Williams Fire Contained After 38,094 Acres Burn

The Williams fire, Southern California’s largest this year, was declared 100% contained Tuesday, having burned 38,094 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, 62 homes and 14 outbuildings.

By evening, the number of firefighters on the lines had dwindled to 600 from a peak of 3,000, said Angeles National Forest spokeswoman Kathy Peterson, and backfires had negated any chance the blaze would reach Mount Baldy Village on its eastern edge.

Eight hundred residents of the village who had obeyed evacuation orders last week were allowed to return home Monday night, rejoining the approximately 100 who had refused to leave.

Lower temperatures, higher humidity and a smattering of rain helped firefighters subdue the fire before it could come within a mile of the town.

“It did not burn into the big horn sheep protection area, and only a little north of Glendora Ridge Road, and it did not reach the Cow Canyon Saddle,” Peterson said. At one time, it appeared it would reach those areas.

Peterson said the cost of fighting the fire was $15 million, an amount shared by the federal government, the state and Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

Although firefighters pinpointed the fire’s origin to well north of San Dimas along East Fork Road, its cause has not been determined. Most of the homes destroyed were in San Dimas Canyon.

The Los Angeles County assessor’s office said Tuesday that owners of homes with damage of $10,000 or more might be eligible for some property tax relief. But the assessor, Rick Auerbach, said his reports indicate that most of the damaged homes are on land leased from the federal government, so such relief would not apply.

Questions about tax relief may be directed to the assessor’s misfortune and calamity division at (213) 974-8658.