GLENDALE : Flames Destroy House and Duplex

Flames swept by Santa Ana winds destroyed a house and duplex in Glendale Wednesday, also engulfing two vehicles, a garage and a carport.

No one was injured by the 12:21 p.m. blaze, which caused $500,000 in damages, said Glendale Fire Battalion Chief Dave Starr. The fire ignited in the back yard of the duplex in the 1200 block of Valley View Road.

A brown rabbit and two 14-foot-long boa constrictors found in one gutted house survived the fire, Starr said. The animals were taken for treatment by a Glendale animal control officer.

Starr said power lines from a pole between the two homes were blown into a nearby tree, sparking flames that caused the fire. High winds then quickly picked up the flames, which spread through a garage and carport before striking the homes.

“All those things combined make for disaster,” Starr said.

Forty firefighters from Glendale and Burbank contained the fire by 1:25 p.m., officials said.

Michael De La Pena, 20, was alone in the duplex when he noticed flames in his back yard. No one was in the other home at the time.

“I was just watching TV, and my two dogs (outside) were going crazy,” he said. When he saw the fire, “I grabbed my one dog and ran to call 911.”

His second dog, a 3-year-old black terrier named Matilda, remained missing Wednesday afternoon.

His 44-year-old mother, Caroline De La Pena, later came to the scene from work and broke out in tears as she watched her rented home go up in flames.

“We’ve been in this house for 12 years,” said De La Pena, an assistant manager at House of Fabrics in Glendale. “I’m the only one ever to fix it up like a real house.”

“All my photos, all my legal documents . . . all of my children’s trophies” are inside, said De La Pena, who also has a 16-year-old son, Gerald.

Neighbor Jerry Gharakhani, 41, said he was surprised at how fast the fire moved.

“It was a very small fire, and suddenly, three minutes (later), poof, gone--everything burned,” Gharakhani said.