Records Show Quick Fire Response : Disaster: The first engine to reach the blaze’s flash point arrived 12 minutes after a 911 call from Deer Creek Ranch in upper Topanga.

When the Calabasas/Malibu fire broke out, Los Angeles County firefighters arrived at the point where the flames began about 12 minutes after the first report, records released Tuesday show, which was “as quick as they could,” fire officials said.

The first engine to respond to the blaze left Fire Station 69 at 401 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga after receiving a phone call directly from a resident and headed uphill toward the blaze before being officially sent by central dispatchers, said Fire Capt. Steven A. Valenzuela, a department spokesman.

Valenzuela said that when firefighters received the first call moments later from the department’s dispatchers--responding to a call to the 911 emergency number--they were already rolling to the fire.

According to 911 tapes released Tuesday by the Fire Department, a resident of 2695 Old Topanga Canyon Road called the emergency hot line at 10:45 a.m. and said the brush fire was only a few hundred square feet but was “burning very, very fast.”

The caller said the fire was moving downhill, across Old Topanga Canyon Road toward his property. “Please hurry,” he said breathlessly. “They can contain it. If they get here in five minutes, they’ll be OK.”

The caller’s residence, known as Deer Creek Ranch, was consumed by flames shortly afterward--critically burning Ron Mass and fatally injuring British filmmaker Duncan Gibbins.

Fire officials and records released by the department indicated that the first fire engine, from Station 69, arrived at the fire scene no earlier than 12 minutes after the first call.

Fire officials released a report indicating that the engine, and two smaller “brush” patrol trucks carrying hoses and a small amount of water, arrived at 10:57 a.m.

“It takes about seven minutes for them to get there, even on the best of days,” Valenzuela said. “Basically, we had a lot of resources up there, and they got there as quick as they could.”

“I don’t know how it could have been done any differently,” he said, “unless we were sitting right there by the fire when it started.”

Valenzuela said the arrival time was an estimate, since department dispatch records actually show the engine from Station 69 arriving nine minutes later, after another fire engine was already on the scene.

Those dispatch records, which record transmissions from computer terminals on board fire equipment, indicate exactly when engines are dispatched to a fire and when they report arriving on scene. According to those records, the first engine on the scene was from Station 68 in Calabasas and arrived at 11 a.m., 15 minutes after the blaze was reported to 911 operators.

That station, at 24130 Calabasas Road, appears to be situated closest to the fire, which started at the very top of Old Topanga Canyon Road.

The official dispatch record, which fire officials say is in error, shows that Engine 69 did not arrive until 11:06 a.m., almost 20 minutes after the first call, and six minutes after the engine from Station 68.

However, a review of the department’s initial response found that the arrival time, entered by a dispatcher, was wrong and that the engine from Station 69 actually arrived at 10:57 a.m., Valenzuela said.

During that review, Fire Capt. Michael Johnson told department officials that he radioed in a report that the fire had consumed an acre of brush when his engine, from Station 69, arrived on the scene, and that a second alarm was needed immediately.

A review of all radio frequencies did not find any record of that message. “For some reason, we didn’t get it,” said Assistant Fire Chief Richard Land.