Sweltering Fans, Brush Fires Are Part of Hot Day

Temperatures that leaped above 100 degrees Sunday sent more than 200 World Cup soccer fans to seek first aid for the heat, prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee to the beaches throughout the Southland and impeded firefighters struggling to corral blazes near Wrightwood and Palmdale.

The mercury reached 101 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center, 107 in Burbank and Van Nuys, and a record 109 in Riverside. Temperatures were somewhat lower in Orange County, ranging from 73 in Newport Beach to 100 in Anaheim and El Toro. Other temperature highs included 81 in Dana Point and 96 in San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana.

“Orange County really didn’t get too hot,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

The heat wave was expected to intensify today by a degree or two before waning a little Tuesday.

The largest of the four fires, which began Saturday from an untended or escaped campfire near a Boy Scout camp, burned in both the Angeles and San Bernardino National forests, and destroyed 10 homes in the foothill town of Pinon Hills, near Wrightwood. Frightened Wrightwood residents prepared to leave as they watched the fire roar down a high ridge to within several miles of homes, officials said.

Closer to the 2,000-acre fire, residents of 60 to 80 homes in the community of Desert View were evacuated. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries battling wind-fanned blazes in 108-degree temperatures.

The heat made winners and losers uncomfortable during the World Cup game in Pasadena. The south end zone at the Rose Bowl recorded a temperature of 120 degrees during the U.S.-Romania soccer contest, according to Pasadena police--and it could have been even hotter: Their thermometer stops at 120.

Outside the stadium, the high in Pasadena was 106 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Stephen Ahn joked that the situation could be described “in just three letters--H-O-T.”

As thousands watched the soccer match in Los Angeles County, thousands more flocked to the beaches south of the county line.

Newport Beach drew the largest beach crowd in Orange County--about 125,000 people, compared to 85,000 to 95,000 on a typical summer Sunday.

“We had quite a few people here,” lifeguard Mitch White said. “It was a very nice day.”

Huntington State Beach--where 55,000 visitors basked in light 78-degree winds--took second honors, followed by Laguna Beach which attracted about 40,000.

And at Bolsa Chica State Beach, where temperatures reached 76 degrees, an estimated 35,000 visitors prompted authorities to close the gates several hours early. “The park was completely filled,” said lifeguard Lon Graham. “We had excellent weather, excellent water conditions and a really crowded park.”

Conditions were less perfect at the Rose Bowl where so many sought aid --240 in all--that the World Cup medical staff declared its highest alert, a Stage 4, and summoned 24 Pasadena firefighters to help out.

Officials set up a canopy tent outside the stadium for cots, loaded dozens of people onto three air-conditioned Foothill Transit Authority buses, which stood in the parking lot blasting cool air. They also commandeered an air-conditioned tent in the corporate hospitality compound and turned it into a makeshift first aid station.

Nine people were taken to hospitals, said Pasadena Fire Battalion Chief Fred Law. At Huntington Memorial Hospital, a spokesman said eight people were treated for heat-related problems and released. A 59-year-old man who suffered cardiac arrest was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by a police officer and taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious condition.

“It was just so very hot that we had encouraged people to drink lots of water,” Police Cmdr. Mary Schander said. “We had first aid tents set up and generally we carted people out to them.”

But with no beverage vendors in the crowded seating areas, many spectators went into the concourse in search of something cool to drink. Lines at water fountains were 30-deep and concessions booths were often overwhelmed.

Fans suffered from more than the heat; first-stage smog alerts were issued from Riverside and San Bernardino to the Pomona and San Gabriel valleys.

And Sunday’s temperatures were not even record-breaking: That came on June 26, 1990, when the top reading at the Civic Center was 112 degrees. But Riverside’s 109 degrees did set a new record there, eclipsing the mark of 108 degrees set in 1990.

On the fire lines, the state Department of Forestry reported progress in containing the two biggest blazes, which consumed 2,000 acres near Wrightwood and 3,000 south of Palmdale.

The weekend’s most destructive fire was still burning Sunday, one mile south of Table Mountain near Wrightwood. Forestry spokeswoman Dianne Cahir said losses from that fire included the 10 houses, 12 outbuildings, one mobile home and many vehicles. The Wrightwood fire was reported about 50% contained, and 800 firefighters were still battling the flames.