Cold Front Puts the Chill on Ill Winds

Southern Californians were warned about more fires. What they got instead was some ice.

An Alaskan storm system turned out to be chillier and hung around longer than expected Saturday, dropping some snow in the Frazier Park area in the Tehachapi Mountains and blocking the return of dry, powerful Santa Ana winds that had whipped up last week’s destructive wildfires.

The storm generated a few brisk breezes of its own Saturday morning, felling palm fronds and branches in some neighborhoods and prompting renewed concerns in communities ravaged in recent years by wind-driven fires. The embers from last week’s major blazes--in Ventura County, Malibu and San Diego County--failed to flare anew, and although small fires erupted Saturday afternoon, they were quickly extinguished.

More brisk winds are expected Sunday--possibly gusting as high as 50 mph in some areas--but the air will be moist, bringing with it a chance of light showers in the upper foothills and a scattering of snow above 4,000 feet.

Fire lay heavy on the minds of residents as they raked windblown leaves in the foothills north of Pasadena on Saturday, even though the area went unscathed last week.

Three years ago today, wind-driven flames destroyed 126 homes in the hilly neighborhoods around Altadena, and some of the lots are still empty.

Homeowners in the area got a grim reminder of the 1993 storms early Saturday morning, when 40 mph swept down from the hills. The winds died down by late morning but left the streets littered with branches and leaves.

“The winds last night were bad,” said Bill Stafford, who lives in the Kinneola Canyon neighborhood in unincorporated Los Angeles County. “Woke me up at 4 a.m.”

Stafford, whose house sustained heavy damage in the ’93 fires, spent three hours Saturday clearing away debris.

The Kinneola area seems largely recovered from the 1993 fires, though tell-tale signs abound. Many of the rebuilt homes have cement roofs now and there’s a new debris basin at the end of the street. The half-built frames of many homes dot the neighborhood.

Stafford, a 30-year resident, said he is prepared to ride out anything so he can continue living among the hills, with their wildlife and stunning vistas.

“I’m not bitter,” Stafford said, hosing down his driveway. “I love it up here.”

A few blocks away in Eaton Canyon, also heavily hit by the fire three years ago, a volunteer group called Rhapsody in Green spent the day clearing brush from the roadside. Though the volunteers’ primary interest was clearing the area so native plants could grow, they said they were especially mindful to pick dry weeds that might fuel a fire.

“The wind was very strong this morning, but nothing compared to three years ago,” said Miriam Smith, a Pasadena resident and volunteer. “That was the worst day I ever spent.”

Smith pointed at the hills surrounding the canyon.

“All of that was burned,” she said. “The fire came right through there.”

One group of residents marked the day by holding a protest against what they deemed unfair treatment by the California Department of Insurance and private insurance companies. The people lost their homes in the 1993 fire and complained that they were unable to rebuild because they have not been properly reimbursed.

Bill Tibbet, who lost his home, said that despite an insurance policy that guaranteed replacement of his home in the event of a fire, he was only offered half of what he needed.

“I feel like fighting--that’s why I’m here,” he said.

Tibbet lives in a trailer on a friend’s lot nearby. He said Saturday’s winds brought back memories from the fire that so altered his life.

“We were in the vortex,” Tibbet said. “The wind, the noise, the heat. It was a horrible noise.”

Perhaps the most stark reminder of the ever-present threat of fires lay at the end of Kinclair Street. There sits a yellow wooden sign that warns: “Positively No Smoking, No Fires.” The sign is partially burned.

On Saturday, a small brush fire in the Boyle Heights area forced closure of the Santa Ana Freeway for about 20 minutes before city firefighters, assisted by three water-dropping helicopters, brought the blaze under control. A mobile home was destroyed in the blaze. Another fire blackened about half an acre of brush in the tiny town of Bradbury in the San Gabriel Valley before county firefighters put it out.

In Malibu, county firefighters combed the blackened hills, looking for smoldering tinders that could touch off a new round of destruction.

Helicopters passed over the hills in the morning with infrared detectors, then radioed coordinates to ground crews. The firefighters manned shovels and hoses to douse the ashes for good. The fire was 90% contained Saturday evening.

The concern over more fires had intensified last week after forecasters predicted Santa Ana winds blasting through Southern California’s canyons and passes at up to 100 mph this weekend. But WeatherData meteorologist Curtis Brack said a shift in the storm changed all that.

Instead of drifting east over New Mexico as expected, the cold storm system from the Gulf of Alaska stalled near Yuma on the California-Arizona border. A high-pressure weather system following behind the storm was blocked over Northern California.

Winds circulating counterclockwise around the storm and clockwise around the high pressure joined forces to fan Northern California with gusts up to 50 mph Saturday. Those winds will move to Southern California today with about half the intensity originally forecast.

The lingering storm system brought a dusting of snow to the Tehachapi Mountains near Frazier Park early Saturday, and Brack said more light snow could fall in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains above 4,000 feet before dawn today. Scattered light rain is expected at lower mountain elevations and in the deserts.

Because of the lingering arctic storm, temperatures will remain on the cool side today, with highs in the coastal valleys reaching only into the low 70s, following overnight lows between the upper 30s and the lower 50s.

Brack said the winds will end tonight. A gradual warming trend is expected to begin Monday.

In an ugly sequel to the Malibu fire, three men misrepresenting themselves as Los Angeles Fire Department personnel have been going door to door in the San Fernando Valley, claiming that they have been authorized to collect funds for firefighters injured in the blaze, officials said.

“These solicitations are absolutely false,” said Brian Humphrey, a department spokesman. “What they are doing is positively repugnant.”

Humphrey said the only legitimate solicitations are being made by the Glendale Fire Department. Two of the most seriously injured firefighters are members of that department.