Fires Rage, Torch Malibu Area : Scores of Homes Destroyed as Thousands Flee : Inferno: Two people suffer critical burns. Canyon roads are clogged, blocking equipment as flames race toward seaside homes of rich, famous.

A savage firestorm--driven by a barrage of powerful Santa Ana winds that had been predicted for days--raged south across the Santa Monica Mountains from Calabasas to the Malibu oceanfront Tuesday afternoon, destroying scores of homes and burning at least four people, two of them critically.

Chased by a wall of fire burning along a two-mile front, thousands of residents fled with treasured belongings, clogging narrow canyon roads and blocking the routes of the firetrucks summoned to battle the blaze.

Students at elementary schools were evacuated and Malibu Colony residents were told to get ready to leave as the flames advanced toward the luxury waterfront homes of the rich and famous.

By nightfall, houses on both sides of the Pacific Coast Highway burst into flame, one after another, as the fire overran them. Trees whipped back and forth in the wind as embers the size of golf balls rained down on the highway, exploding on impact like tiny bombs.

While some houses in the fire area remained untouched, at least through the late afternoon, others were reduced to stark ruins, silhouetted against an orange-gray pall of smoke.

Jason Ness, 27, lost his own home on Old Topanga Canyon Road but stayed to assist neighbors in trying to save theirs.

“Neighbors helping neighbors, that’s what it’s all about,” Ness said, while hosing down another family’s property. “My house already went. I got all the pictures off the walls, the family heirlooms, and my dog.”

For weary firefighters, the Calabasas/Malibu fire, another major blaze near Banning and a smaller fire near Poway in San Diego County were a grim rerun of the devastating, wind-whipped brush blazes that had charred more than 170,000 acres and destroyed 815 buildings in Southern California last week.

This was the situation Tuesday night:

* Despite a daylong battle by more than 250 firefighters, fire officials could not predict when the Calabasas/Malibu fire might be controlled. At least 6,000 acres had been charred and 50 to 100 homes damaged or destroyed, with more continuing to burn.

* The largest of the San Bernardino County fires--one that started near Banning--doubled in size to 7,500 acres in less than an hour, destroying at least two homes and injuring three people.

* Another fire in San Diego County blackened hundreds of acres on Tuesday, but all of last week’s blazes remained under control despite a few flareups.

* Officials warned that fire conditions would remain extremely dangerous through this afternoon. They said the hot, dry Santa Ana winds would continue until at least noon, with temperatures remaining high and relative humidity low.

* Gov. Pete Wilson issued an executive order extending polling hours to 10 p.m. Tuesday at 20 polling places that evacuated because of the fires. By law, no election results can be released until all the polls close, meaning that announcements of the results would be delayed. The Secretary of State’s office said at least 20,000 voters were affected.

Flames to the Sea

Fire officials had hoped that the predicted Santa Ana winds would not materialize.

But several hours before dawn Tuesday, the hot, dry winds began blowing as predicted, and at daybreak the skies were still sparkling clear, with no wisp of the smoke that could portend disaster.

Police and firefighters, assisted by civilian volunteers, patrolled areas where brush is the thickest and the fire danger was the greatest, hoping to deter would-be arsonists, the source of at least six of last week’s fourteen fires. The people on patrol found nothing.

But then, at about 10:45 a.m., a small blaze started--fire officials still don’t know how--in the Calabasas area near Mulholland Highway and Old Topanga Canyon Road.

Marva Semet, who lives near there, said the power at her house went about about 11 and she looked out her window to see what were probably the fire’s first flames.

“We saw it when it was about a foot by a foot,” said Semet. Because the wind was blowing wildly, she said, “We knew it was going to turn into something big.”

Fanned by gusts peaking at more than 50 m.p.h., the fire raced south through rugged chaparral, moving so rapidly that at first, fire fighters could do little more than sound the alarm.

As the wall of fire moved steadily toward the sea, some of those who paused were overtaken by the flames.

Fire officials said one of the people burned critically was Duncan Gibbins, a British screenwriter who returned to a guest home near the flashpoint of the fire in a futile attempt to save a pet cat.

Gibbins, 41, suffered second-and third-degree burns over his upper body and scorched his lungs when he inhaled superheated air, fire officials said. He was reported in “extremely grave condition” at the Sherman Oaks Hospital burn center.

Also staying on the same property with Gibbins was 40-year-old carpenter Ron Mass, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60% of his body and was listed in critical condition.

Homes in portions of Topanga Canyon were evacuated by sheriff’s deputies shortly before noon, as fearful residents watched the rapid march of the flames across the hills. Stephanie and James Heng, who live on Maynard Drive in the community of Monte Nido, could see the smoke billowing overhead as the fire surged toward Malibu.

“We’re just waiting, we have all our hoses ready,” Stephanie Heng said, as she and her husband resisted the orders to evacuate. “I know if I stay we can save the house, and if we leave there’s a chance we could lose everything.”

Long after many of their neighbors had left, the Hengs worked to water the roof, the wood deck and to seal attic vents against possible sparks.

“I am scared, but my husband, he knows how to take care of these things,” Stephanie Heng said before the flames reached Saddle Peak Ridge, well behind their home. “He’ll get us through it.”

Other residents had no choice but to flee.

Curt Chaffee, who was building sheds on his property as the firestorm approached, remembered seeing what appeared to be dust blowing up over the ridge. “At least I thought it was dust,” he said. “Then all of a sudden, all you could see were flames. It came quick, I’ll tell you.”

In Monte Nido, Jane Peckham grabbed her two Labradors, her cat, a Balinese drum, a photo album and her passport and fled

“I’m dealing pretty well with my attachment to my worldly goods and everybody is OK,” she said later. “I always wanted to travel lighter.”

“It’s so great to see something so powerful, but it will be less great, however, if I come home to find my house charred,” she said.

With more than 250 fire engines converging on the area to battle the blaze, Pacific Coast Highway was snarled to a standstill. All six lanes of traffic on the normally two-way road were jammed northwest from Santa Monica as the fire trucks competed with anxious residents rushing from work to try to save their homes.

Fire trucks from Santa Fe Springs, Vernon, Lynwood, Burbank, Monterey Park, El Segundo, Yorba Linda and the County of Orange were stranded in the resulting gridlock.

A California Highway Patrol officer, trying desperately without success to move the traffic, said, “We’re trying to get people out, but everybody is driving so crazy.”

He then cried out in frustration, “You people have screwed it up for yourself.”

Others trying to reach their homes continued north on foot, riding bicycles and even on rollerblades.

Among those walking north on Pacific Coast Highway was Vlade Divac of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, whose 2-year-old son, Luka, was at a day-care center two miles north of Topanga Canyon Road.

“It’s terrible, this fire is really terrible,” said Divac, who was still dressed in the in the purple shorts and Lakers T-shirt he had been wearing during a team practice.

The northbound horde eventually collided head-on with an equally determined group of southbound residents fleeing the fire, which by 2:30 p.m. had reached the highway and the sea.

As beleagued highway patrolmen sorted out the mess, flames raced down the hillside and jumped the highway, threatening the motorists and the homes on both sides of the road.

Several houses and at least one car burst into flames, firefighters ran hoses along the center of the highway next to the line of stalled vehicles and were finally able to move the evacuees from the area.

Flames licked up to the nearby County Fire Station 70 at Carbon Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, burning a telephone pole, before firefighters were able to beat it back.

Resident Dorothy Meier, a sociology professor at California State University, Northridge, called a cab to her rescue as flames threatened her house. She loaded two cats and two dogs into the taxi, and as the driver pulled away, looked back to see her home catch fire.

Across the highway, a young blond-haired man sat on a rock on the beach, surveyed the hellish scene, dropped his head into his hands and began to weep.

About 200 vehicles carrying evacuees were backed up Topanga Canyon Road.

Among them was Diane Sherman, 45, who had been house-sittng for a friend in Topanga Village, about five miles up the canyon.

When smoke billowed and flames began licking the mountains overhead, Sherman began loading cages with her friend’s exotic Australian birds.

With the help of building contractor Bruce Cameron of Marina del Rey. Sherman was able to jam 30 birds into a dozen cages, shove the cages into two cars and head for the ocean.

But, shortly afterward, the two rescuers were forced to listen to more than two dozen birds squawk their protests as traffic backed up at Pacific Coast Highway.

“I certainly hope my friends appreciate what I’ve done,” Sherman said grimly.

Among those waiting and watching was Linda Menary, 48, who, upon hearing that animals were threatened, hauled a horse trailer from Chatsworth into the canyon to help in the evacuation.

She had managed to get four horses and two goats into a trailer.

Menary had also helped to patch up a horse that was hit by fire truck.

“I think it was a flesh wound” she said. “We doctored him up.”

Many of the animals were taken to a couple of ballfields at a park at Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road that animal control officers had converted into a corral. As homes burned and windblown smoke cut visibility to 20 feet, fire officials called for the evacuation of Malibu at about 4:30 p.m.

Many residents, wore towels around their faces as they ran from the area, carrying whatever possesions they could--clothing, documents, paintings--in their arms.

Fire at the Desert’s Edge

Eighty miles to the east of Los Angeles, a raging fire near Banning, in northern Riverside County, was burning out of control and by nightfall had consumed more than 7,500 acres. Two homes and a barn were destroyed and four people were injured.

The Riverside County Fire, dubbed the Ripleier Fire, began at 10 a.m. in the Banning area near the Morongo Indian Reservation. It started north of Banning, near the reservation and headed west, past Cherry Valley, with winds blowing it toward Calimesa and Yucaipa.

The fire was caused by arcing power lines, according to California Department of Forestry officials who said they evacuated 500 people in Beaumont, Banning, and Cherry Valley, along with all schools in those cities.

According to unconfirmed reports, one home was destroyed in Cherry Valley, Forestry spokeswoman Anna Smith said, along with four injuries to civilians.

There are also unconfirmed from area residents that five to six other homes were heavily damaged, Smith said.

The Coombs Middle School in Banning was evacuated just before lunch.

“You could see the flames about a mile away,” said Colleen Cofer, a student. “Some of the kids’ homes were burning and they were crying. they were really upset. They’re also some of the nicest homes in the area.”

Sandra Tibbets, 33, of Beaumont said: “It was utter chaos. Parents all over Beaumont were trying to find their kids at different schools and some of them could not find them. They were not at the school where they were supposed to be.”

“A good friend of mine owned one of the oldest homes in Cherry Valley,” Tibbets said. “It burned to the ground. It was in an area which has some of the nicest and some of the oldest homes in Cherry Valley. She and her husband had completely refurbished it.”

Charles Freeman, the editor and publisher of Record-Gazette in Banning, observed the fire and said: “We were amazed by how fast it moved. It was just roaring in a westerly direction. It spread over seven to eight miles in no time at all.” Driving around, he said, he saw people leaving out of their homes, their cars loaded down with furniture, dogs and cats, everything they could stuff in their vehicles. “In Banning, Beaumont and Cherry Valley it was utter pandemonium and chaos,” he said. The fire, burning in a southwesterly direction, crosed into San Bernardino County and was moving toward the somewhat static Oak Glen fire near Yucaipa.

Smoke Over San Diego

Another fire broke out in San Diego County in the early afternoon. The fire was reported shortly after 1 p.m. in a rugged but largely uninhabitated area between Rancho Bernardo and Poway in northern San Diego County.

By 3 p.m., the fire had consumed 750 acres and was being fought by 500 firefighters from Poway and the California Department of Forestry. No structures were in immediate danger although there are expensive mountainside homes and the Stoneridge Country Club within a few miles of the fire line.

Thick black smoke rolled southward as far as downtown San Diego, 25 miles away. Traffic on Interstate 15 came to a virtual halt.

The new fire comes less than a week after the Guejito fire that burned 20,722 acres and destroyed 11 homes and 7 mobile homes, with overall damage put at $1.25 millon. The Guejito fire started about 10 miles northeast of where Tuesday’s blaze was first spotted.

At 4:30 p.m., the forestry department said, the fire had burned 1,500 acres and was blamed on a campfire at a migrant camp along Old Coach Road that got out of control. Several structures, none of them homes, had been destroyed.

To divert the fire from homes, crews were setting backfires and cutting firebreaks. Among the expensive, Spanish-style homes threatened in Poway was that of Cincinnati Reds infielder Bip Roberts, who bought the home when he played for the San Diego Padres. Earlier Tuesday, as the winds began to increase, some residents in the Eaton Canyon area--where last week’s fire had done so much damage--became concerned over several flareups in the nearby hillsides. A county fire spokeswoman said the small fires, which occurred well within the fire break that has been cut to protect residential areas, were quickly extinguished by hand crews working in the area.

At the Oak Grove District station of the National Forest Service in La Canada Flintridge, a team of firefighters, including five fire engines, and two hand crews were standing by in case any new fires were sparked in the Altadena area. Helicopters also dropped water on the hillsides above Altadena Tuesday morning.

Though no new flareups were reported in Altadena on Tuesday afternoon, about 1,000 firefighters continued to fight the Kinneloa fire in the Angeles National Forest.

The Forecast

Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the winds were being pushed into Southern Californian by a high-pressure weather system parked over the Rockies.

He said that until this system begins to break down and move to the southeast--probably sometime this afternoon--it will continue to generate the winds that heat and dry out by compression and they rattle down mountain passes into the Los Angeles area.

Winds gusting at up to 40 m.p.h. will continue this morning, especially below mountain passes--gradually decreasing as the day progresses, Brack said. He said the relative humidity will remain low and temperatures will be unseasonably high, with top readings in the 80s today in the coastal valleys.

The good news for firefighters is that for the next week or so, no more Santa Anas are expected.

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