2 Stubborn Blazes Tax Crews : Crews Battle 2 Stubborn Blazes : Inferno: Flames continue to rage above Malibu and Sierra Madre as firefighters race against expected Santa Ana winds. Laguna Beach guards against flare-ups.

Racing against a predicted return of the blistering winds that have made kindling of Southern California’s rugged terrain, thousands of bone-tired firefighters launched an all-out air and ground assault on fires that continued to rage Friday in the canyons above Malibu and Sierra Madre.

Despite some small flare-ups, Orange County fire crews were able to maintain their lid on the devastating Laguna Beach blaze--the most destructive of the 14 major fires that had consumed at least 152,000 acres and incinerated or damaged 537 homes this week in six counties from Ventura to the Mexican border.

But even where flames had been beaten back, unnerved hillside residents were scrambling to trim overgrown brush and soak their land with garden hoses amid worry that the fierce, dry Santa Anas were expected to blow in from the desert by dawn today.

A National Weather Service advisory predicted winds of 15 to 25 m.p.h. in the valleys and coastal areas, with gusts of up to 40 m.p.h. possible in the canyons and mountains.

“Hopefully, we can get a handle on these fires before the winds come back,” said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Steve Knevelbaard. “We’ve got partial containment . . . but if the winds come back it’ll take right off again.”

In a stark reminder that Mother Nature is not the only recalcitrant force fueling the disaster, Los Angeles arson investigators announced they had found an incendiary device believed responsible for the 1,260-acre Chatsworth blaze that injured four city firefighters Wednesday, two critically.

Officials declined to elaborate on the investigation, but set up a special phone number--(800) 47-ARSON--in the hope that anyone with information would come forward.

Also late Friday, a Los Angeles city fire official disclosed that more than 30 letters threatening arson have been received by various Southern California police and fire departments, as well as citizens, since Sept. 1.

The letters are undergoing “a detailed scientific analysis” at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

KCBS-TV reported that a man calling himself “Fedbuster” sent 15 letters at random in early September promising to set fires to get back at agents who seized his assets.

Humphrey said “no specific names” were included in the letters being investigated and officials have no reason to believe that the letters are connected to this week’s fires.

Meanwhile, the transient whose campfire is being blamed for the 5,700-acre Altadena/Sierra Madre fire pleaded not guilty Friday to one misdemeanor charge of setting a fire without a permit. Andres Z. Huang, 35, dressed in hospital pajamas and sitting in a wheelchair, entered his plea through a Mandarin-speaking translator in Pasadena Municipal Court. He could face a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

“He was cold and decided to light a small fire to keep warm, pushed dirt into a circle, put dry brush into the circle, which he ignited with some matches,” said spokeswoman Suzanne Childs of the district attorney’s office, explaining why prosecutors--who expressed “tremendous sympathy” for those who suffered losses--did not think there was enough evidence to convict Huang of a felony.

In Orange County, arson investigators said they were studying the possibility that Wednesday’s fires in Laguna Beach and the Villa Park/Anaheim Hills area were set by the same person. Anaheim Fire Investigator Mike Doty said the suspect in the Villa Park/Anaheim Hills fire may have fled in a black Pontiac Fiero that was seen speeding from the flash point near Stage Coach Road. Similar cars registered in the area are being traced through state files.

Even as investigators were probing the causes of the Orange County fires, a fourth brush fire--also intentionally set--erupted in Dana Point. Authorities were searching for a white male in his early 30s with shoulder-length dark brown hair, wearing dark pants, a white T-shirt and driving a newer model white Ford Mustang. The blaze did little damage and was quickly extinguished, but it heightened officials’ concerns of “copycat” crimes.

In its report on the arson threats, KCBS-TV showed excerpts from some letters it attributed to “Fedbuster,” that read in part:

“They burned me, now I’m going to burn them back. I fight fire with fire. . . . You think the Oakland (Hills) fire was big? You should see my plans.

“I’m going to set a big fire, actually more than one, bigger than Oakland on October 20, 1991--(going to) settle the score with one of these agencies and other government people that screwed me bad.

“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.”

Some of Fedbuster’s letters were sent to residents in Chatsworth, where one of the first suspected arson fires erupted, the station reported.

After touring the damage in Ventura County on Friday morning, an exhausted looking Gov. Pete Wilson said of the arsonist who started the 37,500-acre Thousand Oaks/Malibu blaze: “I wish I could get my hands on the bastard. I’d like to strangle him.”

The Battle

Wilson joined Ventura County Fire Chief George Lund aboard a sleek black Viper helicopter, which flew them over the exclusive Lake Sherwood Ranch community where firefighters had fended off fires that threatened dozens of $2- and $3-million homes Thursday night.

Back at the command post, he shook hands and slapped backs of weary firefighters who had been battling the Thousand Oaks/Malibu blaze, which had destroyed 44 homes and 23 outbuildings by nightfall Friday.

“What they have been called upon to do is what a surgeon is called upon to do in a battlefield--and that is to practice triage,” he said.

By 10 a.m., firefighters in the Santa Paula area maintained a grasp on the Steckel Park fire there that had charred 23,000 acres, declaring it 50% contained after stopping a wind-borne push of flame that had leaped fire lines and threatened ranch homes along Alison Canyon on Thursday afternoon. About 200 firefighters near Ojai had contained about 90% of a fire still burning through 1,650 acres of steep, dense brush in Wheeler Gorge.

The Thousand Oaks/Malibu fire, though 75% contained by Friday afternoon, was still the most threatening, having crossed into a rugged wilderness area in southwestern Los Angeles County near Little Sycamore Canyon during the night. Firefighters were drawing up defense lines along the Mulholland Highway to keep it from spreading if it reaches the road.

From their command post at Pasadena’s Oak Grove Park, just north of the Rose Bowl, firefighters worked furiously to keep the Altadena/Sierra Madre blaze from storming into the town of Sierra Madre.

The good news was that the western flank of the fire had been halted near the Chaney Truck Trail, above Alta Loma Drive, by a firebreak that was part of a 100-acre prescribed burn last March--a measure taken to thwart such a disaster.

As a result, most of the 1,200 firefighters on hand were doing battle at the blaze’s eastern front, which had reached Bailey Canyon, just north of Sierra Madre.

There, about 1,100 acres of woodland were engulfed Friday afternoon and fire crews were working with bulldozers to build a dirt wall that they hoped would keep the flames from jumping east to Santa Anita Canyon, home to 80 cabins that are used for overnight stays by hikers. The canyon empties into downtown Sierra Madre.

“The danger is in the eastern flank of the fire,” said Rick Kuyendall, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, as he stood in Oak Grove Park, where firefighters from the all-night shift napped Friday in small dome tents. “Winds will take the fire toward the city, so there is a potential for problems.”

Officials said the Altadena/Sierra Madre blaze was 35% contained by sundown Friday, but it had done an estimated $63.5 million in damage, destroying 118 canyon homes.

In Laguna Beach, where 313 homes were destroyed at a cost totaling at least $270 million, teams of firefighters, coroner’s investigators, sheriff’s deputies with dogs and Marines continued a “house pad by house pad” search for casualties Friday.

Fire officials expanded their estimate of the burn zone to 16,684 acres, up from 10,000 acres. That would rank the fire as the second biggest in Orange County history by acreage, behind a 1948 blaze in Santa Ana Canyon.

About 400 firefighters in the Laguna area continued to patrol the area to guard against flare-ups.

Some Laguna Beach activists began pointing fingers over the extent of the fire, arguing that the City Council should have approved a new reservoir for the city and pushed tougher laws requiring homeowners to clear brush from yards.

“We’re going to start a recall,” said Darren Esslinger. “This is the last straw.”

Fire officials on Friday said the fire that has consumed 17,000 acres near Ortega Highway in the Cleveland National Forest was of suspicious origin. Like the others, it started near a roadway and had no apparent natural ignition source, authorities said.

In Riverside County, the 25,300-acre California fire had been 70% contained and 50% controlled by Friday afternoon, with full control expected Sunday night, said Tom Freeman, spokesman for the state Department of Forestry. So far, the blaze has destroyed 30 homes, 77 outbuildings and 42 vehicles, he said.

The official cause of the fire, which was at its worst in Winchester, an unincorporated area near Temecula and Lake Skinner, was believed to be arcing power lines.

The Survivors

Huddled on a park bench outside a tony Thousand Oaks shopping plaza, Arnold and Sarah Zamora stared in numb anger at the carefree crowds strolling by.

The Zamoras’ entire inventory of possessions lay jumbled in a shopping cart nearby--a few random clothes and a black duffle bag containing cough and skin medication. They had watched in shock as the house they were living in burned, just days after they arrived to take over gardening and cleaning duties.

With no ties to the area and no way of contacting their evacuated employers, the Zamoras found their way to the shopping plaza and camped out--miserable, scared and neglected.

“You hear about all the millionaires who have nine homes and one of them burns and they’re called homeless?” Arnold Zamora asked. “Well, what happened to their gardeners, their maids? That’s who we are. We’re out.”

Her husband’s arm wrapped around her in a gruff embrace, Sarah Zamora said: “We didn’t lose a home, just our means of survival.”

There was a bit more comforting to be had in Laguna Beach, where residents of close-knit Canyon Acres, a cozy neighborhood about a quarter mile from town, lined up outside the Laguna Beach Police Department waiting for passes to return to their homes.

“It’s like a family there and it’s gone,” said 10-year Canyon Acres resident Paula Sorensen. “It’s pretty awful--but mostly for the children, because the children on those streets don’t have homes anymore.”

One survivor of the Laguna Beach fire was a burned jack rabbit discovered off San Joaquin Hills Road on Thursday by two Costa Mesa residents taking photos of fire damage.

Michael Kamara and Gabe Johnson thought the rabbit, which had a charred back, was dead when they first saw it in a hole. But as they took photos, it began to move.

They put it in a box, trekked back onto the road and took it to Corona del Mar Hospital. The rabbit, which is still undergoing treatment, suffered a blinded eye and burns on more than 40% of its body.

“It looked like the bunny had been running away from the fire and dug a hole for himself just the perfect size of his body,” said Kamara, 20, of Costa Mesa. “It’s back was completely burned. It’s little whiskers were completely burned. His elbow joint was bleeding and I honestly did not think he was still alive.”

Relief

As fire victims continue to sift through ashy rubble looking for a few sentimental keepsakes, a combination of public agencies, utilities and opportunistic businesses came to the rescue.

Federal officials, who have one Federal Emergency Management Agency office open in Pasadena, said they plan to open additional disaster relief offices in the areas affected by the fires over the next several days. At least two more offices should be open by the end of today, said White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. (Mack) McLarty.

“FEMA has been criticized in the past . . . but we’ve done a good job with the floods, and we think we’re prepared to do well here,” McLarty said. “We want to provide the sort of firm, coordinated response people have a right to expect the federal government to provide.”

Also offering a hand to fire victims were the Southern California Edison Co. and the Southern California Gas. Co., both of which said they will waive utility bills for all customers who lost their homes.

Pacific Bell, which has set up coin-operated phone trailers in three locations around Pasadena, said it will provide free voice mail and call forwarding to anyone without phone service.

Several Southern California real estate agents’ associations said they will try to help Southland fire victims find apartments until they can get back on their feet.

Meanwhile, a host of retail businesses, looking to offer a hand while also boosting sales, wasted no time getting the word out that they’re open to help.

The Weather

It remained to be seen whether the wind would cooperate.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for Friday night and today, predicting winds of 15 to 25 m.p.h. in the valleys and coastal areas, with gusts of up to 40 m.p.h. possible in the canyons and the mountains.

Still, the winds are not expected to reach the gusts of 60 to 80 m.p.h. reported Wednesday when flames seemed to be racing across all of Southern California.

Weather service officials also cautioned about the exceedingly low humidity that usually accompanies the Santa Ana winds, which are being pushed westward by a large high pressure area in Montana that has been moving south into the central Rockies.

During the height of Wednesday’s conflagration, the humidity level dipped to just 7% in Los Angeles. Humidity in Southern California is usually about 70% to 80% in the morning hours and about 40% in afternoons.

“The humidity can be as damaging as the winds, and that’s why the Santa Anas are twice as bad,” said weather specialist Dennis Seto of the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.

Dry winds “drain the plants of their moisture a lot quicker, and when that happens, they burn more readily and are easier to catch fire,” Seto said. “For fire weather, the winds, once the fires get going, and the humidity, are the two major elements.”

Aid to Fire Victims

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