CASTAIC : Burning Motor Home Ignites 15-Acre Brush Fire
An overheated motor home caught fire on the Golden State Freeway on Monday and set off a brush fire that engulfed 15 acres near Castaic, the same area where a freeway car crash ignited a 1,200-acre blaze a week ago, authorities said.
The fire in the Angeles National Forest started about 12 p.m. after a man driving a motor home north on the freeway north of the Templin Highway noticed that his engine was getting hot, California Highway Patrol Officer Rick Gibson said.
Kermit Griffith, 51, of Santa Ana smelled smoke, pulled to the side of the road and tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Reidder said. But the motor home “went up like a matchbox,” Gibson said, igniting the scrubby brush along the road.
More than 220 Los Angeles County and U. S. Forest Service firefighters battled the blaze, and it was contained by 1:40 p.m., Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Clark Pearson said.
Three helicopters and two airplanes dropped water and fire retardant on the flames, which at one point threatened homes in the area, Pearson said.
Two county firefighters were injured and taken to local hospitals for treatment, said U. S. Forest Service dispatcher Shelley Smith. One suffered smoke inhalation and the other had a broken arm, she said.
Two of the four northbound lanes on the highway were closed, backing up traffic about six miles, authorities said.
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