High Winds Topple Trucks, Knock Out Power, Fan Fires

Strong Santa Ana winds raked Southern California on Tuesday--particularly in San Bernardino and Orange counties--toppling big rigs on freeways, knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of homes and fanning brush fires.

Just after dawn, gusts up to 50 m.p.h. prompted closure of Interstate 15 between Highland Avenue and Interstate 215 near Devore in San Bernardino County for more than three hours.

The California Highway Patrol reported that wind blasts tipped several high-profile vehicles on their sides in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Two were house trailers and the others were commercial tractor-trailer rigs.

“It’s blowing like mad,” said CHP Officer Dale Clark in San Bernardino. “The Santa Anas are back with us again.”

The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 43 m.p.h. in Fontana and up to 39 m.p.h., with gusts to 51 m.p.h., at Sandberg in the Tehachapi Mountains. Sustained winds of 40 m.p.h. and gusts in the 60-m.p.h. range were recorded at Laguna Park, east of Point Mugu.

Drivers of high-sided campers and trailers from Santa Barbara to Orange County were warned to proceed with extreme caution. Motorists in the southern San Joaquin Valley were warned of the additional hazard of blowing dust.

One of the more unusual wind-related events of the day occurred on California 60, west of Riverside, where a wind-driven rock crashed through the rear window of a CHP car.

“The officer was just driving along on the freeway, and all of a sudden, kathunk, a rock came through his back window,” said CHP spokesman John Anderson in Riverside. “The window’s shattered, but the officer’s fine.”

Wind-related power outages affected an estimated 40,000 Southern California Edison Co. customers from early Monday to Tuesday afternoon, according to utility spokesman Kevin Kelley. Most of the outages were in the San Bernardino and Ontario areas, in Orange County and in the Simi Valley and Oxnard areas of Ventura County, he said.

About 5,000 customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power were blacked out Tuesday, with a heavy concentration of outages in Sylmar and Chatsworth, according to DWP spokeswoman Dorothy Jensen.

Downed lines sparked a brush fire in the Chatsworth area.

There were also three brush fires near San Bernardino, two minor blazes in southwest Riverside County, three small fires in Ventura County and a large fire in San Diego County.

By late Tuesday, firefighters had contained a blaze that scorched about 3,000 acres 20 miles north of downtown San Diego. Several ranch homes were evacuated as more than 300 firefighters battled the flames with the aid of water-dropping helicopters. But no homes were damaged, fire officials reported.

In San Bernardino, Battalion Chief John Benfield said the most troublesome blaze burned about 120 acres on Little Mountain, about five miles north of downtown. Thick smoke from the fire, which was controlled by 100 firefighters after several hours, swirled across Interstate 215, impairing visibility for a time and causing traffic tie-ups.

In Riverside County, 15 engine companies battled a 20-acre fire burning in heavy brush and bamboo in the Santa Ana River bottom in the Mira Loma area Tuesday evening. Fire officials said no structures were threatened.

In Orange County, the winds uprooted trees, caused sporadic power outages and fanned a fire that broke out in a manure pile near a riding stable.

At the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, winds were blamed for causing “spontaneous combustion” in piles of horse manure belonging to a fertilizer firm. Marine Corp Maj. Jim McClain said the fire broke out about 3:15 a.m. near the base’s riding stables, creating a heavy pall of smoke that blew directly into a nearby housing project.

Some residents were evacuated to the El Toro Marine School until the blaze was extinguished about two hours later.

The hot, dry winds were also blamed for a roof fire that caused $50,000 damage to a house in Yorba Linda. Burning embers from the chimney ignited the shingles of a residence in the 4500 block of Plumosa Drive, fire officials said.

In Mission Viejo, the planned groundbreaking ceremony for the start of the $15.5-million Oso Parkway extension was canceled because of high winds. Plans called for shuttling guests up to a hilltop vista to view the 1.7-mile route.

“The caterer suggested that there have been gusts up to 40 m.p.h. in the area,” one organizer said. “You just got a lot of loose dirt in the area, and it would have been difficult to have any formal ceremony under the circumstances.”

Prospects for almost everything affected by weather should improve today, according to weather forecasters, because the high winds are expected to taper off.

Meteorologist Rick Dittman of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, predicted that the high-pressure area over the Great Basin that created the rush of winds toward the ocean will start to weaken.

The mercury reached a high of 75 at the Los Angeles Civic Center on Tuesday. Relative humidity ranged from 51% to 15%. Forecasters said the high should reach 80 today.