Brush Fire Scorches 8,000 Acres, Closes I-5

A brush fire that police blamed on a 15-year-old arsonist blazed through 8,000 acres near the Golden State Freeway north of Santa Clarita on Monday, causing massive traffic jams as it closed the main highway on the West Coast and forced thousands of motorists onto long, narrow mountain byways.

Highway patrol officers detained the teenage boy as he walked away from the area of the fire shortly after it broke out around 12:30 p.m.

“When our arson investigators spoke with him, he admitted to starting the fire,” Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Hellmond said.

The youth, whose name was not released because of his age, was being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

The fire--the largest in Los Angeles County thus far in the 1996 fire season--spread quickly, jumping from 50 acres when first reported to 3,000 a few hours later and passing 8,000--or 12 1/2 square miles--as darkness set in.

One firefighter suffered from heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported.

One mobile home was burned, along with at least one other structure that was not believed to be a home, fire officials said. The blaze also torched several trailers that were parked on rural roads in the area and burned several vehicles at one house, though the house itself was not burned.

By late Monday evening, the fire was still out of control, with more than 600 firefighters in the fight, including federal and state forestry crews as well as teams from the Los Angeles city and county departments and several other cities, backed by crews of prison inmates.

In addition to dozens of fire engines, bulldozers and water tankers, six helicopters and four tanker planes dropped fire retardant on the blaze, officials said. The planes, of the California Air National Guard, did not arrive from Fresno until evening, officials said.

The much ballyhooed SuperScooper firefighting aircraft, which the county leases from the Canadian province of Quebec for the two most dangerous months of the Southern California fire season, were not used because they will not arrive from Canada until October, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Greg Cleveland.

As the firefighters faced flames that leaped as high as 50 feet, travelers had to contend with heat, tempers and trips extended by hours until the California Highway Patrol began escorting groups of vehicles through the area Monday night. Southbound convoys began moving through at about 8:20 p.m. and northbound convoys 40 minutes later.

Caltrans officials had closed a 30-mile stretch of the Golden State Freeway in both directions about 1 p.m., between Highway 138 on the north and Lake Hughes Road, near the community of Castaic. The closure set off a traffic jam that stretched for several miles and inundated communities along the route with drivers lucky enough to be near an exit when the traffic stopped.

Vehicles funneled into Castaic as drivers sought gas, food and cold drinks in the 96-degree heat. Many consulted maps to see just where they now were and how long it might take them to get where they were going.

Those headed north on the Golden State Freeway had to snake their way along a 100-mile detour, northeast along Lake Hughes Road, southeast on Elizabeth Lake Road--both winding two-lane country roads--then north again on the Antelope Valley Freeway, west on Highway 138 and, finally, north again on the Golden State. Or they could try their luck on one of several even more rural back roads through the mountainous area.

The freeway, Interstate 5, is the western United States’ most heavily used north-south thoroughfare, stretching from Vancouver, B.C., to Tijuana, Mexico.

Oakland schoolteacher Frank Montgomery was on his way home with niece Tanya Montgomery when the smoke shrouded the freeway and they pulled off into a Castaic truck stop.

“This is just a nightmare,” said 14-year-old Tanya.

“It’s not a nightmare,” her uncle replied with a notable twinge of sarcasm. “It’s just an opportunity to see the scenic beauty of our state.”

After delivering a load of vegetables in downtown Los Angles, truck driver Brian Willems was headed to his home in Dinuba, just south of Fresno, 200 miles away, for another load of vegetables. His problem was, that load needed to be taken to Seattle, and if Willems couldn’t pick it up by 2 p.m. today, the $2,000 fee would go to somebody else.

“This just comes along with the job. I’m not angry,” said Willems, who decided to wait and hope the freeway would open rather than take the back roads. “But if I lose about $2,000, then I’ll be” angry, he said.

When the CHP began escorting cars north, Robbie Johnston of Buena Park breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been on his way to visit his girlfriend in Frazier Park--a trip that should have lasted only another half-hour or so--when the freeway was closed.

“I had breakfast, lunch and dinner here,” he said. “All this to see a girlfriend.”

Slater is a Times staff writer and Gonzales is a correspondent.