Fire Forces Closure of 11 Polling Places : Election: Booths from Woodland Hills to Agoura Hills and south to Malibu are closed after only a few hours of operation. Provisional ballots are taken to area evacuation centers.

The firestorm that drove residents from their homes in the Santa Monica Mountains Tuesday also routed election workers and forced the shutdown of 11 polling stations, state and local election officials said.

Polling places in Woodland Hills, Topanga, Calabasas, Agoura, Agoura Hills, Malibu and Malibu Heights were forced to close after only a few hours, but election officials were trying Tuesday evening to serve those still wishing to vote.

Marcia Ventura, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and county clerk, said Tuesday night that agency employees were delivering provisional ballots to evacuation centers in Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

The provisional ballots will be tabulated after being checked against voter signature and registration rolls to establish voter qualifications.

Election officials also said voters whose regular precincts were closed could cast provisional ballots at other polling places under an emergency order issued late Tuesday afternoon by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson’s emergency order also allowed polling places in fire-plagued areas of Southern California to remain open beyond the usual 8 p.m. closing to 10 p.m.

“We’re doing the best we can to get the word out,” Shirley Washington, assistant chief of legislative services for the California secretary of state, said early Tuesday night.

The 11 polling stations between Woodland Hills and the beach were evacuated without loss of any ballots or supplies, Ventura said.

Election officials said they could not recall another instance of a fire or other disaster interrupting a statewide election.

It has not happened “in the last 14 years . . . since I’ve been here,” Ventura said.

While voting was cut short in the Santa Monica Mountains, last week’s Altadena fire that destroyed 121 residences--and burned into Beverly Slocum’s living room--did not stop her from opening her house as a polling place Tuesday as she has done for the past 12 years.

“We always have a good turnout for elections,” said Slocum, 49, soon after her doors opened at 7 a.m., a tray of bagels awaiting the election workers.

The nursery school director was waiting not only for voters.

A contractor was due as well, to examine the damage to her house in fire-ravaged Kinneloa Canyon Estates.

A stream of voters trickled in all morning, stamping ashes off their feet, punching their ballots and swapping fire stories.

About 110 of the ruined houses line the streets of the Kinneloa Canyon area, a once-picturesque community of one- and two-story houses on half-acre and larger lots.

The inferno left ash-covered slabs and blackened hulks of Cadillacs and Mercedes-Benzes in its wake.

By 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, five voters who had lost their homes had stopped by to cast ballots.

Some neighbors who had not seen each other since the fires hugged near the voting booths.

Corrine Ray, 70, who lost her bedroom, carport and 15-foot boat, reported that she has been staying with her daughter.

“It’s a sad situation, but I have a lot to be thankful for,” she said, noting that she saved her two dogs and cat from the blaze, and will try to rebuild her damaged home.

One man’s voice cracked as he told how his son had gathered up some of his toys and given them to a neighborhood boy who had lost his home.

Another woman told how the fire had taken her home but spared her pasture--and now every horse in the canyon was tied to her fence and munching her green grass.

“With all the confusion, it’s just nice to not have to find a new voting place,” said Hal Stegmeier, 60.

“I’m glad that at least this place is functioning.”