THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM : Disaster Countered by Displays of Courage : Santa Susana Pass: Firefighters and private citizens pitch in to save hundreds of homes from 40-foot-high flames.

A wind-whipped blaze snaked through rocky draws and canyons near the Santa Susana Pass on Wednesday morning, seriously injuring four firefighters but miraculously causing almost no property damage to nearby, expensive houses.

The erratic 1,500-acre fire--possibly started by a transient, who was being questioned by police--began about 1 a.m. near Santa Susana Pass Road and burned southwestward into Ventura County and along Box Canyon Road.

Fire officials said they managed to save the hundreds of houses in and around the teardrop-shaped area by dint of luck, firefighters’ courage and the strategic deployment of 700 firefighters from three departments near structures ahead of the advancing blaze. Many private citizens also pitched in, helping to haul Fire Department hoses to wet down roofs and nearby shrubs.

Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman Steve Ruda said the “firefighters did an incredibly awesome job” of saving 15 houses near the fire’s point of origin but could not halt the progress of the 40-foot-high flames.

At Lilac Lane west of Chatsworth Reservoir shortly before dawn, the fire turned the sky vermilion and leaped over a four-man fire crew, who took refuge inside their blazing truck. The heat shattered the truck’s windows and burned the crew members, three of them critically. But nearby homes, including a 10,000-square-foot mansion, were unscathed.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Mario DeFina said the steep terrain and the numerous canyons and ravines that thread through it made the fire more dangerous and unpredictable. “The high winds, when they swirl in and out of the canyons, make the fire more erratic,” he said.

As the fire spread, blanketing much of the western San Fernando Valley in smoke, residents of Box Canyon, an eclectic group that includes bikers and BMW drivers who live in houses that range from mansions to hovels, were urged to evacuate. Although some loaded vehicles with personal items and prepared to flee, none showed up at two Red Cross-sponsored evacuation centers at schools in Canoga Park and Simi Valley.

Fire officials complained that the numerous, more destructive fires in the area had left them shorthanded and ill-equipped, despite the deployment of crews from the city and county of Los Angeles and Ventura County and three water-dropping helicopters.

“We basically cannot produce another piece of equipment out there,” said Deputy City Fire Chief Gerald Johnson, the incident commander.

The Chatsworth-Santa Susana fire, and the Thousand Oaks blaze to the west, charred thousands of acres of parkland in the Santa Monica and Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills. The National Park Service, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy all announced closure of their parks and trails.

Although the fire continued to burn throughout the day, its march slowed in the afternoon with only occasional flareups around its eastern flank. Despite the difficult conditions and personnel shortage, firefighters were able to contain the blaze by 4:20 p.m.

Late in the afternoon, police detained for questioning a 27-year-old transient who they said fit the description of a man seen by residents of Santa Susana Road in the area shortly after the blaze began. Residents said he had been camping in the brush for several weeks.

The Chatsworth-Santa Susana fire was dwarfed by the size and ferocity of other Southern California blazes. But that was little solace for dozens of worried residents of the area, whose homes narrowly escaped. Many spent the day defending their properties with garden hoses or rooftop sprinklers.

Betty Butler, who lives in the 22000 block of Dale Court, credited Tom Weaver, a good Samaritan who bicycled there from Canoga Park, with helping to save her 4,000-square-foot home. Weaver, a 29-year-old meat cutter who went to the area just to see if he could help, and Butler’s son Fred sprayed water onto brush behind her hilltop house just a few feet above flames that suddenly swept up the slope.

Even so, the rapidly spreading blaze forced Weaver, Fred Butler and a 10-member fire crew to flee on foot down the canyon. Heat from the fire blistered the paint on the cab of the crew’s truck and melted a water hose. The crew radioed for air support and 20 minutes later a helicopter halted its advance with a retardant drop.

“My lovely, lovely dream house is safe,” Betty Butler said after the danger had passed. She patted Weaver’s back and said, “I’m looking for angel wings. You’re our angel.”

Nearby, on Trigger Street, Steve Lamarche said the flames came within feet of the four-bedroom house where his family has lived for the past 10 years. “It came really close,” he said. “It was pandemonium. We took the four kids and the dog and ran for cover.”

About 30 people, many from the Rocky Point condominiums in the 22500 block of Jeffrey Mark Court, grabbed fire hoses and helped firefighters save the dwellings. “We were fighting it in our own back yards,” said Robert Allen Taylor, 39, one of the residents.

“The community worked together here and we saved our homes.”

City Fire Department Capt. Richard Brunson said his crew appreciated the help. “The residents of this complex were of great assistance in saving these buildings,” he said.

Horse owners south of the fire area nervously watched the smoky fire’s advance and many of them decided to take their animals to safety. Residents of the Dayton Canyon area took about 60 horses to the Lazy J Ranch Park on Valley Circle Boulevard near Strathern Street, turning it into a makeshift corral.

Millie Frazier of B&B; Ranch, a rental stable in Dayton Canyon, said ranch workers there began evacuating about 9:30 a.m., about 90 minutes before officials suggested they leave the area.

“We’re not going back until somebody tells us it’s out,” Frazier said. “When we started leaving we were getting covered with ash. It was pretty close.”

The fire crossed Southern Pacific tracks, forcing suspension of Amtrak, Metrolink and freight train service. Four Metrolink trains between Simi Valley and Chatsworth were canceled during the day, forcing 125 Ventura County commuters to take buses. The Rocky Peak off-ramp on the Simi Valley Freeway was closed by the California Highway Patrol for most of the day.

Woodland Hills resident Elaine Baum spent much of Wednesday on the telephone and on the road, delivering meals, donated by restaurants and grocery stores, to firefighters.

“It doesn’t hurt to give. Giving is a gift too,” she said. “What if it was my house and my family?”

Times staff writers Timothy Williams, Myron Levin, Jocelyn Y. Stewart and Carlos Lozano and special correspondents Geoff Mohan and Jeff Schnaufer contributed to this story.