Firefighters Stave Off Disaster on Brea Hillsides : Brush fire: Olinda Village is threatened, but no homes are lost. Eleven houses were destroyed in L.A. County blazes.

A stubborn brush fire that burned through rugged hillsides and briefly threatened nearby homes was contained Saturday night after scorching more than 800 acres.

Firefighters struggled in scorching temperatures to battle the blaze, which begin at 1:45 p.m. about a half-mile west of the community of Olinda Village at the bottom of a ravine, said Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young.

The fire was brought under control about 8:30 p.m. One firefighter collapsed from heat stroke and was taken to a local hospital where he was treated and released, Young said. No homes were damaged. The cause remained under investigation late Saturday.

The Brea fire was one of several blazes across Southern California Saturday that destroyed about a dozen homes and burned more than 4,000 acres.

The largest fire broke out in the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, destroying 10 homes and one mobile home, and sending residents fleeing with their livestock.

In Orange County, firefighters also responded to a brush fire that burned about 10 acres on Gypsum Canyon Road, on the south side of the Riverside Freeway. The fire was reported at 1:55 p.m. and was brought quickly under control.

In Brea, the brush fire had come within 1,000 feet of about 25 custom-built homes near Carbon Canyon Road during the afternoon. However, firefighters saved the homes by lighting several controlled back fires to stop the out-of-control fire from moving toward the houses.

As a precautionary measure, Brea police evacuated six homes while firefighters fought the approaching fire. The evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes about an hour later.

Fire officials did not know what caused the fire, and arson investigators were at the scene late Saturday looking for clues. Young said the last fire in the area burned on June 27, 1990, and Saturday’s fire was fueled by light chaparral.

Residents of Olinda Village, a neighborhood community of about 130 homes, said that fires are a fact of life.

Roland Teed, 51, spent much of the afternoon hosing down trees near his yard and keeping aa wary eye on the flames nearby.

“When they say mandatory evacuation, then I’m ready to break the law,” said Teed, who opted to stay when police asked for voluntary evacuations.

Darlene Young, who was among the first to report the fire at around 1:30 p.m., said people in her neighborhood are not scared off by fires that threaten the neighborhood every year.

“You just have to adapt to the natural disasters,” she said.

Young said that it took about 260 firefighters from several local fire departments, four fixed-wing air tankers and three helicopters to fight the fire.

In the Angeles National Forest fire, flames quickly skipped the San Bernardino County line, consuming an estimated 2,000 acres near Pinon Hills by early evening, when about 800 firefighters from the two counties began to get the upper hand, said Los Angeles County fire dispatcher Cheryl Patterson.

The Red Cross set up a relief station for displaced fire victims at Pinon Mesa Middle School in Phelan.

Another 500 acres burned in Angeles National Forest, Patterson said. The fire apparently erupted at the Kentucky Springs Shooting Range on Kentucky Springs Road and Angeles Crest Highway.

In Riverside County, about 45 miles east of Hemet, another fire blackened 850 acres. No damage was reported, but evacuation orders were issued for the city of Anza.

In the expensive west San Fernando Valley enclave of Porter Ranch, a brush fire erupted above a tract of homes and burned about 20 acres. The blaze began about 3:50 p.m.

Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.