Firefighters Gaining Control : Arson Device Found, Threatening Letters Disclosed

Firefighters appeared to be gaining the upper hand late Friday over the 4-day-old Thousand Oaks brush fire in eastern Ventura County, just west of the San Fernando Valley, and investigators revealed two developments in the hunt for an arsonist who set the Chatsworth fire earlier in the week.

Detectives said they found the device the arsonist used, and revealed the existence of pre-fire letters threatening to set such a blaze--which, however, they could not establish were actually related to the arson.

Officials declared the 37,561-acre Thousand Oaks blaze 75% contained by midafternoon, after it had devoured 43 homes, 23 outbuildings and seven telecommunications sites since it was set by an arsonist on Tuesday.

But although a daylong lull in the winds helped firefighters gain the upper hand, they still worried that a predicted return of the Santa Ana winds during the night could revive the conflagration, and worked furiously to build the remaining 10 miles of fire lines needed to contain it.

Fire engine crews stood ready along Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles County north of Malibu. Bulldozer teams and chemical-dropping air tankers laid firebreaks across dense, 36-year-old brush to the east, in case hot winds pushed fire toward homes in Decker and Trancas canyons.

Helicopters kept showering blazing brush with huge buckets of seawater around the exclusive Lake Sherwood Ranch development, where fire had nuzzled up to $3-million homes Thursday night before firefighters beat it back.

“They’re trying to do as much as they can before the winds pick up,” said Wayne Ferber, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman. “If the winds pick up and there’s open fire line, it’s open season again. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Meanwhile, arson investigators continued hunting for whomever set the fire that ravaged 1,800 acres straddling the Ventura-Los Angeles County line northwest of Chatsworth in Santa Susana Pass on Wednesday.

Los Angeles city fire officials said Friday that investigators had found the device used to start the blaze. Although investigators would not describe it, arson detectives the previous day tested highway flares in a gully near Santa Susana Pass Road where the fire started about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Officials also revealed that dozens of anonymous letters had been received--before the fire broke out--by residents and official agencies, threatening arson. But whether the letters were actually connected to the fire remained unclear.

Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said that “arson investigators have received more than 30 letters since Sept. 1, threatening crimes of arson. The letters were received by various Southern California fire and police departments as well as by private citizens.

“Los Angeles City Fire Department investigators have exhaustively pursued every lead relative to these letters. The letters are now undergoing a detailed scientific analysis by experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he said.

FBI investigators will check the letters for fingerprints among other things, he said.

Humphrey said the threatening letters contained “no specific names.”

“Investigators have no reason at this time to believe that these letters are associated with local fires such as the 1,500-acre Chatsworth blaze. However, the investigation is continuing,” he said.

(KCBS-TV reported that at least 15 letters were sent to Chatsworth residents in September by someone who signed themselves “Fedbuster,” threatening to set fires as revenge on federal agents for seizing the writer’s assets.

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(The TV station quoted a letter as saying: “They burned me, now I’m going to burn them back. I fight fire with fire. Like my puns, chump? Sizzle. Sizzle. You think the Oakland (Hills) fire was big? You should see my plans.

(“I will wait for a hot windy fall day in the brush, maybe in areas where residents I chosed (sic) at random got this notice. Maybe other areas you won’t know. Yea, fire. I’m fascinated with fire. I liked the Baldwin Hills on 7-2-85, Agoura on 10-23-78, north of San Fernando Valley 11-23-75, even Glendale and Santa Barbara in 1990.”)

To date, police and fire investigators have no suspects in the Chatsworth case. A man detained for questioning by arson investigators Wednesday afternoon was released.

Also on Friday, the four Los Angeles city firefighters injured in the Chatsworth fire underwent the first day of what might be weeks of surgery, and received a quick visit from Gov. Pete Wilson.

Capt. Jan Bernard, 45, and Senior Firefighter Russell Nakamura, 40, remained in critical condition at Sherman Oaks Hospital Burn Center after undergoing debridement, a surgical process in which wounds are cleaned and cleared of debris before skin grafting can take place, said Johna Rogovin, a hospital spokeswoman.

Engineer Cleveland Tipton, 45, and novice Firefighter Gary Carpenter, 35, remained in serious condition after surgery.

Gov. Wilson chatted with the firefighters, congratulating them on their courage and bravery and visited briefly with their families, Rogovin said.

Earlier in the day, Los Angeles police homicide investigators looked for evidence in a charred field near Chatsworth Park where a man discovered a full skeleton in a shallow grave while surveying fire damage Thursday evening. Police believe the death is unrelated to the fire.

“The ground underneath (the skeleton) was charred, indicating the body was decomposed before the fire came through,” said Detective Tony Foti. “A whole body would have left a clean imprint underneath” where the fire could not char the ground.

The skeleton does not appear to have come from any person reported missing in the area covered by the LAPD’S Devonshire Division, Foti said. A Los Angeles County coroner’s office spokesman said the office will not be able to examine the remains until next week.

Gov. Wilson flew to the Thousand Oaks fire’s command post in Borchard Community Center by Army National Guard helicopter Friday morning for a briefing with fire officials. He took off again to overlook the battle front along Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles County from the air.

Wilson’s sleek black Viper helicopter flew over the exclusive Lake Sherwood Ranch community, where firefighters Thursday night had fended off fires that threatened 60 $2-million and $3-million homes.

When he returned, Wilson thanked weary firefighters and said of the arsonist who started the Thousand Oaks blaze Tuesday afternoon: “I wish I could get my hands on the bastard. I’d like to strangle him.”

One edge of the fire crossed the boundary into Los Angeles County in the Little Sycamore Canyon area, where firefighters spent Friday clearing underbrush and laying down lines of air-dropped fire retardant in an effort to create a protective wedge against the eastward advance of the fire and keep it from crossing Mulholland Highway.

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All day, stubborn hot spots were an irritation for firefighters who knew the Santa Anas could within minutes fan one of the small fires into a firestorm.

“Because of the terrain and fuel that hasn’t burned since the ‘50s, we’re having a hard time getting at the hot spots,” said Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief Bill Zeason.

“It’s extremely serious in this particular case, although we did an incredible amount of drops here,” added Michael Estrada, a Ventura County Fire Protection District battalion chief. “It’s still an uncontrolled line. We have a lot of structures on Mulholland” to protect.

So, taking advantage of a lull in the hot winds from the east, firefighters cleared a wide swath with bulldozers on a ridge along Vedder and Etz Meloy motor ways, which snake through the rugged terrain just north of Mulholland Highway.

Meanwhile, about 50 fire engines sat along Mulholland--just in case.

“We’re not just waiting for the winds to come or the fires to die down,” explained Zeason. “The weather has allowed us to put people out in the brush area where we wouldn’t do it with the Santa Anas. This is one time we hope the weather prediction is wrong.”

By late afternoon, a cool marine layer and a sense of accomplishment had settled in.

“We’re making a big stand there,” said Zeason, standing on a trail overlooking the canyon. “If we can hold this area like we did today, we’re OK.”

Later Friday night, as the cool, calm weather continued, firefighters set a backfire, about 50 yards wide, on the west side of Mulholland Highway about four miles inland from the beach.

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Times correspondent Geoffrey Mohan contributed to this story.

Aerial Assault

Fighting wildfires from the air with fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is a joint effort between county fire departments and federal forest services. Water and fire retardant/suppressant is dropped from the aircraft in an effort to contain the fires. Here’s a look at the combatants in the Green Meadow firefight:

C130 fixed-wing aircraft, two flying out of Fox Field in Lancaster, six out of Point Mugu. * Fire retardant is dispersed from pressurized tanks in 5 to 11 seconds every 20 minutes.

Boeing 234 (CH47) Chinook helicopter, flying out of Van Nuys Airport. * Bucket is suspended from 3/4” steel cables 150 feet long. * Bucket can be filled in 90 seconds. * 3,000 gallons of water, scooped from the ocean, are dropped hundreds of feet above the fire every two minutes.

Other aircraft More than two dozen additional planes and helicopters are used to make water and fire-retardant drops. A spotter plane serves as air traffic controller, communicating by radio.

BEATING FIRE WITH CHEMICALS

In addition to water, two types of substances are being dropped on the fire. One is a foamy suppressant, the other a gummy retardant. Both go by brand name Phos Check. The main ingredient in both is fertilizer, which also aids in the growth of post-fire vegetation.

Suppressant

* A concentrated soapy substance is dispersed from the aircraft as a frothy foam.

* Facilitates use of water by hand and engine companies because it prevents water from rolling off vegetation.

Retardant

* Powder, consisting of reddish coloring agent and thickening substance, is mixed with water on the ground and pumped into aircraft tanks.

* When dropped, red color marks the ground so next pilot can “pick up the tail,” or location, of the previous drop.

* Gummy substance helps retardant stick to foliage, reducing the effect of drift caused by winds.

Sources: Boeing, Columbia Helicopters, Monsanto Co., California Air National Guard, various fire departments and forest service agencies; Researched by JULIE SHEER