Monterey Park Fire Scorches 4 Homes

Four expensive hillside homes in Monterey Park--all with wood shake roofs--sustained moderate damage Friday when an arson-suspected fire scorched 15 acres of parched brush and palm trees in a well-groomed residential area.

It took 150 firefighters nearly two hours to control the blaze, which began about 12:20 p.m. at the base of a hill near the intersection of Crest Vista Drive and Cadiz Street.

Aided by water drops by a Los Angeles County helicopter, firefighters beat back the flames, which threatened other homes on Rodman Circle, the cul-de-sac where the four homes were damaged.

Monterey Park Fire Chief Al McComb said the other homes on Rodman, valued from $500,000 to $750,000, were spared because they had tile roofs.

“The moral, and we’ve been preaching it for years, is that a wood shake roof in a brush-fire situation is going to burn,” McComb said. “There’s no two ways about it.”

He said the brushy terrain west of Atlantic Boulevard was a prime area for a devastating fire because of drought conditions there.

Fire officials said a municipal work crew was nearby when it spotted flames coming from at least two different locations on a hillside overlooking Atlantic. The fire quickly moved uphill, damaging the four homes.

One Rodman Circle resident, Shiro Ito, said he was on his way to lunch when he saw flames threatening his red-tile-roofed home.

“I got my animals--three cats and a dog--and got out of there,” he said.

Others were not so lucky.

A tenant of one of the damaged homes, who declined to give his name, said he was called at work and told the house was damaged. “We’re going to have to call the Philippines and tell the owner about the fire,” he said.

McComb said arson appeared to be involved because of eyewitness accounts that indicated the fire might have started in two or three different places near the homes.

There was no immediate cost estimate on the damage.