400 Acres Burned in Leona Valley Fire

A fire in the Leona Valley tore through 400 acres of heavy brush Monday, partially damaging a large home and destroying 10 smaller buildings and 15 vehicles but causing no major injuries, fire officials said.

The fire was 60% contained by 8 p.m. and full containment was expected by midnight.

It began about 3:40 p.m. near Lonesome Valley Road and 107th Street West, and was quickly spread by 15 m.p.h. winds through heavy hillside brush, roaring north across the valley floor to the homes and ranches that line Elizabeth Lake Road.

About 500 Los Angeles County firefighters fought to contain the blaze with help from nine retardant-dropping helicopters and planes from the Los Angeles city and county fire departments and the U.S. Forestry Service. The fire knocked out electric power early on, temporarily hampering water gathering efforts and leaving firefighters to battle the blaze with tanked-in supplies.

Emergency workers said many houses were saved by well-prepared homeowners who had long since cleared the brush around their homes and who, seeing the fire headed their way, moved quickly to dig trenches and water down their property.

Bryce Worthington, who lives with his wife Kathy and their 10 children in a large, two-story home at the west end of Leona Avenue, ran for his hoses when he sighted the flames on a nearby hillside, said Tom Perkins, a neighbor.

Perkins said he watched Worthington battle the fire that raced through an attached garage and tore through about a third of Worthington’s house.

“He was hosing down everything he could,” Perkins said. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. We just kept praying ‘Lord don’t let (the house) go down.’ ”

Worthington was later taken by a friend to a nearby hospital with minor heat and smoke-related injuries, Perkins said.

Firefighters rushed to free the Valley’s farm animals, and 40 volunteers with the county Department of Animal Regulation helped owners recapture the freed animals.

At an ostrich farm a couple of hundred yards away from Worthington’s house, owner Dick White and a relative, Dale Livingston, raced to hose down the animals and the pens as the flames moved toward the barn. They suffered one casualty: One of the birds, panicked by the fire, fatally injured itself dashing against the barbed wire of its pen.

On a small hilltop just south of Elizabeth Lake Road, Alan Dellert, 24, saw smoke near his mother’s house. Finding no one home, he rushed to hose down the roof as 40-foot tall flames headed his way.

Firefighters eventually relieved him and there was no damage to the home.

“I couldn’t see from the roof to the garage, I couldn’t tell if the garage had burned down or not,” Dellert said. “I was keeping myself wet to keep from catching fire because the embers kept hitting me.”

The cause of the fire was under investigation, said Clyde Taylor, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Sabbatini is a correspondent and Goldman is a Times staff writer.