A SIEGE OF FIRE : Clues to Arsonist’s Identity Sought : Probe: Device that sparked Santa Barbara blaze to be tested for fingerprints. Officials have little to go on.

An incendiary device used to ignite a fire in Santa Barbara that claimed one life and more than 500 homes has been shipped to a laboratory for fingerprint-testing, but investigators said Friday they are not “even close” to finding the arsonist responsible for the most destructive Southern California blaze in at least three decades.

“We don’t have a person or a car we can focus on right now,” said Thomas E. Buckley, a U.S. Forest Service agent participating in a 12-member interagency task force investigating the blaze on Santa Barbara’s western edge.

“We’re basically trying to follow up all the leads, but we’re not even close,” he added.

From San Diego to Santa Barbara, investigators were feverishly seeking witnesses and other clues to this week’s wave of disastrous fires in which arson is suspected in at least nine cases. The state fire marshal’s office is assisting local investigative efforts.

In Santa Barbara, authorities said it would take three to 10 days to receive the lab results on the incendiary device found at the fire’s point of origin at Highway 154 and Old San Marcos Pass Road. They gloomily noted that fingerprints would be of no use if the arsonist has no arrest record.

Investigators declined to describe the device for fear of jeopardizing the criminal case. “We want to nail this guy,” said Charles Johnson, spokesman for the county Fire Department.

If the investigation succeeds, police will seek to have the arsonist prosecuted for murder in the death of Andrea Gurka, 37, whose body was found in a creek bed behind her home on Old San Marcos Pass Road, Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Sgt. Jan Bullard said.

The Forest Service’s Buckley said two arson investigators happened to be nearby when the blaze erupted Wednesday evening and were quickly able to locate the fire’s point of origin before it could be disturbed. They were also able to jot down the license plates of about 20 cars in the area, he said.

Rewards totaling $120,000 have been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the Santa Barbara fire. The Personal Insurance Federation of California said Friday that it would match a $50,000 reward offered by Gov. George Deukmejian. At least another $20,000 has been raised by a local radio station and a crime prevention group. Anyone with a tip can call 1-800-782-7463.

In Glendale--where fire destroyed at least 46 homes and damaged more than 20 before being controlled Wednesday--investigators said they had pursued more than 20 leads without success.

Three two-member teams were checking leads and trying to find owners of several cars that were reported to have been in the area when the fire began on Tuesday.

In San Diego, where investigators attributed six out of 11 fires that plagued the area this week to arson, matchbooks were found at two sites where damage was most extensive, according to Capt. John Adkins of the California Department of Forestry.

One matchbook was discovered at the scene of a fire that destroyed structures at a Boy Scout camp in northern San Diego County. The scouts and other personnel were evacuated safely.

In another development, a 29-year-old transient suspected of starting a fire on the San Bernardino County-Orange County line in the Chino Hills that destroyed 12 homes was ordered Friday to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Peter Diaz Reyes, who was arrested Wednesday near the scene of the Carbon Canyon fire, told investigators the fire broke out while he was cooking.

Staff writers Bonna M. De La Cruz, Sebastian Rotella and Doug Smith contributed to this story.