbing crew working in the area that was credited with helping slow the spread of the blaze.

Buyers of the destroyed homes will be asked to accept nearby models, Adair said. “We’ll come in here and haul all this away and start all over.”