300 Homes Destroyed in O.C.

A runaway firestorm plunged through picturesque Laguna Canyon and lurched toward the downtown village center Wednesday, destroying more than 300 homes and seaside mobile homes in its path.

Even as residents fled their homes and jammed Coast Highway heading south, firefighters from across the county swarmed through foothills, heavy brush and pricey neighborhoods to fight a headstrong blaze moving in several directions at once.

By 10 p.m. one leg of the Laguna fire had snaked northeast over the San Joaquin Hills seemed to take dead aim at the Turtle Rock section of Irvine the university campus. Many students and nearby residents fled to a shelter at Woodbridge High School.

Throughout the night, ridgelines across southern Orange County glistened, more and more evacuation centers welcomed the wayward, and wary residents remained glued to their television sets. As the Laguna fire shot north toward Irvine and Corona del Mar and south into more neighborhoods, another fire raged in the foothills near Ortega Highway.

“The city is going up in flames,” said Laguna Mayor Lida Lenney, as she packed up to evacuate her home and bemoaned a year that began with devastating rainstorms in the city. “God, what next?”

The fire was the most dramatic and destructive of the fires that swept across Southern California from Ventura to San Diego Wednesday, charring more than 65,000 acres.

Authorities said the Laguna fire was deliberately set, and Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates called it the worst fire in the county’s history. The flames continued to burn late Wednesday, leapfrogging through the canyons above the city of 23,000 and at one point threatening City Hall.

By 10:30p.m., authorities said the fire was 30 percent contained, but they expected to lose ground when the winds kick up this morning.

Miraculously, there were no deaths reported in the fires across the Southland, but at least 14 firefighters and nine other people were injured. Damage was expected to exceed hundreds of millions of dollars.

Among the developments Wednesday:

* Gov. Pete Wilson declared a state of emergency throughout the fire-stricken region, paving the way for federal and state assistance to fire victims.

* In North Orange County, a separate fire damaged 29 homes in Villa Park and Orange, destroying two of them and burning 750 acres.

* Flames also flared along the Ortega Highway late Wednesday, scorching 5,000 acres and forcing 75 families to evacuate near the Cleveland National Forest.

Orange County’s wind-driven fire storms erupted first in the county’s northern hills, then in Laguna Beach within about 12 hours of each other. But the blaze in Laguna Beach was by far the most devastating.

Late Wednesday, the governor’s Office of Emergency Services declared the Laguna Beach fire the top priority in the state, according to Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young. About 1,000 more firefighters were headed to the area today.

“It looked like 50 miles of fire from the air, all the way from Cleveland National Forest to the Pacific Ocean,” Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said after completing a helicopter tour late Wednesday.

Laguna Beach

The fire broke out on the north end of Laguna Canyon Road just before noon, destroying 313 homes, including 60 in Emerald Bay, three in Irvine Cove, 100 in the El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park, and 150 in Mystic Hills, officials said. An estimated 1,000 firefighters from across Southern California worked the fire lines, with help from 150 sheriff’s deputies and 22 Laguna Beach police officers.

The fast-moving blaze showed a terrible egalitarianism, gutting trailer homes and multi-million dollar residences alike, fire officials said.

In Emerald Canyon, the flames destroyed dozens of homes, many of them multimillion-dollar estates. Children were evacuated from three schools and Coast Highway was closed as firefighters battled stiff afternoon winds in a futile effort to halt the 10-mile swath of flames. California Highway Patrol officers and local police were manning hoses because there were too few firefighters for the job.

In downtown Laguna, residents crowded onto rooftops and lined Pacific Coast Highway to gaze up at the flames snaking down the hills toward the ocean. Traffic came to a virtual halt. Overhead, helicopters dipped 150-gallon buckets in the Pacific, then headed back over the town to drop the contents on the homes ablaze in the canyons.

Deer and rabbits fleeing from the fire ran through the streets, and boulders jarred loose by burned vegetation rolled down the canyons toward firefighters struggling to contain the blaze. Trees and bushes caught fire and exploded.

John Hamil, a veterinarian whose animal hospital is on Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach, ignored fire fighters’ warnings to abandon his property and was hosing down shrubbery outside when flames roared down the hill.

“It was incredible,” Hamil said. “The heat was just so intense I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never been that close to a fire.”

As the fire hopscotched through the Mystic Hills area of million-dollar homes, firefighters manning a command post at Laguna Beach High School were forced to evacuate, officials said.

At Crown Valley Parkway, three miles south of Laguna Beach, hundreds of people tried to get back into the city, creating a huge logjam. But with police refusing to let them through, people were ditching their cars and walking into town, causing a parade of foot traffic in the night.

In contrast, on the south side of Pacific Coast highway, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic as people tried to get out of town.

Looting was reported after dark.

Firefighters in Laguna Beach also complained about trouble maintaining precious water pressure in hilly areas. Local fire hydrants that proved imcompatible with hose fittings also stymied firefighting efforts.

“Water is at an absolute premium here,” Arnet said. “When you have to pump it uphill, it takes a lot more effort.”

Late Wednesday, the fire moved north from Laguna Canyon, threatening Corona del Mar, although firefighters attempted to defend the village along Pelican Hill Road. Irvine police began urging evacuation of Turtle Rock residents in homes south of Turtle Rock Drive to the coast, between Ridgeline and Sierra Luna, recommending that they take shelter at Woodbridge High School.

Aanaheim Hills, Villa Park, Orange

The only injury reported in Orange County was to an Anaheim firefighter, who was treated for a minor eye injury and released, officials said.

The first blaze struck at 11 p.m. Tuesday, lasted less than 12 hours and fanned across the northern hills of Villa Park and Orange, nearly 11 years to the day after another fire struck virtually the same area in the Crest de Ville neighborhood.

Two $750,000 homes were destroyed and 27 others damaged by the fire, which was fed by Santa Ana winds of up to 40 m.p.h., officials said. A dollar figure estimating the damage was not available.

“I just never thought this could happen a second time,” said Kim Switzer, 47, an electrical contractor whose Crest de Ville home suffered only minor damage. “It’s like deja vu.”

Witnesses said a black Pontiac Fiero was seen speeding away from the area at 11 p.m. Tuesday, about the time the blaze started, fire officials said, adding that arson was suspected.

About 400 firefighters from every department in the county worked from early Wednesday morning to contain the destructive blaze in Villa Park and Anaheim Hills. Two neighborhood elementary schools were evacuated.

“I couldn’t go to sleep,” said Jessica Lattos, 10, a 5th grader who stayed up until 3 a.m. Wednesday with her mother and two sisters. “The fire was so bright, it lit up the whole kitchen. One of my sisters was scared for the animals, my other sister was scared for the houses and I was scared about everything.”

“It was really vivid,” echoed Villa Park Mayor Bob Bell, who lives next door to a home that lost its roof and spent most of Wednesday fielding phone calls at City Hall. “I was watching it on (television) and smelling it coming in from my window.”

The fire that started in Anaheim Hills on Stagecoach Road swept down a hill at Santiago Oaks Regional Park into the gated Crest De Ville community of 47 homes. Residents had been evacuated Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

By lunchtime, the fire was 80 percent contained, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Emmy Day said.

The blaze brought a frightful nostalgia to survivors of the Gypsum Canyon fire of October, 1982. That blaze destroyed 12 homes and caused millions in damages in the same gated enclave, an unincorporated area, where homes start at about $500,000.

“We lived through one fire and now another,” said Bill Calliham, 54, whose home was destroyed in the 1982 fire but suffered minor damage Wednesday. “I thought about what happened before, and it was a complete duplication. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you expect to see again.”

Jan Wooley, 40, sat in a lawnchair in the shade outside the charred remains of her home Wednesday.

“We watched our house burn on television,” she said with tears in her eyes.

Wooley was overjoyed to find that firefighters moved numerous antiques, paintings, a bed and other furniture to her driveway, to save what they could as her home burned.

Other residents, like Linda Edwards, 36, were relieved that their homes suffered only smoke damage in the blaze. Like the 1982 fire, Wednesday’s blaze stopped a foot from Edward’s lavish home.

“This home is fireproof! God must bless this home,” said Edwards, as she stood in her bare feet because she only packed clothes--no shoe--when she fled the area early Wednesday morning after moving her four cars. “When I came home this morning to find it standing I was crying and I kissed every wall in the house.”

Nancy O’Neill’s short blonde hair was disheveled by the whipping winds as she stood outside the charred remains of her Crest de Ville home, her face showing the exhaustion from a sleepless night and the challenge that lies ahead.

“We got our family out, and that’s the main thing,” she said quietly, adding that she scooped up family photo albums before she and her husband and three sons fled the burning hills. Her sons also grabbed a few prized possessions: golf clubs, a catchers mitt, a video game and some clothes.

Theresa Sears, 38, and other equestrian hobbyists, began moving 22 horses from a private stable to the Sully-Miller Equestrian Center at 5 a.m. after hearing the fire was spreading easterly towards their area.

By 11 a.m., they were moving the horses back to the stables, hoping the worst was over.

“You have to remember the Oakland fire,” Sears said, worried. “They thought that was out and then it came back and burned all those homes.”

Also awake most of the night was Marilyn Corey, acting superintendent of the Orange Unified School District. Corey closed two elementary schools with a total of 855 students for fear they would be endangered by the blaze.

“It’s a precautionary issue. When fires are raging in windy weather you have no idea where they’re going to go next. It’s strictly a student safety issue,” Corey said Wednesday morning. “We just have to wait to see what happens. I’ll just stay in steady communication. We have to lean on the people who are the experts in this and that’s the Fire Department.”

Corey closed Linda Vista Elementary at 3 a.m. Wednesday. The campus was later used as a staging area by the fire department. She decided at 7:20 a.m. to close Anaheim Hills Elementary, which is near the neighborhoods caught in the blaze.

Students from Anaheim Hills were offered child care at nearby Imperial Elementary. No such provision was made for students at Linda Vista, Corey said. Teachers and other staff from both schools were redeployed to sites around Orange Unified, except for the principal and administrative assistant at Anaheim Hills, who remained in the office to field phone calls

“I told them, if they see the fire come over the hill, get out,” Corey said.

Parents gave their “absolute, utmost cooperation” with the closings, Corey said. “I think most people understand student safety issues. That’s our number one concern.”

Both elementary schools will be open Thursday, a district spokeswoman said.

Ortega Hills

A third blaze in the Cleveland National Forest off Ortega Highway scortched more than 5,000 acres and forced the evacuation of about 75 homes that were threatened by the blaze, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which fought into the night to control the blaze. No injuries or structural damages were immediately reported.

The outbreak started in the late afternoon about 20 miles east of San Juan Capistrano.The blaze in the sparsely populated Lower San Juan Camp Ground area forced the highway’s closure from Orange County to Riverside County, officials said late Wednesday. Later in the evening, the glowing fire was visible from San Juan Capistrano and the hills of Dana Point.

Carol Abraham, who lives near the camp ground, said she fears that the blaze in Laguna Beach has taken away the resources that would have been used to protect homes in the forest area. Unable to reach her home, Abraham was worried about her husband whom she last talked to earlier in the day while he was packing up valuables. She also expressed concerns about her two horses, two dogs, four peacocks and six cats.

“I hope my husband can get out if he’s in danger,” she said.

Shawn Wendt of Mission Viejo echoed Abraham’s complaints as he sat by the blockade preventing him from getting to his parents’ home in Rancho Carrillo.

“There are homes and there are people who live out here too. (Firefighters are) making us be second-rate,” he said.

Supervisor Wieder said late Wednesday the exclusive area of Coto de Caza was also being evacuated as a precaution. After taking a helicopter trip to survey the damage in the area, Weider said the Ortega Highway fire was “just on other side of the ridge” from Coto de Caza.

Altadena

The fire that broke out at dawn Wednesday caught many residents still asleep as it raced through expensive neighborhoods, pushed by 50 m.p.h. gusts.

The blaze had burned across more than 1,000 acres by 10 a.m., scaling canyon walls and scattering embers that drifted for hundreds of yards.

Destroying homes almost as fast as anxious residents could flee, the Altadena fire spread to 4,000 acres by noon as about 1,000 firefighters struggled to contain it. By that time, water pressure to many parts of the area had petered out, leaving many frustrated residents unable to douse their homes and firefighters unable to refill their pumper units.

“We didn’t have the water to fight the fire,” County Fire Department Battalion Chief Dave Horn said.

Officials attributed the problem to a five-hour power outage that occurred when fire burned up power poles and electrical lines. The outage shut down the electric pumps feeding the area’s water supply. Firefighters were forced to fill their trucks from swimming pools.

Asked if the lack of water resulted in a loss of homes, Horn said, “I couldn’t say that. Someone might say it was a contributing factor.”

It was not until about 2 p.m., some residents said, that water again began to flow normally.

Pasadena resident Susan Seager, 37, drove to Altadena at 8 a.m., hoping to catch a glimpse of distant flames on the mountain ridge. Instead, she and her husband and their two children became engulfed in heavy smoke. They watched in horror as a palm tree half a block from them burst into flame.

“(This) palm tree was like a big red torch,” she said.

She said a strange scene unfolded as a nearby convalescent hospital began to disgorge its elderly residents, who were rolled on beds and in wheelchairs, clustering in the smoke-darkened parking lot.

At least 50 elderly patients were evacuated from the Marlinda Convalescent Home and Park Marino Convalescent Hospital, which sit side by side on Washington Boulevard.

At first, many patients were wheeled down the street in their beds and placed in an empty storefront. Later, they were taken to nearby St. Luke’s Medical Center, then transported--along with other patients--to Huntington Memorial and Arcadia Methodist hospitals.

St. Luke’s was shut down, except for a skeleton crew doing cleanup and preparing for injured firefighters.

Many residents who live above the Eaton Canyon Golf Course were angry because firetrucks did not show up until about 9:30 a.m., hours after residents were ordered to evacuate.

Firefighters finally arrived about 10:40 a.m. Their efforts in some areas were hampered by the low water pressure, authorities said.

A few residents complained bitterly to police that they should at least be allowed to try to douse the flames before evacuating.

Barclay Kamb, a geology and geophysics professor at Caltech, was handcuffed by police and escorted onto the street after he refused to leave his home at 3500 Fairpoint St., said his wife, Linda.

Evacuation centers were opened at nearby schools, where worried residents gathered to await word on the fates of their homes.

Early Wednesday evening, the fire began to spread into Sierra Madre.

At about 8 p.m. a hillside above Oak Crest Drive in Sierra Madre burst into flames. Residents in 23 homes on both sides of Oak Crest had been told to evacuate two hours earlier, but some had taken more than an hour to leave and some remained behind to protect their homes.

Ventura County

A day-old arson fire swept across 21,000 acres of the Santa Monica Mountains back country to the Pacific Ocean.

The blaze continued to move steadily through dense brush south of Thousand Oaks, spreading east to the Los Angeles County line and west down the face of Point Mugu.

Three miles north of Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, about 50 firefighters late Wednesday night battled heavy flames that had damaged or destroyed more than a dozen homes in Yerba Buena Canyon and nearby Serrano Valley.

Firefighters were struggling valiantly to prevent the fire from overtaking about a dozen homes at the mouth of Yerba Buena Canyon. At 8:30 p.m., sheriff’s deputies urged people to leave the area. Several dozen gathered at Neptune’s Net restaurant, some of them nervously awaiting word from other family members who had stayed behind to ward off the fire at their homes.

Two Ventura County firefighters suffered minor injuries battling a section of the Thousand Oaks blaze that destroyed four houses at Deer Creek.

As the fire spread, officials evacuated the children’s unit at Camarillo State Hospital, and officials scrambled to evacuate more than 100 exotic animals, including monkeys, birds and three elephants, from the Animal Actors ranch near Yerba Buena Road.

In the coastal mountains, flames destroyed the Duquette Ranch and its eclectic collection of art and architectural treasures, despite a valiant struggle by firefighters and volunteers.

As the flames bore down, ground crews pulled out and left the firefighting efforts to helicopters that dumped fire-retardant chemicals on buildings housing the art assembled by 79-year-old Tony Duquette, a Tony-Award-winning designer of Broadway and movie sets.

The artifacts included a boathouse with a Venetian gondola mounted on top, and gates from an 18th-Century Spanish church.

As the helicopters dropped load after load of powdery chemicals, strong winds dispersed much of it before it could hit the mark.

To the north, a fast-moving fire that broke out near Santa Susana Pass Road in Simi Valley about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday injured four firefighters--one of them critically--and consumed more than 2,000 acres of chaparral-covered hillsides by nightfall, fire officials said.

More Coverage

FIRE’S CHAOS: Tales of tragedy, narrow escapes from O.C.’s worst fire disaster. A3

HOUSES ABLAZE: Sixty luxury homes in Emerald Bay are engulfed in flames. A6

WORK DIFFICULT: Laguna Canyon’s rugged terrain frustrated firefighters. A8

STATE HELP: Gov. Wilson declares fire-ravaged Orange County a disaster area. A26

COLOR PHOTOS: A7

SPECIAL SECTION: A look back at the treasured past of the inimitable Laguna Beach and the horrific present. V1

Heaven and Hellfire

A suspected arson fire on Laguna Canyon Road erupted into a devastating blaze that quickly burned large areas of Laguna Beach and spread north into other communities. By nightfall, hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed and the fire continued out of control.

1) Brush fire reported at 11:30 a.m.; by 12:15 p.m., it is out of control

2) Fire races southwest, covering seven miles in 30 minutes

3) 35 to 40 Emerald Bay homes burn in an hour

4) Hillside homes above Laguna Beach evacuated at 4:15 p.m.

5) Much of El Moro Beach Mobile Home Park destroyed by 5:15 p.m.

6) Flames cross to southside of Laguna Canyon Road

7) 90% of homes in Cliff Drive area destroyed; fire moves within 30 yards of Laguna Beach City Hall by 5:30 p.m.

8) Onshore breezes push fire back on itself in northeasterly direction

Source: Orange County Fire Department

Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times

Worst Fires in O.C.

Wednesday’s fires, kindled by extremely hot, dry conditions, are reminiscent of other major blazes in Orange County’s history.

Date Area June 27, 1990 Carbon Canyon Sept. 4, 1988 San Juan Capistrano Sept. 9, 1987 Cleveland National Forest (Silverado Canyon) Aug. 25, 1985 Carbon Canyon Aug. 11, 1985 Carbon Canyon Jan. 27, 1984 Modjeska Canyon Oct. 9, 1982 Gypsum Canyon April 21, 1982 Anaheim Nov. 24, 1980 Indian and Trabuco canyons Nov. 16, 1980 Carbon Canyon Oct. 28-30, 1980 North Orange County Oct. 24, 1978 Carbon Canyon Jan. 22, 1976 San Clemente Dec. 8, 1975 Silverado Canyon Sept. 26, 1970 Trabuco Canyon Oct.29-Nov. 2, 1967 Paseo Grande Jan. 19, 1961 San Clemente Dec. 2, 1958 San Juan Capistrano Sept. 24, 1955 Laguna Beach Sept. 2, 1955 La Habra Heights Nov. 15, 1948 Santa Ana Canyon Oct. 1, 1945 Laguna Beach Nov. 8, 1943 Santa Ana Canyon

Date Damage June 27, 1990 3,500 acres burned Sept. 4, 1988 2,384 acres burned Sept. 9, 1987 $2.7 million Aug. 25, 1985 1,500 acres burned Aug. 11, 1985 1,440 acres burned Jan. 27, 1984 1,200 acres burned Oct. 9, 1982 17,000 acres burned April 21, 1982 50 buildings; 10 injured; $50 million Nov. 24, 1980 28,200 acres burned Nov. 16, 1980 8,500 acres burned Oct. 28-30, 1980 14,873 acres burned Oct. 24, 1978 5,600 acres burned Jan. 22, 1976 12 injured; 15 houses destroyed, $1 million Dec. 8, 1975 1,700 acres burned Sept. 26, 1970 3,268 acres burned Oct.29-Nov. 2, 1967 1 killed; 46 homes destroyed; $4.2 million Jan. 19, 1961 3,370 acres burned Dec. 2, 1958 2,500 acres burned Sept. 24, 1955 2,000 acres burned Sept. 2, 1955 1,000 acres burned Nov. 15, 1948 45,000 acres burned Oct. 1, 1945 1,200 acres burned Nov. 8, 1943 2,000 acres burned

Source: Los Angeles Times reports

County in Flames

At least three major fires have consumed huge areas of the county:

Anaheim Hills: The first blaze struck at 11 p.m. Tuesday, lasted less than 12 hours and fanned across 750 acres; it was 80% contained by noon. Hot spot reignited several hours later but was quickly contained.

Ortega Hills: Blaze in the Lower San Juan Campground area off Ortega Highway scorched more than 5,000 acres and forced the evacuation of about 75 homes; no injuries or structural damages were immediately reported.

Laguna Beach: A raging fire, which broke out at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, on Laguna Canyon Road south of the San Diego Freeway (I-405), destroyed hundreds of homes and several thousand acres of wilderness area. By nightfall it was heading toward Newport Beach and had moved into Irvine.

Source: Los Angeles Times