High Winds, Heat, Fuel Blazes in 2 Counties

Wildfires fanned by hot, powerful Santa Ana winds raged across forests and farmlands in Ventura and Riverside counties Monday afternoon, destroying several outbuildings and at least one house and prompting the evacuation of more than 50 homes and a high school.

Three fires in Riverside County were contained by nightfall, but the largest--a 9,200-acre blaze in Los Padres National Forest near Santa Paula--continued to burn out of control.

Hampered by temperatures in the 90s, relative humidity that dipped to a parching 8% and winds gusting at up to 70 mph, firefighters were barely standing fast against the quick-moving Ventura County blaze.

Just east of the fire zone, the San Fernando Valley baked under sizzling temperatures aggravated by hot gusts of wind blowing over the mountains.

Thermometers hit a high of 95 degrees in Van Nuys in early afternoon, and relative humidity plunged to 11%. Burbank registered relative humidity levels of 13% and a high of 92.

Valley temperatures today are expected to be about two degrees cooler, with highs in the low 90s.

In the Ventura County fire, crackling sheets of flame ripped through avocado and orange orchards and licked close to farmhouses and horse corrals, worrying ranchers along the rugged border between the populous Santa Clara River valley and the mountainous Sespe Condor Sanctuary.

“It burned like a laser across the hillside,” said Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren, pointing to the sharp, charred lane that the intensely hot, brisk fire had etched through the brush.

About 2,000 firefighters swarmed across rocky hillsides, trying to stop a fire that had burned out of control since it began Sunday on a remote Seneca Oil lease. Fire engines stood guard by ranch houses. Bulldozers and hand crews cut firebreaks along ridgelines, hoping to stop the fire from hopscotching westward into heavily populated Santa Paula Canyon.

Fire crews set backfires so the burned land might block the main fire from advancing later. Helicopters and air tankers swooped low over rough terrain, bombing hotspots with water.

On the outskirts of Fillmore and Santa Paula, more than 50 homes were voluntarily evacuated Monday morning, authorities said.

Because of the smoke, schools held lunch hours indoors in Santa Paula. Outdoors, salesmen hosed soot off new cars and produce merchants dusted powdery ash from fruits and vegetables.

Rancher Edwin McFadden watched the flames roar through a third of the 250 acres of avocado trees at his Rancho Simpatica. “It’s easily a million dollars [in losses],” he said wearily.

Ventura County animal control workers evacuated the Steckel Park Aviary, whisking ostriches, emus and other exotic birds away from the flames. The workers also evacuated horses from ranches along Highway 150, trucking them to a temporary corral at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

In Riverside County, a fire that started in a grove of eucalyptus trees in Rubidoux spread rapidly as winds scattered burning leaves through a small rural neighborhood.

The shake roofs of several structures soon were ablaze. A ranch-style home belonging to Rudy Rosas and his wife, Rose Marie, was destroyed and a neighboring home, and a garage at a third home were damaged.

“My neighbor called me at work and said our house was on fire,” Rose Marie Rosas said tearfully. “We had lived there 14 years.”

Betty Riley, owner of the damaged garage, said quick action by firefighters from the California Department of Forestry kept the flames from spreading to her house.

“I don’t know where that fire came from, but with these winds, I guess it could have come from anywhere,” Riley said.

Firefighters from the forestry department contained the blaze after it had blackened about 100 acres of grass and brush.

About five miles west of Rubidoux, a wind-whipped grass fire spread across a 120-acre alfalfa field, forcing the evacuation of 2,200 students from Jurupa Valley High School.

There were no reports of structural damage, but a 300-pound potbellied pig named P.J. was briefly imperiled when the flames threatened to engulf his pen. When repeated entreaties failed to lure P.J. to safety, Joan Montana resorted to bribery. A bagful of Fritos did the trick.

A fire near Lake Elsinore burned two travel trailers, two sheds, a diesel truck and a car and blackened about 40 acres before it was brought under control.

Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the current heat wave is the product of a high pressure system parked over Utah. Air tends to move from areas of high pressure to areas of lower pressure, and with relatively low pressure off the Southern California coast Monday afternoon, strong offshore winds raked the area.

The Santa Ana winds, heated and dried by compression as they swooped down mountain passes toward the ocean, led to higher temperatures along the coast than in some desert communities.

At 3 p.m. Monday, for example, coastal-community readings included 94 degrees at Long Beach, 93 in Torrance and 89 in Santa Monica, while desert communities had readings such as 82 in Palmdale, 80 in Lancaster and 76 in Mojave.

Monday’s 100-degree reading in Monrovia was the highest in the nation.

But Brack said the high-pressure system will start moving east by this morning, bringing a quick end to the Santa Anas. Forecasting gradual cooling over the next few days, he said today’s Civic Center high should be about 93 degrees, with a top reading Wednesday of about 88.

Times staff writer Tom Gorman and correspondents Scott Hadly, Eric Wahlgren, Andrew Blechman and Jeff McDonald contributed to this story. The Associated Press also contributed.

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Fire’s Path

The Grand Fire began about 1:30 p.m. Sunday north of Fillmore in Los Padres National Forest. It jumped Sespe Creek on Sunday evening and went out of control. About 2,000 firefighters were fighting the blaze late Monday.